Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the Globe

Climate Change Education Across the Curricula

Lesson Plan: Carbon Cycle Regulation by Carbon Sequestration

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As a High School or introductory Undergraduate Environmental Sciences or Chemistry or Earth Sciences teacher, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about Earth’s carbon cycle, its role in Earth’s climate, its irregularities due to anthropogenic activities, and its regulation by carbon sequestration.

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the various components and processes involved in Earth’s carbon cycle and its influence on Earth’s climate. This lesson plan will enable students to learn through interactive exercises how disturbances in the carbon cycle due to human activities have contributed towards global warming and climate change. Through this lesson plan your students will also learn about processes of carbon sequestration to regulate the disturbed carbon cycle and its role in climate mitigation and adaptation. Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in Environmental Sciences or Chemistry or Earth Sciences.

Lesson plan developed with contribution from Gargi Khandelwal, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India.

Questions

Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:

  1. What is the carbon cycle? Describe its components and processes.
  2. How does the carbon cycle influence Earth’s climate?
  3. Why has the carbon cycle changed in recent times?
  4. What is carbon sequestration and how does it regulate the carbon cycle?
  5. Explain the importance of carbon sequestration in climate mitigation.

Carbon Sequestration

About Lesson Plan

Grade Level High school, Undergraduate
Discipline Environmental Sciences, Chemistry,

Earth Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline Carbon Cycle, Carbon Sequestration,

Carbon Capture and Storage, Carbon Sources and Sinks
Climate Topic Climate and the Atmosphere, Climate and the Biosphere

Climate and the Hydrosphere, Climate and the Anthroposphere

Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Location Global
Language(s) English
Access Online, Offline
Approximate
Time Required		 60-90 min

Contents

Teaching Module (15-45 min) A teaching module to describe the components and explain the processes involved in the natural carbon cycle and its role in Earth’s climate.

This can be accessed here.
Infographic (5 min) An infographic to describe how the Earth’s carbon cycle is changing due to anthropogenic activities.

The infographic can be accessed here.
Quiz (~10 min) An interactive online quiz to test student understanding of the carbon cycle and its influence on Earth’s climate.

This can be accessed here.
Reading (30 min) A reading to describe natural carbon sources and sinks and the role of carbon sequestration by carbon capture and storage for climate mitigation.

This can be accessed here.

 

Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

1 Introduce the carbon cycle and explain its role in Earth’s climate Use the teaching module, ‘The Carbon Cycle’ by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to describe what the carbon cycle is and how carbon is cycled through different parts of the Earth- atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

You may choose to use the ‘related pages and diagrams’ section to teach about the components and geochemical processes involved in the natural carbon cycle. Use the subsection ‘The Changing Carbon Cycle’ to explain how human activities are affecting the natural carbon cycle.

Finally, use the hands-on interactive activities in the ‘related resources’ section to elaborate on the role of the carbon cycle in Earth’s climate.

This can be accessed here.
2 Extend understanding of the changing carbon cycle Use the infographic, ‘Earth’s carbon cycle is off balance’ by NASA to explain how higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities are affecting the natural carbon cycle.

The infographic can be accessed here.
3 Enable discussion about how an off-balance carbon cycle contributes to climate change Use the interactive online quiz, ‘Carbon and the climate’ by NASA to test student understanding of the various components of the carbon cycle.

Encourage a discussion on their influence on Earth’s climate and how changes in them may contribute to climate change.

This can be accessed here.
4 Introduce carbon sequestration and describe its importance in climate mitigation Use the reading, ‘Carbon Sequestration’ by Noelle Eckley Selin, Associate Professor of Engineering Systems and Atmospheric Chemistry, MIT, to describe natural carbon sources and sinks. Explain how their balance is affected by anthropogenic activities with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere.

Use the text to emphasize on the importance of the removal of this excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technologies for carbon capture and storage, and carbon sequestration. Use the various embedded links to elaborate on these geoengineering processes. Finally, initiate a discussion on the significance of carbon sequestration in regulating the carbon cycle and thereby, enabling climate mitigation.

This can be accessed here.

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