Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: The effects of climate change

20 minutes

Find Out: How did we get here and why is it a problem?

20 minutes

Take Action: What is the carbon cycle, and how does burning fossil fuels affect it?

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: The effects of climate change

Step 1.

Show students this video from climate change warriors Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot to prompt students’ thinking about different attitudes towards our climate.

Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot make short film on the climate crisis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0xUXo2zEY)

As students watch, ask them to record all the effects of climate change mentioned in the video on their Student Worksheet. They should also record the solutions that are offered (what we can do).

Step 2.

Discuss with students the propositions and stances that are expressed in the video. What type of people does it represent?

Ask the students to come up with some other potential viewpoints on this issue (there are examples in the teacher content information at the start of this lesson).

Use the Harvard Thinking Routine ‘Compass Points’ to draw out students' reflections on the video and its content.

Use the compass points routine like this:

S	The student's current STANCE
E	What EXCITES them about what they heard/learnt?
W	What WORRIES them?
N	What do they feel they NEED to know to make a final decision?

Find Out: How did we get here, and why is it a problem?

Step 1.

Watch the following video with your students called What is Climate Change? until 4:55 mins:

What is Climate Change?: Crash Course Biology #8 (youtu.be/Y1mPWVzaGQY?feature=shared)

Discuss the following with students:

What is climate change?
Why is the greenhouse effect a good thing?
What is causing the Earth to trap more heat?
Why do you think there has been an increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere in recent times?
- Burning of fossil fuels
What are fossil fuels?
- Non-renewable fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
What gases do you think are released when we burn fossil fuels?
- Carbon dioxide is by far the largest proportion, contributing about 74.4%. Methane is another greenhouse gas that is a component of natural gas. It contributes around 17.3%. The remainder is mostly carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides

Step 2.

Ask students why they think the burning of fossil fuels produces these greenhouse gases.

Explain that when we burn fossil fuels to create energy, the fuels undergo what we call a combustion reaction.

Watch the following video with your students on what a combustion reaction is:

What is combustion? - Stile Education (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd1alir07q4)

As they watch the video, invite students to complete the blank equations in their Student Worksheets to see what the products of these reactions are.

Fossil fuel + oxygen → _________________

Coal + oxygen → ___________ + _____________

Step 3.

Explain to students that fossil fuels are substances called hydrocarbons that contain carbon and hydrogen. When they undergo a combustion reaction, they burn to produce water and oxygen. This image is available on the attached visual explainer to show to your class.

source: https://www.chemistrylearner.com/chemical-reactions/combustion-reaction

We burn fossil fuels in huge quantities across the world. Ask students the following questions:

What state do you think the products of oxygen and carbon dioxide are in?
Why would that have an effect on the greenhouse effect?

Take Action: What is the carbon cycle, and how does burning fossil fuels affect it?

Step 1.

Show students the following image of the simplified carbon cycle, which is available on the attached visual explainer for this lesson. Explain that the carbon cycle, much like the water cycle, is a process in which carbon atoms from us, animals, plants, the air, ocean, soil, etc. travel between different systems on Earth.

Source: https://www.sciencefacts.net/carbon-cycle.html

Discuss their observations of the carbon cycle, and what it is representing. You may like to prompt them with the following:

Where is the carbon coming from?
Where is it going?
Is any new carbon being added? What does that tell you about carbon on Earth?
How do you think fossil fuels are formed?
Which parts of the cycle can be affected by human impacts?
Where do combustion reactions feature in this cycle?
Can you see any ways this cycle would have changed over time?

Step 2.

Watch the following video explaining the carbon cycle with your students:

The Carbon Cycle - Ted-Ed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4cPmHGegKI)

Step 3.

Divide your students into 9 groups. Allocate each group one of the processes or stores of carbon listed below to research in further detail, with the aim of coming back together to create a class concept map of the carbon cycle similar to this carbon cycle interactive diagram from the University of Waikato.

Stores	Processes
Atmosphere	Respiration of humans, animals and plants
Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas)	Photosynthesis
Rocks, sediments and soil	Burning fossil fuels
Living organisms	Decomposition
Ocean

We’ve stuck with these options to give a simple and clear overview of the carbon cycle. There are more stores and processes in the cycle available to be seen on the interactive diagram if you want to create more groups and have a broader focus.

Ask each group to research their allocated topic. In order to get a good overview of the cycle and the interactions between each aspect at the conclusion of this activity, students should focus on the following:

How is carbon stored/processed in this stage?
Where did that carbon come from, and where does it go to?
How have human factors increased/decreased the amount of carbon stored or released in this stage, and what are the effects of this?
What other steps are involved in this step?
In terms of climate change and the current global situation, would we prefer carbon to be stored on Earth or in the atmosphere?

While students are researching, get them to write their final explanations onto a blank sheet of A4 paper.

Step 4.

Ask students to present their steps of the carbon cycle to the rest of the class, with a 1-minute explanation of the points above.

You may like to display the carbon cycle diagram from above on the board and get students to stick their research in the appropriate position so the class can see the cycle come together. This could also be done through a collaborative digital document, such as Google Slides, where each group can create a slide explaining their step.

Encourage students to look for the ways in which each step is interconnected, and how human impacts in one part of the cycle can have effects on other parts of the cycle.

Reflection

Ask students to write a story (1-2 paragraphs) about how all of these parts of the cycle are working together in our current global situation to impact climate change.

How Do Combustion Reactions Affect the Carbon Cycle?

Go to

Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson