Supplies: Aquarium, model train house* & vehicles (size #10), 10 to 12 personal size water bottles (500 ml each) colored with food coloring to represent melting glacial ice. *(2 story house equals ~ 20 feet in height without peaked roof, and ~24 ft. with roof).

You do the Math!Create Your Own Sea Level Activity

Set up:: Insert a ‘lift’ in the aquarium to create a base for your ‘waterfront’ house. (We used a square glass vase for this). The lift you use must be tall enough to allow for a starting base of water in the aquarium of ~ 4 to 5 inches. Fill the aquarium so the water is just below your waterfront property.

Now you are ready to start. You will begin adding the colored water bottles (leave the water in the bottles and add them just as they are). The water bottles represent the amount of water in the ice sheets that would be added to sea level if the ice were to melt.

As you add the melting ‘ice sheet’ slowly watching the water level rise on your waterfront house.

Stop when the water level has risen to cover one story of the house ~10 ft. This represents ~half the melting of ice in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

More water was added and sea level has risen to cover two stories of the house ~20 ft. This is ~ how much Sea Level Rise is in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Add more bottles until sea level rises to cover just over the top of the roof ~24 ft.

~24 ft. is the amount of sea level rise contained in the Greenland Ice Sheet. Count how many bottles you have added. We want to know how much sea level rise is represented by each bottle. How would you do this? Now you do the math - calculate the answer!

There is ~SEVEN times as much water in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as in the Greenland Ice Sheet. How much water is this? You do the math! How many more bottles would you need to be able to fit in your aquarium to demonstrate this?

Golden Gate Bridge 250 feet from roadway to water

George Washington Bridge 212 feet from roadway to water

Statue of Liberty 151 feet from feet to torch (with base it is 305 feet)

How Do They ‘Measure up’?

Let’s look at the real world. How much of

these well known structures would be above water? You

do the math!

Last slide. Move on to a new activity!