The greenhouse effect
Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Use this
Cause → effect chain, four boxes left to right with arrows between them. Box 1: "Sunlight warms the ground." Box 2: "The ground gives off heat." Box 3: "Greenhouse gases hold some heat back." Box 4 (what changes with more greenhouse gas): ? (blank)
Ari's chain gets a fourth box: what changes when the air holds more greenhouse gas. Which words fill it?
- Less sunlight gets in, so Earth cools
- The Sun brightens to match
- The effect switches on for the first time
- More heat is held, so the average temperature rises
Use this
Cause → effect chain, four boxes left to right with arrows between them. Box 1: "People burn coal, oil and gas for energy." Box 2: "More carbon dioxide builds up in the air." Box 3: ? (blank). Box 4: "Earth's average temperature rises."
In Bo's chain about fuel, Box 3 is blank. Which words fill Box 3?
- The gases hold back more of the ground's heat
- The ozone hole is what warms the ground
- The gases block more of the incoming sunlight
- The ground stops giving off heat
Use this
Cause → effect chain, four boxes left to right with arrows between them. Box 1: "Forests are cleared and burned." Box 2: "More carbon dioxide in the air." Box 3: "More heat held back near the ground." Box 4: "Earth's average temperature rises."
A town plants new trees, which take in carbon dioxide as they grow. Which box of Esme's chain does that push back on?
- Box 2, since trees take carbon dioxide out of the air
- No box, since these gases don't change how warm Earth gets
- Box 4, since shade cools the planet
- Box 1, since trees stop the burning
Use this
Data table (NASA), columns Measured since 1880 and What it did. Row 1: Sun's energy reaching Earth, small 11-year ups and downs with no overall rise. Row 2: Earth's average surface temperature, rose about 1 °C. Row 3: Carbon dioxide in the air, kept rising.
Jun compares the three rows in the NASA table. Which explanation of the warming fits the rows?
- Rising carbon dioxide held more heat
- A brighter Sun heated Earth
- The ozone hole warmed the surface
- Less sunlight got through the air
A video says the Sun caused the warming since 1880. Kira checks it against the NASA table. Which response is best?
- Agree: the Sun's 11-year ups explain it
- Disagree: the Sun's energy shows no overall rise
- Disagree: Earth has not warmed
- Agree: warmer air means more sunlight was trapped
Scientists also measure the upper air cooling while the surface warms. Which cause, with its reason, fits, Luz?
- Greenhouse gases: they slow heat loss from the lower air
- Nothing: the two changes cancel out
- The ozone hole: its extra UV explains the warming
- The Sun: a brighter Sun warms the upper air most
Using the NASA table, Venus is almost twice as far from the Sun as Mercury, yet much hotter. Which explanation fits, Milo?
- Venus is closer to the Sun than Mercury
- Venus's thick carbon dioxide air holds in heat
- Venus's air blocks the sunlight, which heats it
- Venus gets far more sunlight than Mercury
Mars's air is mostly carbon dioxide too, yet Mars averages −65 °C. Using the NASA table, why isn't it warm like Venus, Noah?
Use the picture in question 7.
- Its carbon dioxide blocks the sunlight
- Mars has thicker air than Venus
- Carbon dioxide can't hold any heat on a planet like Mars
- Its air is very thin, and it is farther from the Sun
Venus has 92 bars of air pressure, mostly carbon dioxide. Earth has 1 bar. What does that pair of facts help Pia explain?
Use the picture in question 7.
- Why Venus is the closest planet to the Sun
- Why Venus is the hottest planet
- Why Venus has no greenhouse effect
- Why Venus is colder than Mercury
Zee's cousin says extra carbon dioxide can't matter, since the greenhouse effect is natural. Which response fits?
- Agree: natural effects stay fixed
- Agree: extra gas just blocks sunlight
- Disagree: carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas
- Disagree: more of the gas holds back more heat