Module X-Final Project

What: 2 lessons (90 min each)
            Lesson 1: The Carbon Link
            Lesson 2: Making Climate Change Connections
Who: 6-8th grade
Why: Science Performance Standard (Grade Level Expectations) for Life Science
The student demonstrates an understanding that all organisms are linked to each other and their physical environments through the transfer and transformation of matter and energy by:
[8] SC3.1 stating that energy flows and that matter cycles but is conserved within an ecosystem.
8] SC3.2 organizing a food web that shows the cycling of matter.
The Carbon Link
Objectives
Students will:
  • Identify component parts of a terrestrial carbon cycle.
  • Review, draw, and act out the carbon cycle.
  • State that carbon cycles and is conserved within an ecosystem.
  • Link carbon cycle dynamics to the greenhouse effect.
  • Understand the greenhouse effect and its relation to climate change.
  • Organize a food web that shows the cycling of matter.
Materials/Preparation
  • Lightweight ball (beach ball/foam ball) or other soft object to represent a carbon molecule
  • Carbon Cycle Role Cards (use tape to stick to shirts or affix yarn to a sign to hang around student’s necks), 1 per student
  • Overhead: land-Based Carbon Cycle
  • 2 thermometers
  • 1 glass container (e.g. jar or Erlenmeyer flask)
Part 1 Carbon Cycle
Introduction
  1. Ask students what they have heard about climate change. What is it? What causes it?  What causes it? Tell student that they are about to begin a study of climate change.
  2. First, students will learn more about carbon, which is integral to the study of climate change.
  3. Ask for volunteers to explain what carbon is.
  4. Use the overhead Carbon FAQ if students need a review of basic carbon facts. Discuss the questions 1 at a time. Challenge students to call out answers to each question before revealing the given answer.
  5. If students are not familiar with respiration and photosynthesis, you may want to review these concepts.
Procedure
  1. Show the Teachers Domain video http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.origin/ and the NPR Climate Connections video http://www.npr.org/news/specials/climate/video/
  2. Use the Land-Based Carbon Cycle overhead to review the terrestrial carbon cycle. Remind students that this diagram only shows part of the carbon cycle (there are other components not shown, such as oceans and rock weathering). Begin anywhere on the overhead and walk through the cycle with students once.
  3. After you’ve walked throughout the carbon cycle together, ask 1 student to draw 1 component of the cycle on the SmartBoard. You may remove the Land-Based Carbon Cycle overhead for an extra challenge, or leave it up if students need a guide.
  4. Then ask another student to draw a second component of the carbon cycle on the SmartBoard, linked to the first component with an arrow.
  5. Continue this process until a fairly complete land-based carbon cycle model has been drawn.
  6. Now pass out the Carbon Cycle Role cards and have students affix them to their shirts. Tell students that they are going to act out the parts of the carbon cycle that they just drew.
  7. You may want to complete this activity in a large open space, such as a gymnasium or an outdoor area. Arrange students in a large circle so that all students can read each other’s role cards.
  8. Give the ball to someone with an ATMOSPHERE role card. Ask that student where carbon might travel from the atmosphere (answer: plant). Have the first student send the carbon atom (pass the ball) to the next student in the cycle.
    • Lesson Variation: Have students toss a ball of yarn in order to visualize the path of carbon in the carbon cycle. Each student should hold onto his/her piece of the yarn before passing the ball of yarn on to the next person.
  9. Ask the student who has just caught the ball where it might go next. (Carbon could be released back to the atmosphere during respiration, or it may be eaten by an animal, or it may become a fossil fuel after being buried for millions of years.) Have the student toss the ball to an appropriate person to keep the cycle going.
  10. Tell the students that no one can get the ball twice before everyone has received it once. Continue play until the carbon has cycled through each student at least once.
  11. Answer and discuss the following reflection questions.

Reflection
  1. How do you think the carbon cycle is affected by deforestation?
  2. How will the carbon cycle be affected by reduced automobile and/or fossil fuel use?
  3. What do you think will happen to the carbon stored in fossil fuels as the world population increases? In your opinion, why would increased population create this change in the carbon cycle?
  4. As we burn more fossil fuels, the carbon cycle gets out of balance; more and more carbon is added to our atmosphere as carbon dioxide. What are some things that you could do to keep the carbon cycle more balanced, so that less carbon dioxide is added to our atmosphere?
Part 2 Greenhouse Effect
Introduction
  1. Tell students that they will now explore the greenhouse effect, which is heavily influenced by changes to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. An important greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide; it caused Earth’s surface temperatures to rise and it remains in the atmosphere for a long time (up to 200 years).
  2. Ask students to recall how it feels to get into a car that has been sitting I the sun all day. This is very similar to Earth’s greenhouse effect, which keeps temperatures warm enough to support life on Earth. (This is a good time to point out the greenhouse effect itself is beneficial. Without the greenhouse effect, our planted would be too cold for many organisms to survive. However, the enhancement of the greenhouse effect through activities that add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is a concern for all living things.)
  3. Show the Teachers Domain video http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.greenhouse2/
Procedure
  1. Place 2 thermometers next to each other in a sunny spot, such as a window sill or outside on a sidewalk (or under a heat lamp in the classroom). Cover 1 thermometer with a glass container by either turning the container upside-down or covering the top with plastic wrap so there is no exchange between the air in the container and the air outside the container. All variables other than the glass container should be controlled.
  2. Ask 2 students to read the temperatures shown on the thermometers at the beginning of the demonstration.
  3. Wait 5 minutes for the heat to warm the thermometer. While you are waiting, ask students to predict what will happen to the temperature inside and outside of the glass container. Ask students to articulate why they think this will happen.
  4. Ask students to name the atoms found in carbon dioxide (answer: 1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms). Can anyone name a component of the carbon cycle that includes carbon dioxide?
  5. Ask if anyone has heard of a “greenhouse gas”. One major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. (Others include water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane). Can anyone recall how the amount of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, can increase in Earth’s atmosphere?
  6. Have 2 different students read the temperatures shown on the thermometers after 5 minutes or more minutes.  What has happened? If they are not the same temperature, which one is higher and why?
  7. Explain to students that what happened in the glass container is similar to Earht’s greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (along with methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor) trap heat from the sun near Earth’s surface, similar to the way the glass trapped the heated air.
Reflection
  1. How does increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere affect temperatures on Earth?
  2. If temperatures on Earth rise due to increased greenhouse gases, how might human health be affected? (For example, how would the spread of diseases change with warmer temperatures?)
  3. In what ways could increased temperatures on Earth be harmful for living organisms? Give specific examples of species y9ou think will be negatively affected by warmer temperatures.
  4. Could increased temperatures on Earth be beneficial for some organisms, including humans? Give examples of ways that higher temperatures could improve living conditions for certain organisms.
  5. Show the NPR Climate Connections video http://www.npr.org/news/specials/climate/video/



