Willowcroft Community School, Didcot

Pupils predicting the future climate.

The year 5 and 6 pupils at Willowcroft School were eager to learn the secrets behind climate modeling and welcomed climate expert Sarah Callaghan as they started their first science workshop.

The session began with a slideshow to help the pupils formulate a list of all the factors that need to be considered when creating a climate model. Gravity, atmosphere, terrain and ice caps all appeared on the list. Their next task was to create a climate model, initially looking at the earth and then, more locally, Didcot in 2050. Sarah showed them a graph with a time period of 2010 to 2070 with temperature rising over that time with low, medium and high predictions depending on the measure of greenhouse gases.

They split into three groups, each taking on a low, medium or high prediction of what life would be like in Didcot in 2050. They answered questions such as how old they would be, and what summer and winter months would be like. At the end of the session they reported back their results, which ranged from summer and winter being warmer, some fish having died from pollution or temperature change in the oceans, sea levels rising, air-conditioning in homes, scarcity of food, water shortage and bigger spiders!