https://cleanet.org/clean/community/activities/carboncycle_excel.html
Andrea Bixler, Lindsay Dubbs, Dave Finster, Harold Geller, Jeanne Troy, CLEAN Community Collection
The two activities take about 3-4 class periods.
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Activity
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»High School: 2 Performance Expectations, 3 Disciplinary Core Ideas, 9 Cross Cutting Concepts, 10 Science and Engineering Practices
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
2d 
2dOther materials addressing 2d
Other materials addressing 4f
Other materials addressing 5c
Energy Literacy
2.5 Energy moves between reservoirs.
Notes From Our Reviewers
The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness.
Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about
how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Consider beginning the series of activities with the hands-on ping pong ball activity, which illustrates the carbon cycle reservoirs and fluxes, instead of the lecture-discussion of IPCC diagrams.
- Students may have difficulty interpreting data displayed on the Excel spreadsheets. Additional directions on the Excel worksheets would assist student success.
- The first of the two activities uses the assumption that the tree and major limbs are cylinders and therefore uses the cylinder formula to estimate tree volume. The second activity uses power functions, Excel, and a log-log graph; this second activity is more appropriate for advanced learners.
About the Science
- Science underlying these activities is about carbon sources, sinks, and fluxes among them. The activity transitions nicely from abstract data interpretation of the carbon cycle to personal interactions with the cycle.
- Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
About the Pedagogy
- Students work with a spreadsheet to see how changes in one part of the carbon cycle affect others. A link is provided to a pre- and post-test concept map type exercise.
- Excercise steps 1-5 in the directions give a global picture of the carbon cycle, while steps 6-7 bring the story down to a local and/or individual level.
- Progression of activities provides a nice mix of abstract and concrete.
- This resource engages students in using scientific data.
See other data-rich activities
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Activity 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-LS2-5: Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3
HS-ESS2.A1:Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.
HS-ESS2.D3:Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.
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: 9
HS-C1.4:Mathematical representations are needed to identify some patterns
HS-C2.4:Changes in systems may have various causes that may not have equal effects.
HS-C3.5:Algebraic thinking is used to examine scientific data and predict the effect of a change in one variable on another (e.g., linear growth vs. exponential growth).
HS-C4:Systems and System Models
HS-C5.1:The total amount of energy and matter in closed systems is conserved.
HS-C5.2:Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.
HS-C5.4: Energy drives the cycling of matter within and between systems.
HS-C7.2:Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
HS-C7.3:Feedback (negative or positive) can stabilize or destabilize a system.
Science and Engineering Practices: 10
HS-P1.3:ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables
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-P3.6:Manipulate variables and collect data about a complex model of a proposed process or system to identify failure points or improve performance relative to criteria for success or other variables.
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-P4.2:Apply concepts of statistics and probability (including determining function fits to data, slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient for linear fits) to scientific and engineering questions and problems, using digital tools when feasible.
HS-P4.5:Evaluate the impact of new data on a working explanation and/or model of a proposed process or system.
HS-P5:
HS-P6.4:Apply scientific reasoning, theory, and/or models to link evidence to the claims to assess the extent to which the reasoning and data support the explanation or conclusion.
HS-P7.2:Evaluate the claims, evidence, and/or reasoning behind currently accepted explanations or solutions to determine the merits of arguments.
