Exploring the Carbon Cycle: A Multi-Day Activity for Students, Study notes of Fossil Fuels

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Title Description Outcome Prior learning Time 1 The carbon cycle Reading assignment and optional assessment activity (game) Create a diagram showing the carbon cycle, including fast and slow components. Use the carbon cycle to identify actions that may help reduce human-induced climate change. Structure a scientific explanation of why such an action is likely to have an impact. Empathise with the viewpoints of others. Outline understanding of food chains, photosynthesis, the greenhouse effect, and the rock cycle are desirable but not essential 1 hour

• ½ hour for optional assessment activity 2 Acid oceans Practical activity Describe the effect of increased ocean acidity on marine organisms. Evaluate experimental techniques and estimates, extending existing methods to find additional information. None Set-up ½ hour; 5 minutes after about an hour and once a day for next 2 or 3 days; plenary ½ hour 3 Tracking carbon from space Research task Use the Climate from Space web application to investigate a question related to the carbon cycle. Select key information to inform others. The carbon cycle – e.g. Activity 1 1½ hours Times given are for the main exercises, assuming full IT access or/and distribution of repetitive calculations and plots around the class. They include time for sharing results but not the presentation of outcomes as this will vary depending on the size of the class and groups. Alternative approaches may take longer.

The material required for each activity is listed at the start of the relevant section, together with notes about any preparation that may be required beyond copying worksheets and information sheets. Worksheets are designed for single use and can be copied in black and white. Information sheets may contain larger images for you to insert into your classroom presentations, additional information for students, or data for them to work with. These resources are best printed or copied in colour but may be reused. Any additional spreadsheets, datasets or documents required for the activity may be downloaded by following the links to this pack from https://climate.esa.int/educate/climate-for-schools/ Extension ideas and suggestions for differentiation are included at appropriate points in the description of each activity. Worksheet answers and sample results for practical activities are included to support assessment. Opportunities for you to use local criteria to assess core skills such as communication or data handling are indicated in the relevant part of the activity description. In all activities, we have assumed you will continue to follow your usual procedures relating to the use of common equipment (including electrical devices such as computers), movement within the learning environment, trips and spills, first aid, and so on. Since the need for these is universal but the details of their implementation vary considerably, we have not itemised them every time. Instead, we have highlighted hazards particular to a given practical activity to inform your risk assessment. Some of these activities use the Climate from Space web application or other interactive websites. It is possible to navigate from these to other parts of the ESA Climate Change Initiative site or that of the host organisation and thence to external websites. If you are not able – or do not wish – to limit the pages students can view, do remind them of your local Internet safety rules.

The relative abundance of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere and crust is surprisingly low – less than 0.5% in both cases. Yet carbon compounds are essential to life, forming the tissues of all living things. All organic carbon, and nearly all that stored in the oceans and the ground beneath our feet, was first fixed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Individual atoms become part of different molecules, held in different stores (sinks), and may take seconds or aeons to return to the atmosphere. How carbon moves through the carbon cycle is well known and is described on Information sheet 1 (see also Figure 3). However, as human activities disrupt the cycle

• releasing carbon compounds to the atmosphere faster than they are absorbed – the need to find out how much carbon is stored in various sinks or reservoirs, and how much transferred by each process, becomes ever more important. This is particularly true in situations where a warming planet may lead to positive feedback. For example, methane released from thawing permafrost contributes to further warming. Figure 3: The carbon cycle (Source: Jeff Lockwood, used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

The key to controlling climate change is managing the carbon cycle – increasing the amount of carbon stored in sinks and cutting down emissions. Figure 4 shows the size of some of these stores and transfers (fluxes). Activity 1 allows students to relate individual and communal actions to these processes. As Figures 3 and 4 show, we need information about a huge number of things if we are to understand the carbon cycle and its impact on climate. Collecting data about, say, the proportion of the ground that remains frozen throughout the year across the entire Arctic would not be possible if we could only make measurements on the ground itself. Some satellites in orbit around the Earth ‘look at’ everywhere in one hemisphere every fifteen minutes. Others travel over each part of the planet once every ten days or so. A single satellite image can contain more information than an army of people could collect on the ground. Sensors on satellites can not only take pictures to show the appearance of the Earth

