Learning Objectives:

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Students will work collaboratively to understand the correlation between CO2 emissions and global temperature rise.  (Collaboration,  Critical Thinking)

 

They will collaboratively calculate how much carbon should be in the atmosphere to hit the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, return to 0.0 degrees Celsius temperature anomaly (based on temperatures in the mid-20th century), and return to pre-industrial levels (c. 1850).  (Collaboration, Problem Solving)

 

Students will then weigh carbon emissions and carbon capture to calculate how much carbon is going into the atmosphere and how much needs to be captured in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and to reduce the greenhouse gas effect back to preindustrial levels to hopefully resolve climate change. (Collaboration, Problem Solving)

 

These mathematical calculations will lay the foundation for their science and engineering projects.    (Interdisciplinary & Cross-Disciplinary Themes, Synthesizing Information)

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Process:

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Start by showing this video.  This will give a student a sense of the how CO2 emissions have changed over time through an animated graph.  Have students work in pairs or groups of 3 to make sense of the graph.  What does the graph show?  How do CO2 emissions today compare to 1979 and pre-industrial levels? 

(10 minutes)

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Then have students look at the graph at the top of this page showing changes in global temperature since 1850.  In their groups, have students identify what the graph communicates and compare this graph with the first graph showing how much carbon is in the atmosphere.  (10 minutes)

 

Have students plot each year into a correlation graph with CO2 emissions on the x-axis and temperature anomaly (in degrees Celsius) on the y-axis.  Have them label the points for years 1850, 1950 and 2019 in the graph.  (30 minutes)

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Students should then use their correlation graph to determine the carbon level targets based on the guidelines for temperature increase or decrease as follows.  Have students calculate the amount of carbon in the atmosphere that would correlate to the Paris Climate Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature anomaly.  Then have students calculate how much carbon needs to be extracted from the atmosphere in order to go back to 0.0 degrees Celsius anomaly (relative to 1950).  And finally, have students calculate how much carbon needs to be extracted from the atmosphere to go back to 1850 levels of carbon in the atmosphere (as close to pre-industrial as there is data for).  (25 minutes)

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Students' calculations will provide a foundation for their work in their science and engineering classes. 

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*This project is for use in an algebra or statistics class.  More advanced students in a calculus class could calculate rates of change and weigh carbon emissions against carbon capture for each target and use integrals to calculate total carbon in the atmosphere based on different models of carbon emission and carbon capture rates. 

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*This project could be completed during a long block (75-90 minutes) or broken up over 2 shorter class periods.  

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See attached rubric for peer review and for assessing the group project.