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Google Image, Carbon, 2017

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In this unit, you will learn all about the carbon cycle and the impacts it is causing on our environment. Provided is a list of resources to help educate your students using real life examples, and descriptions/lessons on what the carbon cycle is. This unit will help to introduce the idea of reducing our own carbon footprint in the classroom and help educate students on how to reduce their carbon footprint at home.

I decided to do my project on the carbon cycle. Specifically, how our carbon footprint negatively effects the Earth and how we need to reduce our carbon footprint in order to keep this planet healthy/alive. I chose this topic because this lesson hit me hard when I heard it. I took a sociology class and this was one of our first lessons. I have never forgotten the feeling I had after I took my own “carbon footprint” quiz and I knew instantly I needed to change my lifestyle. I have since then stopped wasting water, eaten less meat, and tried to carpool when I can instead of taking my own car to school. I hope my students can also implement this lesson into their lives and see a change in our environment. This is a sustainability lesson because we need to decrease our carbon footprint in order for ecosystems to survive and our pollution percentage to decrease. There are many other reasons we need to reduce our carbon footprint which we will cover in the lessons provided below!

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This five-day unit for seventh and eighth grade students allows for learning, reflecting, and the use of Futures Thinking. The purpose of this unit is to educate students on the carbon cycle and have them develop a hypothesis on how their carbon footprint will affect the future . Students are able to construct this hypothesis by learning about different aspects of the carbon cycle/carbon footprint each day.

Day 1: What is the carbon cycle?

Day 2: What is my carbon footprint?

Day 3: How can I reduce my carbon footprint?

Day 4: What is non-renewable energy?

Day 5: What is new energy?

Day 2 has been developed into a full lesson plan that meets the following science and writing standards:

Strand 3: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Concept 1: Changes in Environments
Describe the interactions between human populations, natural hazards, and the environment. PO 1.  Analyze environmental risks  (e.g., pollution, destruction of habitat) caused by human interaction with biological or geological systems.

(3.W.2)  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

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Why is it important to learn about our carbon footprint? 

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Why is it important to learn about our carbon footprint? 

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"About three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions that are attributed to humans come from burning fossil fuels. We burn fossil fuels — non-renewable energy sources — when we operate vehicles, heat our homes, and even use electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Administration has also concluded that greenhouse gas emissions have been on the rise since industrialization, suggesting that humans are to blame for much of the greenhouse gas production. And science has also linked greenhouse gas production to climate change, or the increase in earth’s temperature. Because the Natural Resources Defense Council writes that global warming can cause catastrophic weather events, flooding, water shortages and disturbed ecosystems, it is important for each individual to understand his or her impact on the future and work to make that impact more positive (1)."

It’s relevant to my students because they need to help in reducing the carbon footprint. They will be able to apply this lesson in their lives and decrease uses in water, electricity, transportation, etc. in order to help us reduce the carbon footprint. Hopefully, some of my students will even help in engineering ways to reduce the footprint! This lesson will help in math/science because students will use numbers and data in exploring/imagining ways engineers can use nonrenewable resources instead of coal for energy. This is a big problem our planet is facing and I believe this content is applicable for all ages and we could use everyone’s effort in decreasing CO2 emissions.

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In this lesson, we will cover the carbon cycle and how it works. The carbon cycle is the process in which carbon travels from the atmosphere into organisms and the Earth and then back into the atmosphere. Plants take carbon dioxide from the air and use it to make food. Animals then eat the food and carbon is stored in their bodies or released as CO2 through respiration.
It's important for students to understand what the carbon cycle is before we start explaining what our own carbon footprint is.
After I have explained the process, the class will divide into groups to make a chart of the steps that the carbon cycle goes through. They will draw pictures and interact with their class members to better understand how the carbon cycle works. The goal of this lesson is for students to comprehend the carbon cycle and begin to understand how their actions also affect the carbon cycle. They will present their pictures to the class.

Google Image, Carbon Cycle, 2017

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In this lesson, students will learn about their own carbon footprint! To begin, they will take the quiz located at http://www.footprintcalculator.org/. I think this website will help students realize that their carbon footprint is making a negative impact in the world and their way of living needs to be adjusted.
Afterwards we will discuss what our results mean.  Consider all of the different “things” you use in your daily life. What you eat for breakfast, the clothes you wear, the desks in the classroom, the car you drive to school—they all come from earth’s resources. They’re powered and transported by earth’s resources, too. An environmental footprint is an annual measure of how much land and water it takes to provide the things we use and consume. In this activity, we will be focusing on the water and carbon components of your environmental footprint. It does not attempt to estimate a student’s total carbon or water footprint. Rather, it highlights the impact of certain key lifestyle choices, most of which students can take an active role in changing.
The goal of this lesson is for students to understand what their carbon footprint means and how it affects the Earth.

Google Image, Carbon Footprint, 2017

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Day 2 Lesson Plan: What is my carbon footprint?

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Day 2 Lesson Plan: What is my carbon footprint?

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Day 3: How can I reduce my carbon footprint? 

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Day 3: How can I reduce my carbon footprint? 

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In this lesson, we will go over the results in more depth of the previous carbon footprint quiz and discuss how we can reduce our carbon footprint.
Students will research ways and present a poster to the class on a certain subject. I will assign water efforts, plastic use, electricity, transportation, food, clothes, etc. to different groups and have them research ways to implement sustainable efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. We will hold a group discussion on their findings and brainstorm ways we can be more sustainable in the classroom and at home.