• which can, for example, help us monitor how we use land – but also allow us to measure many variables related to the parts of the carbon cycle that we cannot see, including the concentration of gases in the atmosphere, the temperature of the land and sea surface, and the amount of carbon stored as biomass. Activity 3 gives students a chance to interact with some of this data. They can find more about how it is collected in the Taking the Pulse of the Planet education resource packs available from https://climate.esa.int/educate/climate-for-schools/. Figure 4: Human impacts on the global carbon cycle (Source: Pierre Friedlingstein, Matthew W. Jones, Michael O'Sullivan et al.; used under CC BY-SA 4.0)

councillors about an action that the town could take, or MPs if suggesting a national policy.) The worksheet instructions ask students to set out a logical argument for adopting their mitigation plan, consider potential weaknesses in it, and identify ways in which they can address these. Some of the additional information required to make a good case (see the ideas in Worksheet answers, below) may be quite technical or difficult to get hold of. Even so, you may wish students to carry out the additional research required and write to the appropriate representative(s) with a proposal, particularly if working at a community level. If a visit can be arranged, students could present their proposals. In this case, it would be a good idea for students to work in groups. This activity needs to be carried out outdoors or in a hall or gym. The idea is to work as a group to make up stories showing how a single atom of carbon, represented by a ball, moves through the carbon cycle. Students represent places where the atom is stored for some time. As students pass the ball between them, they will state what they represent, in what form or/and where they ‘hold’ the carbon atom, and by what process they are passing it on. Students may get the ball more than once and change roles as the ‘atom’ moves through the cycle and back to the starting point. For example: STUDENT 1: I am phytoplankton and this carbon is in compounds in my cell. I am eaten by a fish. (STUDENT 1 throws the ball to STUDENT 2.) STUDENT 2: I am a fish. I digest the phytoplankton, and the carbon becomes part of a molecule of fat in my tissues. I get eaten by a bird. (STUDENT 2 throws the ball to STUDENT 3.) STUDENT 3: I am a bird. I digest the fish and use the energy stored in its fat for respiration. I exhale the carbon atom to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. (STUDENT 3 throws the ball to STUDENT 4.) STUDENT 4: I am the atmosphere. This molecule of carbon dioxide is absorbed by a raindrop. (STUDENT 1 throws the ball to STUDENT 1.) STUDENT 1: I am a raindrop containing carbonic acid … The raindrop can fall to the ocean and be absorbed by phytoplankton, closing the loop, or take a more circuitous path.

1. Ask students to form groups of 4 – 8. Each group will need a ball and should stand in a circle.
2. Demonstrate the idea by supporting one group to get started while the others watch.

3. Give groups ten to twenty minutes to come up with the longest chain they can.
4. Ask each group in turn to show their longest chain. Other groups could simply enjoy the story or be asked to assess the understanding of their peers and provide feedback. Chains might include sections such as: carbon in a prehistoric bird → died in cave → cave collapses → body compressed with those of many others → carbon atom now in oil → oil extracted and burnt in a car engine → carbon emitted to the atmosphere as CO 2 carbon in a leaf → leaf falls to forest floor → leaf decomposed by a fungus → fungus eaten by termite …
5. Definitions here are not complete but illustrate the level of understanding the term requires in this context.

• greenhouse effect: sunlight that passes through the atmosphere warms the Earth; CO 2 and other gases in the atmosphere prevent this heat from being re-radiated into space
• photosynthesis: the creation of simple sugars from CO 2 and water in the presence of light
• respiration: the breaking down of simple sugars into CO 2 and water to supply energy for living things
• decomposition: the breaking down of organic material over time; this may involve digestion by other organisms as well as chemical processes
• sedimentary rock: rock formed when material such as sand or the remains of organisms is compressed
• metamorphic rock: sedimentary rock that has been transformed by pressure or/and heat
• fossil fuels: fuels formed when the remains of prehistoric organisms have been subjected to heat and pressure; coal, oil, and gas
• Industrial Revolution: the rapid growth of manufacturing based on steam power that took place from around 1750.

2. Individual responses.
3. See Figure 3 on page 7.
4. Wetlands, livestock, landfills, wildfires, extraction of fossil fuels.
5. See Figure 3 on page 7.
6. How much carbon or CO 2 an individual or community releases into the atmosphere – not including what they breathe out!
7. Students might consider things such as replanting or rewilding of particular areas; financial incentives or infrastructure development for low- or zero- emission transport or reducing travel; heating or cooling of public buildings, or/and support to make that of privately-owned buildings more efficient; electricity generation and energy efficiency; waste handling, and so on.
8. Individual responses.

