Baylor College
Fossil Fuels and the Carbon Cycle
Humans are quickly depleting Earth's fossil fuels and locating them is becoming increasingly difficult! Layered muffins are used for models as young geologists take core samples in order to determine the presence of oil. Consider first...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Carbon Through the Seasons
Meteorologists view an animated video by the Environmental Protection Agency to learn how the carbon cycle works, and then move into groups to analyze and graph actual data of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from Hawaii's...
Center Science Education
CO2: How Much Do You Spew?
Split your earth science or environmental studies class into groups and give each a scenario card. Scenario cards describe the lifestyles of 10 different fictitious families, focusing on their energy usage. Carbon dioxide emissions are...
Center Science Education
Plugged In To CO2
Watt is going on here? Middle schoolers are learning about energy use and carbon dioxide emissions! In the first part of this lesson, learners measure how much energy different appliances consume and calculate the amount per day. In the...
Scholastic
Study Jams! The Carbon Cycle
Take a ride on the carbon cycle by watching this animated featurette. Those who do will learn about the element carbon, how it cycles through the atmosphere and biosphere, and how it contributes to Earth's temperature. This video comes...
Curated OER
Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom
An online reading and interactive game bring the path of a carbon molecule to life for your earth science explorers! As an assessment, learners can map out or write about their experience in the carbon cycle. Thoroughly written...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Black Carbon - a Dusty Situation
Introduce your young meteorologists to black carbon produced by the burning of fossil fuels by showing the video, "Changing Planet: Black Carbon." Viewers discover that deposition of this carbon on polar ice impacts the absorption of...
Baylor College
Finding the Carbon in Sugar
In session one, demonstrate for your class how a flame eventually goes out when enclosed in a jar in order to teach that oxygen is required for combustion. In session two, class members then burn sugar in a spoon to observe how it...
Curated OER
Properties of Useful Carbon Compounds
Nine action-packed organic chemistry exercises are contained in this mini-unit on carbon containing compounds. Examples include constructing models of alkanes, producing aromatic esters, and preparing pigments for paint and dyes....
American Chemical Society
The Fate of Calcium Carbonate
Soften up an egg. Learners use vinegar to test for calcium carbonate in an egg shell and an antacid tablet and compare the reaction with vinegar to the reaction with water. In a second experiment, class members break down an egg shell...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
What is My Carbon Footprint?
Here is a activity that walks youth through an online carbon footprint calculator produced by the University of California, Berkeley. Once learners finish inputting information, they compete a worksheet with the results. This is simple,...
Curated OER
What Contains Carbon?
Students explore elements by analyzing everyday objects and materials in class. In this carbon lesson, students define several vocabulary terms such as carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon, and carbonate. Students view a group of items,...
Wild BC
Carbon Sinks and Sources
Earth or environmental science pupils are assigned to be carbon sources or sinks. They ask yes-or-no questions to try to figure out which one they are. Then they discuss ways people can have positive effects on the changing climate by...
Rainforest Alliance
The Carbon Cycle
Scholars learn about the carbon cycle, play a carbon cycle game, and then write a story based on their role as a carbon atom during the game. After the writings, pupils analyze the carbon cycle by leading a class discussion on the material.
National Wildlife Federation
It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's...CARBON!
An interesting lesson takes pupils on a trip through the carbon cycle. A reading passage allows scholars to take notes and make choices about what happens to the carbon on its journey. This third lesson in a series of 21 discusses...
Curated OER
Carbon Atom Mobile
Students research the element of carbon, its composition, and the importance of carbon to life on earth. Then they design model mobiles of carbon atoms to demonstrate their understanding of the configuration of protons, neutrons, and...
Connecticut Energy Education
The Carbon Cycle Game
Have you ever wanted to be an atom of carbon? The lesson allows each student to be an atom of carbon in the carbon cycle. First, they follow through the cycle as it existed before human interference. Then, they try the same activity, but...
Wild BC
Carbon - The Short and the Long
For this complex game about the carbon cycle, the playing field is divided into air, living, and earth zones. Children are assigned to be either plants or animals, and collect carbon tokens as they proceed from zone to zone. While the...
Beyond Benign
Essential Oil Extraction Using Liquid CO2
When life hands you lemons ... experiment on them! Green chemistry gurus compare extraction methods for essential oils through a lab activity. Lab groups use traditional distillation and liquid carbon dioxide extraction methods, then...
Science Friday
Capturing Carbon Dioxide
Why don't we just capture carbon dioxide in the air and store it somewhere else? A hands-on lesson allows scholars to explore a complex concept. First, they will create a carbonated beverage, and then they will determine if liquid...
Curated OER
Amazing Carbon
Explore carbon and bonding with this learning exercise. First, class members read a short excerpt about carbon and its characteristics. In response to the reading, they draw an electron dot diagram of carbon as well as diagrams of...
Curated OER
Case Study of Local Trends in the Carbon Cycle
Students examine the relationship between chlorophyll and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this investigative activity students study the local effects of climate change.
Curated OER
Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks
Where does all of the carbon dioxide come from that is supposedly leading to climate change? Earth science pupils test animal, plant, and fossil fuels as sources in this investigation. Using an indicator, BTB, they are able to detect the...
American Museum of Natural History
Rising CO2! What Can We Do?
It is colorless and scentless, but it makes a large impact on the environment. Learners explore carbon dioxide emissions and what they mean for the environment using an interactive graph. They review changes over time and how they impact...