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.

In this lesson, students calculate their own carbon footprint using Peter Kalmus's methodology in his book Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students watch a short video on the climate crisis. Students engage in a brief discussion on the prompt "Do my individual actions matter?"

Step 2 - Investigate: Students calculate their own carbon footprints.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students engage in a discussion, reflecting on this activity and the importance of individual actions.

Step 1. Students are asked to keep track of their energy use from a variety of sources (heating/cooling, electricity, transportation, secondary emissions, etc) during the 9 days of Thanksgiving break, when many of them are likely to travel. They use the total for the 9 days that they calculated using an online calculator to estimate their yearly footprint and compare it to US and world averages. For most of them, the amount of carbon emitted during those 9 days is quite large because of airplane travel or long-distance driving. However, using a week of break when many students will travel allows them to become aware of the significance of transportation in carbon emissions. We provided a table with electricity and heating/cooling bills for various residence halls for students who stay on campus during the break.

Step 2. Students complete an online survey where they are asked to enter the values that they have obtained for the various components of the calculator, perform some simple calculations and compare their annual footprint to the U.S. average. We used SurveyGizmo for the survey because it allows to download the data in a spreadsheet format and has some limited plotting features. The free version allows a maximum of 250 submissions, the Basic version ($19 per month, can be canceled at any time) has unlimited submissions.
Step 3. Students write an essay through BlackBoard/WebCT (Assignment). A few guiding questions are provided for this essay where students reflect on the results of their impact on the global carbon budget, what they found surprising, and if they plan to make any changes to their lifestyle to limit their impact. No length limit is set for the essay.

The guidelines and components of this assignment are available on a wiki page. The three steps can be implemented in BlackBoard/WebCT as a Lesson Plan with links to the online calculator (step 1), to the survey (step 2), and to the Assignment/essay (step 3).

(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.)

SYNOPSIS: This lesson shows that different foods have different environmental impacts. Students will calculate ratios and practice proportional thinking.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson is thoroughly sourced. It is engaging and suitable for students to understand how to measure carbon footprint from food sources. The activities in the lesson would also enable them to build their quantitative skills to determine the extent of CO2 impact on the environment. The lesson has passed our science review, and it is advised for classroom use.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson is great because it shows that different foods have different environmental impacts.
-It shows the great disparity between certain types of foods. For example, creating 1 kg of beef (from a beef herd) emits 99.48 kgCO2eq. Creating 1 kg of potatoes creates only 0.46 kgCO2eq. Raising beef creates more than 200x the carbon dioxide than raising the same amount of potatoes!

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-You will need to share the Student Slideshow with students and grant them editing rights. They will all be writing in the same slideshow.
-In general, animals and animal products use far more resources than plants.
-Kilograms are used in this lesson. Some students will be unfamiliar with this unit. You can read more about the kilogram at Britannica. An easy conversion from kilograms to pounds is 1 kg = 2.2 lbs.
-Kilograms of CO2 equivalent are also used in this lesson. This is pretty abstract for the students. You can have them imagine holding a 2.2-pound ball in their hands. This ball has mass and takes up space. This is the "pollution" generated when creating different foods.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-You can create groups of students with mixed abilities.
-If a group finishes early, you can ask these extension questions:
-"Food 1’s emissions are what % of food 2’s emissions?"
-"Can you convert your answers from kilograms to pounds?"
-The Investigate section features a completed table of calculations. You can use this before the students begin their calculations. You can also share this with certain students or groups and let other groups complete their calculations on their own. Another option is to have students use the completed table to check their thinking when they are finished. There is a walkthrough of calculations in the speaker notes of this slide.

Carbon management includes natural and technological solutions for removing ambient CO2 from the air or capturing CO2 emissions from industrial processes, and then using the CO2 or sequestering it so that it doesn't contribute to climate change. CO2 is naturally removed from the air through our environment by plants, soils, oceans, and wetlands. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) enhances these biological processes or uses technology to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) uses technology to capture and store CO2 before it is released into the atmosphere. CDR and CCS are still in the early stages of commercialization and remain expensive forms of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.

This video features a number of different climate scientists describing the effects of the increasing amount of carbon dioxide on global climate and proposing a series of solutions to mitigate these effects. Video addresses health problems and other costs to humans associated with climate change.

Carbon pricing, including cap-and-trade and carbon taxes, is one tool in the toolbox governments have to reduce the impacts of climate change. What kind of a tool is it? After an introduction to carbon pricing, students use an online simulator to investigate multiple pathways to a cooler future.

This Guide for Educators was developed by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative as an extension of our TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) podcast, to make it easier for you to teach climate change, earth science, and energy topics in the classroom. It is an extension of the TILclimate episode "TIL about carbon pricing."

In this activity, students use a spreadsheet to calculate the net carbon sequestration in a set of trees; they will utilize an allometric approach based upon parameters measured on the individual trees. They determine the species of trees in the set, measure trunk diameter at a particular height, and use the spreadsheet to calculate carbon content of the tree using forestry research data.

Students play the role of carbon atoms to learn about the carbon cycle and how it is changing. Students create two carbon cycle diagramsâvisual models of the cycle before and after the Industrial Revolution. They reflect on the game and how scientists believe humans are impacting this critical Earth system.

This series of two lessons uses cutting-edge scientific research on the effects of climate change on communities in the intertidal. Through a combination of a dynamic presentation and several videos, students are introduced to the effects of climate change on the ocean (ocean acidification and temperature increase) and what is known about how ocean organisms are affected. Then students read and interpret graphs and construct a scientific explanation based on data from this research.

In this assignment, students in small groups are asked to interpret and explain a figure depicting one aspect of marine carbon biogeochemistry. Then a representative of each group explains the figure to the class.

(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.)

In this 3-part lab activity, students investigate how carbon moves through the global carbon cycle and study the effects of specific feedback loops on the carbon cycle.

This lesson engages students with an environmental issue and allows them to use their artistic skills to create an artwork about caring for the oceans.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students read Somebody Swallowed Stanley and discuss the colors and emotions in the book.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students practice art techniques.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students create artworks about oceans and display them around their school or local community for others to view.