● Student worksheet 2 (3 pages) ● 3 jars or beakers per group ● 2 bottles or smaller jars per group ● Distilled vinegar – enough to half-fill the larger jar or beaker and fill both bottles or smaller jars ● Lemon or lime juice – to half-fill one jar ● 4 eggshells per group ● 2 balloons per group ● Eye protection ● Cloths or paper towels ● Tweezers or forceps Ask students to collect – and clean! – eggshells in advance. The first part of the activity needs jars or beakers with an opening wide enough to allow an egg to fit through it. The jar or bottle for the second part should have a neck narrow enough to fit a balloon onto it, but wide enough for the balloon to fit tightly. If necessary, tape, string or a rubber band can be used to improve the seal. Note : Thin PET drinks bottles may themselves expand, so are not suitable for this activity. Using bottled lemon or lime juice (the sort sold for cooking) will save quite a bit of time and mess. If you are using fresh fruit, strain the juice to remove any pulp. Seashells from craft suppliers are a more realistic alternative to eggshells but are likely to take longer to show an effect. If you do use these, please check they are from a sustainable source. Eye protection should be worn. This activity uses foodstuffs, so students should be told not to taste anything. Ensure there is material available to deal with spills.

1. Explain that warmer oceans can absorb more CO 2 from the atmosphere and this in turn makes the oceans more acidic. Note: While this is the case at the moment, research suggests that continued warming may reduce the ability of the oceans to absorb CO 2.
2. We are going to explore the effect of ocean acidification using a model in which:
   • shellfish and coral are represented by eggshells (which are made of the same material)
   • sticks of chalk represent cliffs or coasts formed from sedimentary rock
   • weak acids that we can find in our kitchen represent an acidified ocean.
3. Ask students to set up their equipment following the instructions on Student worksheet 2.1 and record their initial observations. They could note some key points on Student worksheet 2.2, take pictures, or/and record more detailed descriptions in their exercise books. Note: It is important to pre-stretch the balloons to relax the rubber because the carbon dioxide produced does not create as much excess pressure as the students’ lungs.
4. The intervals between observations do not need to be exact, so those after one hour could be made at the end of the lesson. If you are doing this, the gap could be used for discussion of questions 3, 4, and 5 from Student worksheet 2. 3.
5. When students have collected their results, ask them to complete the questions on Student worksheet 2.3. This could be used for assessment or discussed as a class. You may wish to set some or all questions as a homework activity. You could support younger or less able students to answer questions 4 and 5 by suggesting additional equipment they might use (see Worksheet answers, below). If discussing in class it would be worth talking about the positive feedback loop resulting from this process.
6. You could ask students to carry out further research into the impact of ocean acidification on marine life. Bubbles will appear almost immediately around the eggshells in vinegar and lemon juice. There may be a few bubbles around the eggshells in water, but these are likely to be of trapped air and disperse over the hour or days (see Figure 5 on the next page). Most blackboard chalk is gypsum, containing only small amounts of calcium carbonate. Bubbles coming off the chalk are likely to be smaller (see Figure 6 on the next page), although there will probably be more of them, at least at first. After an hour, the eggshells in the acids may have begun to soften or show some pitting – particularly around the edges, which may have become smoother. The reaction with the chalks may have completely stopped if all the accessible calcium carbonate has reacted.

1. Feed it through lime water, which will go cloudy if the gas is CO 2.
2. a. The shells of molluscs will be bleached and become thinner, making them XX vulnerable. The skeletons of corals – the part we think of as coral – will dissolve. b. Chemical weathering of the rock will speed up. c. This will increase.
3. CaCO 3 + 2CH 3 COOH → Ca(CH 3 COO) 2 + H 2 O+ CO 2
4. a. The simplest approach is to use a piece of string to measure the circumference of the balloon. Assuming it has a circular cross-section allows us to calculate radius and assuming it is a sphere allows us to calculate the volume from the radius. Depending on the balloon used, students may also approximate the balloon as a cylinder, or a combination of a sphere and a cylinder, and suggest taking measurements accordingly. b. This depends on the shape of the balloon and assumptions made (see above). As an example: for those shown in Figure 8 , the horizontal cross-section is elliptical rather than circular so the radius is likely to be smaller than that calculated from the circumference, leading to an overestimate. However, the inflated region would stick out above and below the sphere it is imagined to fill, so the actual volume may be larger than that calculated. There is a possibility the two errors may cancel.
5. Points that might be included in student answers:
   • Use vinegar/acid of different dilutions.
   • Measure the time for a given volume of CO 2 to be released, or balloon to reach a certain circumference (the latter is more risky as it is possible to miss the key time).
   • Measure the balloon’s circumference at intervals and compare or plot.
   • Use a line marked around the balloon to ensure the circumference is always measured at the same point.
   • Measure the volume of acid and mass of eggshells used each time.
   • More mathematically able students may suggest calculating rate by dividing volume by time or using the gradient of a graph. They may also be aware that even if they do not calculate volumes, they should use the cube of any linear measurement to ensure they are considering something proportional to the volume.
   • Those aware of factors affecting the rate of a reaction may note the need for constant temperature and to have the solid in similarly sized pieces each time. Note: Since vinegar is a dilute solution of a weak acid, the volumes of carbon dioxide evolved are too small, even in theory, to make an investigation such as this practical. However, students could use the method they devise as the basis for laboratory work using hydrochloric acid and marble chips.