Google Image, Carbon Footprint, 2017

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1. In this lesson, I would like to show my students where our energy comes from. I would list the steps from mining coal to using electricity in our homes to introduce the idea that energy doesn't just appear!

2.  One of the fossil fuels (usually coal) is burned in a power plant to heat water. The hot water turns into steam and forces a machine called a turbine to turn. The turbine powers a generator into electricity which is sent through power lines to provide energy for buildings of all types. In summary, coal -hot water -steam -turbine -generator -electricity.

3. Electricity can also be made from water behind a dam or by windmills. Falling water or rotating windmill blades will cause the turbine to generate electricity. Electricity is the most useful form of energy .We take it for granted because it is such an important part of our life style. It makes our everyday endeavors convenient and practical. For example, electricity makes alarm clocks ring in the morning to wake us for school, keeps our food cool in the refrigerator so that cereal tastes good with milk, operates the blow dryer that styles hair, and runs the furnace that blows warm air throughout our homes in the winter to keep us warm.

Google Image, Carbon Footprint, 2017

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1. My activity would first involve students telling me how they get their energy and where it comes from. They will list all the ways that they use energy in their daily lives. They can talk about how they use energy to have air conditioning, for their refrigeration, to use their lights, etc. The students can do this in small group or with a partner.

2. Afterwards we will group the lists by energy source used. I will then ask the students to trace the energy back to their original sources. For example, students may say that they use gasoline for their cars. I will ask, “Where does the gas station get is gasoline?”

3. I will ask the students to research these questions and then we will meet in whole group to discuss our research findings. After all the students have presented their data, we will begin to identify any ways in which students can use renewable energy sources in place of nonrenewable sources.

4.  Electric appliances have a label or plate that lists how much power they require (usually in watts or amps). Have students go through their houses and record all electric appliance power requirements. Then help the students rank their uses of power from their largest use of electricity to their smallest (e.g., refrigerators use more electricity than televisions). How much power would they need to run all the appliances in their houses simultaneously for an hour? How much would it cost to do this?

5. I think this would help students understand how much we use nonrenewable resources to generate our electricity and how it’s becoming a huge problem for our environment! This will help them understand what’s at stake and how it’s difficult to stop using nonrenewable resources because we depend so heavily on them.

Google Image, Carbon Footprint, 2017

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1.  G. (n.d.). How Does Your Carbon Footprint Impact Climate Change? Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/how-does-your-carbon-footprint-impact-climate-change - this website offers a variety of blogs on issues such as climate change, carbon cycle, and our carbon footprint! It also has resources for yoga, meditation, and products you can buy to implement a world of spiritual healing and becoming more connected with the environment.

2. Schreck, J. (n.d.). R.E.A.C.T. Renewable Energy Activities – Choices for Tomorrow. Retrieved from https://www.nrel.gov/docs/gen/fy01/30927.pdf this website is a great tool for teaching about nonrenewable and renewable energy. It provides a lot of exciting activities that helps engage the classroom and helps kids better understand nonrenewable/renewable energy. This website also provides documents you can print out and lesson plans you can go off of to design your own lesson plan that meets the needs of your students.

3. - How many planets does it take to sustain your lifestyle? (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from http://www.footprintcalculator.org/ This website is a great activity for kids to do on the computers! It allows them to see their own carbon footprint and how many "Earths" it would take to sustain their lifestyle. It helps the kids understand their impact on the planet and allows them to think of ways they can change to decrease their carbon footprint.

4. - T. (2012, December 18). Simpleshow explains the Carbon Footprint. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q7_aV8eLUE This video will help explain what it means to leave a carbon footprint. I think the pictures will also help my ELL students who are still struggling with English vocabulary.

5. T. (2015, April 21). What really happens to the plastic you throw away - Emma Bryce. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8  I like this video because it helps kids understand that the things we buy don’t just “appear”! There is a process, and sometimes that process is harmful. They can also see what happens when they don’t recycle and how much it hurts our planet. Students can also begin to understand how our actions can hurt other ecosystems.

6. - Carbon Adventures: A game to teach the carbon cycle. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from http://gk12.asu.edu/node/45 This website has a fun carbon game that I would like to try with my class! It comes with a board game, and the cards associated with playing the game already typed out and ready to print. It helps the kids in understanding that carbon comes in many forms.

7. - What Kind of Footprint? Carbon Footprint - Lesson. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_footprint_lesson This website is a lesson plan involving our carbon footprint. It has a fun activity using modeling clay, ice chunks, water, plastic wrap and aluminum pie tins, where student teams model the greenhouse effect. They observe what happens and discuss the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth.

8. Renewable Energy - Lesson. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_environ_lesson09 Here is a great lesson plan on renewable energy! It gives you some ideas in what you can implement in your own classroom. I like that it includes the vocabulary and different sections of the lesson and what students are expected to know. It also includes lesson assessments for the students to perform.

9. Network, N. H. (n.d.). Clean Energy Education. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/clean-energy-education.html This website gives numerous activities to include in your lesson plan. This website includes lesson plans, activities, and resources. It helps empower students to make informed choices and aids them in developing creative solutions for environmental challenges.

10. Society, N. G. (2013, February 14). Non-renewable energy. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/non-renewable-energy/ This website has some great resources about nonrenewable energy. It provides a slideshow with great pictures associated with the definition of nonrenewable energy. It also goes into depth of the advantages and disadvantages coal gives us and why it is harmful to the Earth.

11. **ALL images were taken from Google!