In this learning activity, students use a web-based carbon calculator to determine their carbon footprint on the basis of their personal and household habits and choices. Students identify which personal activities and household choices produce the most CO2 emissions, compare their carbon footprint to the U.S. and global averages, and identify lifestyle changes they can make to reduce their footprint.

In this interactive game, players develop a sustainable city by greening transport, transforming industries, getting citizens on board, and showing world leaders how it's done. Players will need to bring together governments, industries, and the public to bring carbon levels to zero before it's too late.

This video features a short animated sequence that illustrates the difference between young and old carbon released into the atmosphere from the consumption of food (young carbon) and the burning of fossil fuels (old carbon).

This lesson was originally created to give elementary school teachers a foundation for understanding the impacts of climate change. Teachers, acting as students, physically participate in the movement of carbon throughout various biospheres.

This activity from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory introduces students to the scientific understanding of the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle. The activity leads them through several interactive tasks to investigate recent trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Students analyze scientific data and use scientific reasoning to determine the causes responsible for these recent trends. By studying carbon cycle science in a visual and interactive manner, students can learn firsthand about the reasons behind our changing climate.

This online lab exercise focuses on the processes involved in the Carbon cycle and the influences of human activity on those processes- especially as they relate to Earth's weather and climate. The fourth in a 10-part lab series on weather and climate, this lab exercise is designed for first and second year college geoscience students (majors and non-majors) as well as pre-service STEM teachers.

This interactive animation focuses on the carbon cycle and includes embedded videos and captioned images to provide greater clarification and detail of the cycle than would be available by a single static visual alone.

In this activity, students develop concept maps of the carbon cycle through a die-rolling game that simulates carbon reservoirs and fluxes. By the end of this activity, students should be able to describe and explain how the carbon cycle has changed in the last 250 years.

This is two-hour lab exercise based on computer data sets. Students examine records of CO2 levels in the atmosphere as well as annual temperature records for the US and the world.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students will learn that there is a finite amount of carbon on earth, which moves around in the environment, from one place to another. Activity is scaleable from elementary to high school with options to introduce advanced content. Wrap up includes role playing the carbon cycle with the addition of human influences (e.g. burning of fossil fuels). Activity can be done in classroom or outside, includes working in a group and role playing. Grades 3-12. This resources is part of the Our Changing Ocean and Estuaries Series

This module provides an overview of the biogeochemical carbon cycle. Major sources and sinks of carbon are discussed as well as the impact of human activities on global carbon levels.

In this activity, students use a physical model to learn the basics of photosynthesis and respiration within the carbon cycle.

This is an interactive visualization of the Carbon Cycle, through short-term and long-term processes.

In this activity, students work in groups, plotting carbon dioxide concentrations over time on overheads and estimating the rate of change over five years. Stacked together, the overheads for the whole class show an increase on carbon dioxide over five years and annual variation driven by photosynthesis. This exercise enables students to practice basic quantitative skills and understand how important sampling intervals can be when studying changes over time. A goal is to see how small sample size may give incomplete picture of data.

In this experiment, students investigate the importance of carbon dioxide to the reproductive growth of a marine microalga, Dunalliela sp. (Note that the directions are for teachers and that students protocol sheets will need to be created by teachers.)

In this experiment, students observe a natural process that removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's atmosphere. This process is a part of the carbon cycle and results in temperature suitable for life. Students learn that the carbon cycle is a fundamental Earth process. Throughout Earth's history, the balance of carbon has kept the atmosphere's carbon dioxide (CO2) and Earth's temperature within relatively narrow ranges.

This interactive visualization explains the chemical relationship between carbon dioxide, shell building, and ocean acidification.

Interactive visualization that provides a basic overview of the Earth's carbon reservoirs and amount of carbon stored in each, CO2 transport among atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere, and a graph comparing global temp (deg C) and atmospheric CO2 levels (ppm) over the past 1000 years.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students think critically about carbon emission reduction strategies proposed by companies.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson challenges students to analyze "green" claims and provides context to "net zero" greenhouse gas emission goals. Students are tasked with evaluating a company’s sustainability plan and then presenting their findings to classmates. The included video resources are well-sourced and highlight how greenwashing can mislead consumers and how "net zero" emission goals are often just a way for corporations to procrastinate on taking meaningful steps to mitigate climate change. This lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-Students will be assessing the validity of sustainability plans within companies which helps with critical thinking skills.
-Students become more informed consumers.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Teachers should try to find their school or Board of Education’s sustainability policy prior to class.
-Teachers should be familiar with what a sustainability plan looks like.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students may need help with research techniques. Teacher could give five options for students to choose from, and the students pick a company from those five options.
-Students may need help picking a company to research. Students can focus on companies where they spend money, either online or in their neighborhood.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.