NIEMI (ENERGY) – CARBON AND THE ENERGY WE USE
Photograph of the La Cygne Power Plant
(Kansas City Power and Light)
Photo by Tina M. Niemi
June 14, 2007
VERSION #2
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Lesson #1 Combustion
Exploration What burns?
Materials Needed:
• Candle
• Matches
•
•
Oil lamp
Jar
1. Light a candle.
Which of the following statements is true about burning a candle?
• The wax is burned up in the candle flame
• The wax is not burned up: it holds the wick in place as the wick
burns.
• The wax is not burned up; it melts and keeps the wick from
burning too fast.
2. Light an oil lamp and describe what is happening.
3a. Place an inverted jar over the burning candle. Describe what
happens and why.
b. Using a smaller jar, predict what will happen if you repeat 3a?
Explain why this happened?
4. Obtain a tall and short candle, light both. Predict which candle will
go out first when you put a jar over both.
Place the jar over both candles. What happens?
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5. Repeat the experiment. Did you get the same results?
6. Not everyone will get the same answer. WHY?
7. Contrast wax and oil?
8. Place a knife or other metal object into the flame? What happens to
the metal?
9. What is fire? What part of the flame is the hottest? The coolest?
Concept introduction: Combustion and Fuels
Wax, wood, fuel, hydrocarbon, combustion, carbon dioxide, oxygen,
water, gas, oxidation, fossil fuels, energy, chemical energy, thermal
energy, steam, soot
Basic Combustion Equation:
fuel + oxygen => carbon dioxide + water + heat
CxHy + (x + y/4)O2 => xCO2 + (y/2) H2O + heat
For Methane: CH4 + O2 => CO2 + 2 H2O + heat
How do we generate electricity?
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Application #1 Burning Wood in a Test Tube
Materials Needed:
• rubber tubing
• Ring stand and test tube clamp
• beaker of water
holder
• Source of flame (Bunson
burner or propane torch) and
matches
• Test tube
• Rubber stopper with pipette
opening
• 3” pipette bent with a right
angle
• Thin wood splint
• Bromthymol Blue (BTB)
(mixed 9 parts water to 1 part
BTB; 15 ml should turn green
when you blow into it with a
straw)
• pH paper or pH meter
Place a wood splint in the test tube and firmly place the rubber stopper
that has the bent pipette pointing down out of the stopper (see
diagram). Place a flame underneath the test tube.
1. Observe the test tube experiment and describe what you see.
2. Explain what has happened.
3. Make a prediction of what would happen if you take a match and
hold it up to the pipette.
4. Take a match and hold it up to the pipette. Describe what happens.
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5. Explain what you observed.
6. Now put the rubber tubing on the pipette exhaust that is at the top
of the rubber stopper and run the tubing to a 50 ml beaker of BTB
solution. What do you think will happen?
7. What have you observed?
8. In another beaker filled with water, measure the pH of the water.
Place the exhaust from the burning experiment into the water,
measure the pH of the water. Describe what you have measured.
Application #2 Burning Coal
Materials Needed: Coal sample in addition to the list for the
experiment above.
Powder coal sample and repeat the procedure outlined above.
1. What did you observe?
2. How did this experiment differ from burning wood?
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Lesson #2 What is Coal?
A 300 million year old swamp
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Lesson #2 -- What is Coal?
Exploration: Dissecting Coal
Materials Needed: Coal and other carbonaceous rock samples; Rock
Hammer, hand lens.
1. What is a fossil fuel?
2. What is coal?
3. Make observation of a hand sample of coal and fill in the following
data table. Break the coal apart & observe with a hand lens or under a
binocular microscope.
Property
Smell
Description
Color
Physical properties
Density
Material present
4. Explain how coal forms.
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Concept Introduction:
Photosynthesis, pyrite, sulfur, carbon, Coal, lignite, plant, peat, decay,
biodegradation, anaerobic, aerobic, pressure, temperature, time,
Bituminous coal, fossil fuel, swamp, carbon dioxide, methane, water
Applications—Making Coal (Adapted from the American Coal
Foundation) http://www.teachcoal.org/lessonplans/coal_formation.html
Materials Needed:
• plastic 2-liter soda bottle
• plastic wrap
• sand
•
•
leaves, other organic
matter
mud
Time: 6 weeks to complete the experiment
1. Cut the top off a plastic 2-liter soda bottle and line the bottom with
plastic wrap. Place 4 inches of sand at the bottom of the bottle. Cover
the sand with 2 inches of leaves and other plant matter. Submerge the
entire collection until it is covered by 2 inches of water.
