Simulators / APES Unit 9 / Topic 9.3
Heat Trap Simulator
Launch 100 sunlight photons at a planet, add a layer of greenhouse gas, then tune Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars to explain why distance from the Sun is not the whole story. About 35 minutes. Free, with no login.
Open the simulator in its own tab (best on phones)
Take it to class
Heat Trap Simulator, free on TpT
Download the simulator file to upload to your own Canvas or Google Classroom, plus a one-page teacher guide with answer key and a student recording sheet.
Photon Trace
Students count what happens to 100 sunlight photons with and without a gas layer, and see that the gas returns energy to the surface (Topic 9.3).
Planet Lab
Real data for Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Venus absorbs less sunlight than Mercury and is still hotter.
CER and completion code
Students write a claim, evidence, and reasoning answer and finish with a code you can verify in teacher mode.
Data: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet, rounded. The model is simplified and labeled as a teaching model inside the simulator. All artwork is original.