http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/mits-greenhouse-gas-simulator
John Sherman, MIT
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Simulation/Interactive
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»High School: 2 Performance Expectations, 4 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 7 Cross Cutting Concepts, 12 Science and Engineering Practices
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
GPd 
GPdAbout Teaching Climate Literacy
Other materials addressing Humans can take action
About Teaching Climate Literacy
Other materials addressing Humans affect climate
Energy Literacy
7.3 Environmental quality.
2.6 Greenhouse gases affect energy flow.
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Educator should be familiar enough with the simulator and concepts being addressed to be able to help walk students through the complex aspects of the activity.
- Educator should go over the instructions and the units on the graphs before learners launch the animation.
About the Science
- Building on the bathtub animation that helps convey the challenges of stabilizing and reducing carbon emissions, this simulator includes substantial background information that may be appropriate for advanced high school, undergraduate students, or professionals involved with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- The simulator includes important concepts including sink saturation and positive feedbacks, but learners without guidance may miss the importance of these concepts.
- Comments from expert scientist: Provided background on CO2, its sources and sinks, and Kyoto protocol, is generally strong and put in simple concepts for easy understanding. Especially the concept of the bathtub and the overflowing water is an interesting analogy. Design of the simulator is also appropriate since it is easy to run and self-explanatory.
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Simulation/Interactive supports:
High School
Performance Expectations: 2
HS-ESS2-6: Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
HS-ESS3-6: Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 4
HS-ESS2.D3:Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
HS-ESS2.E1:The many dynamic and delicate feedbacks between the biosphere and other Earth systems cause a continual co-evolution of Earth’s surface and the life that exists on it.
HS-ESS3.D2:Through computer simulations and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.
HS-LS2.B3:Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are important components of the carbon cycle, in which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and geosphere through chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 7
HS-C2.2:Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
HS-C2.3:Systems can be designed to cause a desired effect.
HS-C2.4:Changes in systems may have various causes that may not have equal effects.
HS-C3.3:Patterns observable at one scale may not be observable or exist at other scales.
HS-C3.4:Using the concept of orders of magnitude allows one to understand how a model at one scale relates to a model at another scale.
HS-C4:Systems and System Models
HS-C7:Stability and Change
Science and Engineering Practices: 12
HS-P1.1:Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
HS-P1.2:ask questions that arise from examining models or a theory, to clarify and/or seek additional information and relationships.
HS-P1.3:ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables
HS-P1.4:ask questions to clarify and refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem
HS-P2.3:Develop, revise, and/or use a model based on evidence to illustrate and/or predict the relationships between systems or between components of a system
HS-P2.6:Develop and/or use a model (including mathematical and computational) to generate data to support explanations, predict phenomena, analyze systems, and/or solve problems.
HS-P4.1:Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models (e.g., computational, mathematical) in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.
HS-P4.3:Consider limitations of data analysis (e.g., measurement error, sample selection) when analyzing and interpreting data
HS-P4.6: Analyze data to identify design features or characteristics of the components of a proposed process or system to optimize it relative to criteria for success.
HS-P6.2:Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
HS-P6.3:Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to provide an explanation of phenomena and solve design problems, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.
HS-P7.1:Compare and evaluate competing arguments or design solutions in light of currently accepted explanations, new evidence, limitations (e.g., trade-offs), constraints, and ethical issues