2. Make observations of what the experiment looks like and note
texture, color, and water height. What do you think will happen? Make
a hypothesis of the changes that will occur.
3. Observe all the components in the container over a period of 2
weeks. Keep a record of your changes.
4. After 2 weeks, use a sifter to cover the plants with 2 inches of silt
and mud.
5. After a month, pour off the remaining water and let the experiment
dry thoroughly over 2 weeks.
4. Remove the formation from the container. Dissect and describe
what you see.
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Lesson #3 Plant – Gas interaction
http://science.exeter.edu/jekstrom/WEB/CELLS/Elodea/Elodea.html
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Lesson #3 Plant – Gas interaction
Materials Needed:
• Foil
• 2 Elodea (water plants)
• Lamp plugged into
(Also called Anacharis)
electricity
• Bromthymol Blue (BTB)
• Baking soda
• Dissolved oxygen test kit
• Drinking straws
• 4 Test tubes
• phenolphthalein
• Oxygen test kit
Exploration
1. Let’s look at testing gases in water. Place Bromthymol Blue (BTB) in
solution in a beaker. Take the straw and blow into the blue-colored
water. What happened to the water? Why?
2. Explain respiration.
3. Place one Elodea plant into a 200 ml test tube filled to the top with
tap water. Label the outside “#1”, it will be the “control” that has
nothing changed in its environment. Place a second Elodea plant into
another 200ml test tube and mark that #2 and fill it to the top with
tap water with a few drops of phenolphthalein until the water turns
light pink. Wrap the test tubes in foil and set the test tube aside. After
about an hour describe what the test tube looks like. (This experiment
can also be done with BTB).
4. Place one Elodea plant into a 200 ml test tube filled to the top with
tap water. Label the outside “#3”, it will be the “control” that has
nothing changed in its environment. Place a second Elodea plant into
another 200ml test tube and mark that #4 and fill it to the top with
tap water with dissolved baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
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Observe what happens to the plants in the water. Describe what you
see.
•
What will happen if you move the #4 Elodea test tube very close
to the light source? Make a prediction.
•
Describe what happened.
(Finish Item #3)
5. Determine the amount of dissolved oxygen in test tubes
• Take the oxygen test kit and measure the difference in dissolved
oxygen in test tubes #1 and #3
Sample
number
Test
tube #1
Test
tube #3
•
Number Concentration Temperature Oxygen
of
mg/L or
saturation
drops
ppm?
Analyze the results and relate them to photosynthesis.
6. Determine the amount of oxygen saturation from the following
nomogram.
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Interpreting the Oxygen Saturation
125% > - too high for many species to survive
124% - excellent for most fish
79% - satisfactory for most fish
59% < - most species die
7. Contrast photosynthesis and respiration. What factors change the
rate of photosynthesis?
Concept Introduction:
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Plant, respiration, Carbohydrate, glucose, water, carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, transpiration
Basic Photosynthesis Equation:
Light + CO2 + H2O => (CH 2O)n + O2
Exhaust, gas-interchange, diffusion, plant, stomata, chlorophyll, cell,
Application: Observation of Gas Interchange
Materials Needed:
• Leaf of a Wandering Jew Plant (Tradescantia zebrina - synonym
Zebrina pendula)
• Microscope
• Microscope slide
• Halite (table salt in solution)
Leaves Perspire (called transpiration)
Picture of water molecules leaving stomata - side view
http://croptechnology.unl.edu/viewLesson.cgi?min=1&max=8&topic_order=5&LessonID=1092853841
1. What is a stoma? Take a Wandering Jew plant leaf, prepare a thin
slice from the leaf on a microscope slide, and view it under a
microscope. Draw a diagram of what you see. Identify the cells.
2. What is chloroplast? Take an Elodea leaf and look at it under a
microscope. Draw a diagram of what you see. Identify the cells.
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3. Observe the cell when different saline solutions are applied.
Describe what happens.
4. In what part of a plant does the carbon dioxide and water combine
to make food?
5. Where does the by-product of this process leave the plant? What
fuels this process?
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exhaust
carbon dioxide
gas-interchange
transpiration
diffusion
pyrite
plant
sulfur
stomata
carbon
chlorophyll
coal
cell
lignite
diffusion
plant
respiration
peat
carbohydrate
decay
glucose
biodegradation
water
anaerobic
carbon
aerobic
hydrogen
pressure
oxygen
temperature
photosynthesis
time
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bituminous coal
combustion
fossil fuel
gas
swamp
oxidation
methane
fossil fuels
hydrocarbon
energy
Carboniferous
chemical energy
wax
thermal energy
wood
steam
fuel (biomass)
soot
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