American Museum of Natural History

Wednesdays trip the museum was interesting. Our group worked real quick-like. This is the third time I have visited this museum. This time it was different because there was no teacher to lead us around. I really don't understand how teachers, especially elementary and intermediate school teachers, can take a large group of kids on a trip without going crazy. They have to constantly listen to their babble and keep an open eye in case anyone does anything stupid or strays away.

Greenhouse gases greatly affect the climate of the world. Greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, and nitrous oxide. Greenhouse gases are a natural thing and have been kept up to level to allow the world habitable, but recent human activity has drastically changed this.


This is an ice core. It is one indicator that can tell us what the world's climate was like years ago. Layers have formed in the ice core, some darker and some lighter. Counting layers in the ice core is one way of determining it age. Air bubbles that trap dust and oxygen in the ice core help record changes in the layers of the ice.

Other sources of information that are used to record climate are ocean sediments and tree rings. I would have taken a picture of these as well but once I put my camera away I completely forgot I was carrying one. In tree rings, just like in ice cores, layers are used to determine the age. In general, a tree produces around one layer per year. Ring widths and the measure of ring density provide climate information. Since tree growth is greatly controlled by the climate one can tell whether a tree enjoyed good climate during a certain time by observing the tree rings.

Using a graph that showed the average global temperature and carbon dioxide over the past century, my group saw that as the carbon dioxide levels rose the the global temperature rose. Using a carbon cycle diagram, the group basically came upon the conclusion: more fossil fuel burned=more carbon dioxide= higher global temperature.

After finishing our work in the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth we proceeded to exploring other parts of the museum.

Here are some other pictures that were taken of other areas of the museum. These were taken when I remembered I had my camera with me. There would have been more but unfortunately I made the mistake of putting my camera away again, and once again I ended up forgetting I was carrying a camera.





And to answer Dr. Smith's question, I found the museum more believable than the film. Even though the museum was more believable, I think the film got to me more than the museum. In my opinion I think its because the film made it seem like such a bigger problem than what the museum said. The museum gave you the facts, it didn't constantly keep telling us we were going to die.