Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom - Windows to the Universe
12/30/15, 11:36 AM
Brought to you by the National Earth Science Teachers Association
Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom
Summary: Through an online game, students learn how carbon cycles
through Earth system.
Source: A Windows to the Universe Activity developed by Lisa
Gardiner and Julia Genyuk
Grade level: grades 4-9
Time: 20 minutes class time (in computer lab) plus optional
assessments
Student
Learning
Outcomes:
Materials:
The Carbon
Cycle Game
(online
interactive
activity)
Computer lab
with Internet
access for
students to
play game
Flash player
installed on
computers
Students understand that carbon cycles naturally
through living and non-living parts of the Earth system
in a complex and non-linear way.
Students understand that burning fossil fuels adds
carbon to the cycle.
Students understand the impact of additional carbon
dioxide on global warming.
Students will learn that carbon is essential for living
Purchase
things.
PDF/PPT
versions
Lesson Computer interactive plus various optional writing/drawing
format: assessments
National
Standards
Addressed:
5-8: Content Standard B: Properties and Changes of
Properties in Matter
5-8: Content Standard C: Populations and Ecosystems
http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/teach_carbongame.html
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Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom - Windows to the Universe
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5-8: Content Standard D: Properties of Earth materials
5-8: Content Standard F: Science in Personal and
Social Perspectives
DIRECTIONS:
1. Have students read the Windows to the Universe page entitled The Carbon Cycle.
2. Introduction: Ask students to (based of the reading) list the places where carbon is found on
Earth. As a class, brainstorm why carbon is important and why carbon is sometimes
hazardous.
3. Tell students that for this online interactive game, they are all playing the role of carbon
atoms. They will travel through the carbon cycle. If you are going to have students do one or
more of the assessment items listed below, tell students to take notes about where they
traveled during the game.
4. Post-game discussion questions:
How many stops can you make on your trip?
Will your journey ever end?
Was everyone’s journey the same? Why not?
What would happen if we burned more fossil fuels?
ASSESSMENT:
Students write a paragraph about their trip through the carbon cycle. Include information
about (1) where they went, and (2) how they got to each destination.
Students create a "map" documenting their journey through the carbon cycle.
EXTENSIONS:
Classroom Activity: Carbon Dioxide Sources and Sinks
Classroom Activity: Traveling Nitrogen Game
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Carbon is the 6th element in the periodic table. It is able to combine with a large variety of other
elements and as such it is found in some very different places within the Earth system. Living
things, including plants and animals, are made of carbon and the depend of carbon for nutrition.
Carbon is also an important component in bones, sea shells, and chemical sedimentary rocks like
limestone. Carbon can dissolve in water. In the atmosphere, carbon forms a greenhouse gas called
carbon dioxide. Carbon continually moves through these parts of the Earth system. This is called
the carbon cycle.
The carbon cycle is one of the biogeochemical cycles. Other biogeochemical cycles include the water
cycle and the nitrogen cycle. In biogeochemical cycles, elements are transported between the
http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/teach_carbongame.html
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Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom - Windows to the Universe
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atmosphere, biosphere (living things), hydrosphere (water) and geosphere (rocks, minerals, and
soils). Thus, these cycles are excellent examples for teaching about Earth as a system. The basic
construction of these cycles allows middle school students to explore the connections between living
and non-living parts of the Earth system. Please note that in-depth understanding of these cycles
will require understanding of chemistry and is more appropriate at the high school level.
The six locations along the online game board "map" (atmosphere, plants, soils, shallow ocean,
deep ocean, and marine life) are called carbon reservoirs or carbon pools. These are places where
carbon is stored in the cycle. You may wish to review the characteristics of these six items before
students begin playing the game. Links to Windows to the Universe content pages about these areas
are provided within the game and are also provided in the list below.
In this interactive game, students assume the identify of carbon atoms that are released into the
atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. It is important to review with students that all carbon,
even the carbon that is sequestered deep underground in limestone rocks, coal, and fossil fuels, is
part of the carbon cycle. These reservoirs, often known as deep carbon sinks, remove carbon from
circulation through other parts of the carbon cycle for such long amounts of time that they are
sometimes considered an extension of the carbon cycle called the "slow carbon cycle". For
simplicity, the deep carbon sinks have been omitted from this interactive, however they are a very
important part of the long-term cycle. While it may only take your students 10-20 minutes to
complete their journey as a carbon atom through this interactive game, it can take actual carbon
atoms millions of years to make it to all the reservoirs in the carbon cycle.
RELATED SECTIONS OF THE WINDOWS TO THE UNIVERSE WEBSITE:
Carbon and the Carbon Cycle
The Carbon Cycle
The Carbon Cycle Changes
Carbon Dioxide
What Is "Carbon Neutral"?
Climate and Climate Change
Effects of Climate Change
Earth's Greenhouse Gases
The Greenhouse Effect
Climate and Global Change
Carbon Reservoirs
Plants and Photosynthesis and Respiration
Earth's Atmosphere
Oceans and Seas
Deep Waters of the Ocean
Marine Life
OTHER RESOURCES:
http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/teach_carbongame.html
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Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom - Windows to the Universe
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Carbon Calculator
NCAR Kids' Crossing: Living in the Greenhouse
Kids' Crossing in the Classroom: A Guide for Educators
UCAR: Our Research
Project LEARN
Climate Discovery Teacher's Guide
Last modified November 6, 2006 by Lisa Gardiner.
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The Carbon Cycle - Windows to the Universe
12/30/15, 11:37 AM
Brought to you by the National Earth Science Teachers Association
This drawing shows the carbon cycle.
Click on image for full size
NCAR
The Carbon Cycle
Carbon is an element. It is part of oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living things. Carbon doesn’t stay in
one place. It is always on the move!
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.
In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). With the
help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air
to make plant food from carbon.
Carbon moves from plants to animals.
Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eat them. Animals
that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.
http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/co2_cycle.html
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The Carbon Cycle - Windows to the Universe
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Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground.
When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon into
the ground. Some become buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions
and millions of years.
Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.
Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere.
Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned.
When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the
carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion
tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. That’s the weight of 100 million adult
African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels, 3.3 billion tons
enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.
The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other
greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there
is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago. The
atmosphere has not held this much carbon for at least 420,000 years according to data from ice
cores. More greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are causing our planet to
become warmer.
Carbon moves through our planet over longer time scales as well. For example, over millions of
years weathering of rocks on land can add carbon to surface water which eventually runs off to the
ocean. Over long time scales, carbon is removed from seawater when the shells and bones of marine
animals and plankton collect on the sea floor. These shells and bones are made of limestone, which
contains carbon. When they are deposited on the sea floor, carbon is stored from the rest of the
carbon cycle for some amount of time. The amount of limestone deposited in the ocean depends
somewhat on the amount of warm, tropical, shallow oceans on the planet because this is where
prolific limestone-producing organisms such as corals live. The carbon can be released back to the
atmosphere if the limestone melts or is metamorphosed in a subduction zone.
You can get your own minerals and fossils, as well as publications including issues of the
National Earth Science Teachers Association Journal, The Earth Scientist, on rocks and
minerals (Fall 2010), the ocean (Spring 2010), and Earth System science (Winter 2009) in our
online store!
Last modified November 7, 2010 by Roberta Johnson.
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The Carbon Cycle - Windows to the Universe
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The Spring 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, focuses on the ocean, including articles on polar
research, coral reefs, ocean acidification, and climate. Includes a gorgeous full color poster!
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The Carbon Cycle - Windows to the Universe
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