Ninety-seven percent of scientists who study climate agree that human activity is warming the planet. Learners explore carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, a gas causing this warming, through a hands-on experiment. Once complete, they must determine whether their data supports the question "Can carbon dioxide really act like a greenhouse gas?"

Concepts

carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, climate change

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Activity fits in a unit on greenhouse gases, global warming, or as an extension during a unit on photosynthesis
• Add more questions to the conclusion such as, "How do you put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?" or "What is a carbon footprint?" and end with questions such as, "How can you lower your carbon footprint?" or "How can entire communities lower their carbon footprint?" 

Classroom Considerations

• Depending upon the length of classes, the lab may take two to three days
• Each group requires four cups of soil, one heat lamp, and a fair amount of other materials 

Pros

• Provides the lab report form
• Lab report includes conclusion questions

Cons

• Photos do not effectively show the lab setup in terms of the tubing to the flask

Common Core

RST.9-10.3