Greenhouse Model Lab

Ellie Arens
Block 3
2015
I. Problem: What causes the greenhouse effect?
II. Hypothesis: I think that the greenhouse effect is heat getting trapped
inside the atmosphere and it just keeps getting hotter. I think the bottle wrapped
in plastic will get hotter than the unwrapped one.
III. Materials:
A. 2 - 2 liter plastic soft drink bottles
B. scissors
C. tape
D. 750 g dry potting soil
E. clear plastic wrap
F. rubber band
G. 100 watt light bulb
H. ring stand

IV.

V.

Procedure:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.

remove labels from bottles

cut off tops of bottles
tape thermometers to inside of bottles
put about 375 g of dry potting soil in bottles
cover one with plastic wrap and rubber band
position bottles under light
turn light on and wait 25 minutes, record every 2 minutes

Data:
A.
Covered
Bottle
Starting temperature

72

Uncovere
d Bottle
72

(F)
after 2 mins

72

72

4 mins

72

73

6 mins

72

74

8 mins

73

76

10 mins

73

78

12 mins

73

78

14 mins

74

78

16 mins

74

78

18 mins

74

78

20 mins

75

78

22 mins

76

78

24 mins

76

78

End temperature

77

78

VI.
Analysis: There are models of the world in this experiment. The bottle represents
the atmosphere around the world, the dirt in the bottle represents the Earth, the light
above the bottle represents the sun, and the plastic wrap represents the particles in the
atmosphere that hold in the heat, creating the greenhouse effect.
VII.
Conclusion: The results were quite contradictory to the hypothesis in the fact that
the covered bottle did not heat up more than the uncovered one in the time the lab
granted. Perhaps if more time for data to be retrieved was allowed, the greenhouse
effect would have taken more effect in the covered bottle. The Earth, however, is
suffering from the greenhouse effect, a thing we call global warming, because of the
particles in the atmosphere that store heat, and these results contradict what is
happening in the real world right now.