Lesson Plan: Carbon Dioxide Trends (9-12)

Adapted from Facing the Future, www.facingthefuture.org.

Essential Question: How can we chart data to make it meaningful to others in order to communicate scientific concepts to non-experts?

Overview: Students graph data to examine seasonal and long-term atmospheric carbon dioxide trends over the past 45 years and then predict future carbon dioxide emissions.

Objectives: Students will… Identify processes that contribute to CO2 emissions Graph CO2 emissions Assess the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global surface temperatures Brainstorm ways to reduce CO2 emissions

Subject: Science, Math

Suggested Grade Level: 9 – 12

Materials: Graph paper or a graphing program such as Microsoft Excel Handout: CO2 Dataset, 1 per student pair

Lesson Resource: long-term carbon dioxide and temperature trends

Introduction

• Ask students to recall which gases are involved in the greenhouse effect (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, along with manmade gases). Tell students that today they’ll be exploring historical trends in carbon dioxide emissions. Explain that CO2 is an important greenhouse gas that has been linked to many human activities.
• Ask students if they can name some activities (human or otherwise) that might add CO2 to our atmosphere – burning fossil fuels, cutting tress, burning wood, volcanoes, all release CO2).

Procedure

• Divide the class into pairs.
• Give each pair 1 sheet of graph paper and 1 CO2 data set.
• Have students graph the data (year should be on the X axis and CO2 emissions on the y-axis.The scale should be appropriate for the data.) Students can use a computer graphing program as an alternative to graphing by hand.
• Ask students to predict an average CO2 concentration for the year 2020 and put a star on their graph to represent that number on the graph.
• Reconvene the class to view and discuss the graphs from the Woods Hole Research Center on historical temperature and CO2 trends. Ask students to explain what they see in these graphs. Where is the yearly CO2 data shown in these graphs? When does the most recent warming trend begin?
• Bring the class together for a discussion using the following reflection questions.

For more, download the PDF.