The Greenhouse Effect Interactive Game (Science Menu)

Today in science class, I chose to play an interactive game about temperature. There were three different gases in this game. First comes carbon dioxide which makes ups less than one percent of the atmosphere. It is very vital to keeping our earth warm and we need it to survive. Carbon dioxide is one of multiple greenhouse gases. This gas comes from various places including volcanoes, car exhausts, power plants, and decaying plants and animals. When we burn coal, we release the carbon from it as carbon dioxide. Other planets have carbon dioxide too. There is little on Mars but plenty on Venus. More of this gas makes the planet hot, while less makes it colder. Enough about carbon dioxide. Next is oxygen. It was made from cyanobacteria through photosynthesis. It makes up about about one fifth of our atmosphere. As you learned earlier, photosynthesis comes from plants and this creates oxygen. Oxygen is key to our living as it is what we breath in every day. Take a deep breath! It is perfectly safe and we need it to survive. But watch out! If oxygen levels are too high, randomly things can combust into flames. At lower levels, few creatures can survive. Enough about oxygen. Lets move on to our final gas, ozone. It is an oxygen gas that is gathered in the Earth's atmosphere. Ever heard about the ozone layer? Ozone is in the stratosphere and it should stay there. If there is ground level ozone, people's lungs can burn up. Kids breath in more air than adults so we are more in danger. But don't worry the chances of that are very slim. These three gases are very important in our life and help our planet. Hopefully you learned something from me today! See you next time.