● Internet access ● Climate from Space web application ● Student worksheet 3 (2 pages, second page optional) ● Presentation software such as PowerPoint

1. Give students some time to familiarise themselves with the Climate from Space web application, or demonstrate its use, following the instructions in the box at the top of Student worksheet 3.1. The base map (dark grey oceans and pale grey land) shows through in places where it has not been possible to reliably work out how much carbon dioxide is in the air. This may be because cloud cover prevented the satellite sensor collecting enough data to be sure of the measurement. When students explore other variables, they may also notice the pixels are different sizes for different quantities. There are various reasons for this, including that more raw data is needed to calculate some variables than others, and that different instruments may have different resolutions. There is more information on this in the Taking the Pulse of the Planet packs, available from https://climate.esa.int/educate/climate-for-schools/
2. Ask students to research one of the suggested questions and produce a short presentation as described on Student Worksheet 3.1. You may wish to allocate questions to particular students or groups. While the task is open, allowing differentiation by outcome, earlier questions may be easier than later questions, depending on the prior knowledge of the class. Student worksheet 3.2 provides support by suggesting areas on which to focus (students may need to use a mapping application to locate these areas) and, in some cases, a few more detailed questions.
3. If students are to present their findings to each other, you may want to add a time constraint to the list of instructions for the presentation, or/and discuss appropriate criteria for peer assessment.

1. Skim-read Information sheet 1. If you are not sure what any of the words or phrases in bold type mean, find out before going on to the next step. You are going to draw a diagram showing the complete carbon cycle. Your diagram will show sources and sinks of carbon and label the processes that move it through the fast and slow cycles.
2. Read the information sheet more closely, this time looking for details that you will need to include in your diagram. You might highlight key points or create a rough sketch as you read.
3. Create your diagram. You could use different colours or lettering styles to show the difference between sources and sinks or/and processes that are part of the slow and fast cycles. The information sheet says that methane, CH 4 , is another important greenhouse gas. As you can see from its chemical formula, methane also contains carbon. Soil absorbs a small amount of methane from the atmosphere, but most remains in the air until it undergoes a chemical reaction that changes it to carbon dioxide and water.
4. Carry out some research to find sources of methane.
5. Add information about methane to your diagram. The Information sheet gives some actions that individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.
6. Use what you have learnt from the sheet to write your own definition of this term. Aim to use no more than twenty words.
7. Choose an action that would reduce the carbon footprint of your entire community, town, region or even country. Use your diagram of the carbon cycle to identify why this will have an impact. Think about what sources, sinks and processes are involved. Imagine you have the opportunity to speak to a group of decision-makers who could implement this action.
8. Set out the points you would make as a list of bullet points. Think about questions the decision-makers might ask or objections they might raise.
9. What extra information would you need to answer their questions or address their concerns?
10. How could you find this information? If you think any of this information should be added to your key points, rewrite your list to show where you would include it.

● 3 jars or beakers ● 2 bottles or smaller jars ● Vinegar ● Lemon or lime juice ● 4 clean eggshells ● 2 sticks of chalk ● 2 balloons

1. Half-fill one jar or beaker with distilled vinegar, another with lemon juice and the third with water.
2. Put two half eggshells into each jar.
3. What happens in each jar? You could note some keywords in the table on Student worksheet 2.2. You may wish to take pictures to support your observations.
4. After at least an hour, carefully remove a piece of eggshell from each jar. What do the shells look and feel like?
5. Return the eggshells to the correct jar.
6. Repeat your observations daily until you see no further change. If you are using the table on Student worksheet 2.2, you may need to add extra rows. Set this up at the same time as Part 1. Split tasks between your group so you can move quickly between steps 3 and 4.
7. Inflate and deflate the balloon several times until it blows up easily.
8. Fill the bottles or smaller jars almost to the top with vinegar.
9. Put an eggshell in the vinegar in one jar and two sticks of chalk in the other. If they are too big, break them up into pieces roughly the same size as each other and add all the pieces to the vinegar at the same time.
10. Fix the balloon to the neck of each bottle. You might need to use tape, string or a rubber band to make a good seal.
11. Record what happens to the balloons after about an hour and then at daily intervals. Again, you may wish to take pictures to support your observations. - Work carefully to avoid spills and splashes. - Wear eye protection. - If anything gets into your eye, wash it out immediately with plenty of cold clean water. - Do not taste anything or touch your face. (Source: ESA CCI) (Source: ESA CCI)