Carbon Cycle Role Cards


ATOMOSPHERE
ATMOSPHERE
PLANT
PLANT
ANIMAL
ANIMAL
SOIL
SOIL
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM
AUTOMOBILE
AUTOMOBILE
COAL
COAL
POWER PLANT
POWER PLANT




Carbon FAQ
1.    What is carbon?
Carbon is a chemical element.
2.    What is carbon dioxide?
Carbon dioxide is a chemical molecule made of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.
3.    Where is carbon found?
Carbon is found in rocks, soils, oceans, air and all living things.
4.    How do plants get carbon?
During photosynthesis, plants take carbon (as carbon dioxide) from the air and release oxygen.
5.    How do animals get carbon?
Animals get carbon when they eat plants, which contain carbon.
6.    What activities release carbon into the air?
Burning fossil fuels: natural gas, coal, and oil (diesel and gasoline)
Cutting down tress
Respiration
7.    Where is carbon stored?
Carbon can remain for long periods of time in plants (especially trees), oceans, and fossil fuels.
8.    How do fossil fuels form?
Over millions of years, decaying organic matter that has been buried under sediment and subjected to very high temperature and pressure may become fossil fuels.


Making Climate Change Connections
Objectives
Students will:
·         Examine environments in different regions of the world.
·         Consider the impacts of climate change on different environments.
·         Explore the connections between the impacts of climate change on different environments.
·         Think about ways they can contribute to preventing or reducing the impacts of climate change on different environments.
Materials:
Introduction
  1. Have students describe the environment of the place where they live. Are there mountains, forests, fields, lakes, etc? What is the climate like?
  2. Have students think about what the earth looks like in other places they have visited or heard/read about.
  3. Tell the class that they are going to hear about some of the impacts of climate change from witnesses living in different environments, and then explore how these impacts are connected.
Procedure
  1. Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair a Climate Change Eyewitness Account.
  2. Project Google Earth onto the SmartBoard and have students locate the place of their scenario using a “push-pin”.
  3. Give the pairs a few minutes to read their scenarios, using the reading questions to guide them. Tell students to be ready to share their climate change impacts with the rest of the class.
  4. Write the following reading questions on the bard for students to answer:
    • Where is the story located? How would you describe the environment there?
    • What species (animals or plants) are mentioned? How have these been affected by climate change?
    • How are humans using the environment in your story? How have these activities been affected by climate change?
    • Is the eyewitness doing anything to try to reduce the impacts of climate change?
  5. As the students are working, make and project a circular list  of all the environments for the scenarios on the SmartBoard. (Write the names of all the environments from the scenarios so that they form a large open circle).
  6. Bring the class back together and start with the pair that has Pohnpei. Ask them to share the impacts of climate change on the people and the environment in their scenario. (give each pair 1-2 minutes)
  7. Now ask the rest of the pairs if they think people living in the environment in their scenario will be impacted by the changes in Pohnpei. Encourage students to consider possible effects and connections beyond those specifically mentioned in their scenario. You can also ask students to note similarities and differences in how climate change is impacting their environments.
  8. As students point out connections between environments, draw a line between those connected environments on the SmartBoard.
Reflection
  1. What does the diagram on the SmartBoard show about climate change?
  2. Are the impacts on any one environment isolated from other environments (that is, do any impacts affect only one environment)?
  3. Are some environments impacted more than others? If so, which ones? Why do you think these environments are more sensitive to climate change?
  4. Can you think of any examples of climate change having a positive impact for environments or humans? What are some possible benefits for certain environments?
  5. Could some of the impacts described by your eyewitness have been caused by something other than climate change?  What could some other causes be? How might these other causes relate to climate change?
  6. What, if anything else, are people in the various scenarios doing to respond to climate change? Which actions mentioned do you think are more effective? Which are less effective?
  7. How can we, as individuals living in our environment, contribute to reducing the impacts of climate change on other environments?

Climate Change Eyewitness Accounts
1.        Island-Pohnpei
2.       Mountain-Switzerland
3.       River-USA
4.       Glacial Lake-Nepal
5.       Grasslands-Argentina
6.       Icecap-Antarctica (supplement w/ Teachers Domain video http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ipy07.sci.ess.watcyc.cryoantarctica/)
7.       Farmland-Spain
8.       Glacial Lake-China
9.       Forest-Germany
10.   Orchard-Australia
11.   Rice Field-Japan
12.   Coast-Tanzania
13.   Tundra-USA (supplement w/Teachers Domain video http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ean08.sci.ess.watcyc.bakedalaska/)
14.   Forest-Kenya
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