H2WOAH Clouds - Climate Change Extensions
Youth explore the water cycle by creating their own rain clouds. In the optional extensions, youth will learn how climate change affects the water cycle and discuss ways to lower their impact on the environment.
This workshop was originally submitted by University of British Columbia volunteer Emiley Ho. It was updated in 2022 by the Let’s Talk Science National Office.
This activity discusses topics, which can lead to feelings of eco-anxiety among volunteers, educators and youth if not presented in a thoughtful manner. The most important things to remember are to be honest, hopeful, developmentally appropriate, and action oriented. This workshop was created with these guidelines in mind. For more details, refer to the volunteer resource, Being Conscious of Eco-Anxiety.
What You Need
Activity: H2WOAH
- Food colouring
- Clear cups (2 per youth or group)
- Shaving Cream
- Pipettes or droppers (1 per youth/2 per group)
- Tablecloth (to prevent food dye from staining the table)
- Paper Towel (to clean up spills)
- Poster board (optional) or access to a classroom board
Guide:
Safety Notes
Remind youth not to consume the water used in today’s workshop.
What To Do
Activity: H2WOAH Clouds
- Separate youth into small groups (optional) and hand out the cups and pipettes.
- Fill one cup ¾ full of water and the other cup ¼ of water.
- Add several drops of food colouring into the cup ¼ full of water.
- Note: Mix food colouring and water ahead of time so that youth do not use up all the food colouring.
- Top off the cup with ¾ full of water with shaving cream, tall enough so that it sits above the cup.
- Ask youth to predict how many drops of water they will need to “fill” their cloud. Record their answers on the classroom board.
- Show youth how to use the pipette/dropper.
- They will use the pipette/dropper to add the colourful water mixture onto their cloud.
- If youth are struggling with using the pipette or if there is not enough time available, have them poke a hole in their cloud using the pipette. This will make their cloud “rain” faster!
- Have youth count the number of drops or “squirts” they add to their cloud until the colour starts to break through the cloud or it starts to “rain”.
Wrap-Up
- Discuss their predictions and results for the cloud experiment.
- How many drops did it take for your cloud to start raining?
- What does each material (water, shaving cream, and food colouring) represent from our water cycle?
- Why did it not “rain” with the first drop of water?
- Review climate change and how it affects the water cycle.
- How does climate change affect the lives of plants and animals?
- Ask youth to share their ideas on how they can lower greenhouse gases and help the planet.
- It is important to be conscious of your audience and consider that not all youth have the same options available to choose (i.e. rural students may not have access to public transit, food availability and choices are not always equal). Allow youth to come up with their own ideas instead of directing them on what to do.
- Discuss careers related to the topics mentioned in today’s workshop and what student’s will need (education, experience, etc...) to get into those careers.
Discovery
The shaving cream acts as a cloud and the food colouring/water mixture is the rain. The clear water in the cup represents the air around us. As students continue to add water to the cloud, it gets heavier and heavier until the cloud can’t hold anymore water and eventually the “rain” will fall.
Rain is a very important as it provides the water for our crops, replenishes rivers and lakes and provides animals with fresh water to drink. Climate change is increasing global temperatures and is changing global precipitation patterns. As a result, the weather is becoming more unpredictable and extreme (like droughts and floods). It is important to protect the Earth from climate change to prevent the damage to communities, buildings, food sources and other things than humans and wildlife depend on.
Additional Activities
- For youth in Grades 1-4:
- Storytime – Cloud in a Jar – students will explore the properties of water through an experiment about emulating the water cycle in a jar. This is a good demonstration to include in the introduction of H2WOAH. Includes literary connections.
- Cloud Mobile – Students learn about clouds and how they form, then create a model of various clouds at their specific altitudes.
- Daily and Seasonal Changes – Students learn about daily and seasonal changes through group discussion, songs, drawing and interactive demonstrations.
- For older audiences:
- Wonders of Weather (Lending Library Workshop) – students learn how the sun, air and water create weather, and apply their knowledge of weather by constructing and testing weather- measuring device.
- Wonders of Weather Marine Extensions (Lending library Workshop) – include predicting climate events using data on trends and ice cores.
- Hydration Nation (Lending Library Workshop) – Test and analyze the physical and chemical properties of various water samples and make recommendations on which water source could be used for drinking. Extension activity includes discussions of the long-term impact of climate change on freshwater sources.
- Airy Acidification – Students learn how greenhouse gases contribute to ocean acidification.
- Acid Rain Demonstration – Students learn how acid rain is formed and the use of pH indicators.
What's Happening?
The shaving cream acts as a cloud and the food colouring/water mixture is the rain. The clear water in the cup represents the air around us. As students continue to add water to the cloud, it gets heavier and heavier until the cloud can’t hold anymore water and eventually the “rain” will fall.
Why does it matter?
Rain is a very important as it provides the water for our crops, replenishes rivers and lakes and provides animals with fresh water to drink. Climate change is increasing global temperatures and is changing global precipitation patterns. As a result, the weather is becoming more unpredictable and extreme (like droughts and floods). It is important to protect the Earth from climate change to prevent the damage to communities, buildings, food sources and other things than humans and wildlife depend on.
Investigate Further
Additional Activities
- For youth in Grades 1-4:
- Storytime – Cloud in a Jar – students will explore the properties of water through an experiment about emulating the water cycle in a jar. This is a good demonstration to include in the introduction of H2WOAH. Includes literary connections.
- Cloud Mobile – Students learn about clouds and how they form, then create a model of various clouds at their specific altitudes.
- Daily and Seasonal Changes – Students learn about daily and seasonal changes through group discussion, songs, drawing and interactive demonstrations.
- For older audiences:
- Wonders of Weather (Lending Library Workshop) – students learn how the sun, air and water create weather, and apply their knowledge of weather by constructing and testing weather- measuring device.
- Wonders of Weather Marine Extensions (Lending library Workshop) – include predicting climate events using data on trends and ice cores.
- Hydration Nation (Lending Library Workshop) – Test and analyze the physical and chemical properties of various water samples and make recommendations on which water source could be used for drinking. Extension activity includes discussions of the long-term impact of climate change on freshwater sources.
- Airy Acidification – Students learn how greenhouse gases contribute to ocean acidification.
- Acid Rain Demonstration – Students learn how acid rain is formed and the use of pH indicators.
