Lessons and Activities on the Carbon Cycle

This section is rather brief, as we assume middle school students have already been introduced to the carbon cycle. The resources here allow for efficient reviews of the cycle's highlights before moving on to the more complex environmental issues affecting the carbon cycle balance.

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What Is the Carbon Cycle? http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_4_2_15t.htm

Students articulate and illustrate their conceptions of the movement of a carbon atom on earth. After some class discussion and exposure to more sophisticated representations of the carbon cycle, students modify their own. MSP full record

Observe an Animation Showing Evidence of the Carbon Cycle http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/ visualizations/es0106/es0106page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

In this visual resource, students are presented with an animation and accompanying text that focus on carbon and plants. The text addresses how plants fit into the larger carbon cycle, including how carbon enters and leaves the biosphere, and it explains what students are viewing in the animation. The animation shows false color images on a flat map of the world. When the viewer clicks on the image (or the play button), the animation plays, and color patterns reveal changes in plant growth on land and water over a three-year period. Movie controls allow students to pause the animation, to replay the animation, or to move backward or forward through the images one month at a time. MSP full record

The Cell Story: Acting Out the Functions of Organelles http://csip.cornell.edu/Curriculum_Resources/CSIP/Olsson/Olsson_Cells.asp

This role-playing activity can be modified to focus only on respiration and photosynthesis to highlight the chemical changes carbon goes through, and how carbon is cycled back and forth between these two processes. In a single class period, students act out the roles of cell organelles in a play focused on cellular respiration and protein synthesis. The teacher's guide contains learning objectives, a procedure that includes the scenarios students are asked to perform, and assessment ideas. On their worksheet, students describe their character (organelle) and answer reflection questions about the play. A Cornell Science Inquiry Partnerships Fellow created and piloted this activity. MSP full record

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Copyright July 2007 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.