Transcript GLOBECarbonCycleIntroduction

GLOBE Carbon Cycle:
Investigating the Carbon Cycle
in Terrestrial Ecosystems
University of New Hampshire: Jennifer Bourgeault,
Rita Freuder, Lara Gengarelly, Mary Martin, Scott
Ollinger, Sarah Sallade, Annette Schloss, Haley
Wicklein
Czech Republic: Jana Albrechtova, Kateřina
Čiháková, Zuzana Lhotakova, Barbora Semeráková,
Premek Stych, Dana Votapkova
GLOBE Program Office: Gary Randolph
The Science Team
Sarah Sallade
Scott Ollinger
Mary Martin
Annette Schloss
Jen Bourgeault
Haley Wicklein
Gary Randolph
Lara Gengarelly
Rita Freuder
Jana Albrechtova
Outline
•The GLOBE Program
•The Carbon Cycle
•Project Goals
•Project Activities
•Project Website
•Promoting Student Inquiry
GLOBE
• Hands-on, school and community-based science and
education program
• Unites students, teachers, and scientists in study and
research about the dynamics of the Earth’s environment.
• Over a million GLOBE students in 18,000 schools located
in over 100 countries have taken part in GLOBE activities.
GLOBE Program Goals:
• Improve science education
• Increase scientific understanding of the Earth as a
system
• Enhance the environmental awareness of individuals
worldwide
Carbon Cycle Project Goals
Students will…
• Learn why carbon is an important element in
ecosystems, and how it cycles through ecosystems.
• Gain skills in current carbon cycle research
techniques.
• Increase their ability to critically think about problems.
• Understand the nature of science research.
Activities
Major Categories:
• Carbon Cycle Introductory
Activities
• Classroom Experiments
• Field Measurements
• Modeling
Systems & Modeling
• Introduces students to the use of models in science
• Applicable to students around the world
• Learn how carbon is stored and transferred at the
ecosystem and global level
• Understand ways that carbon can change with a
change in environmental conditions
• Connection to field collected data
Introductory Activities
• Provide general background information about the
global carbon cycle
• Introduce students to the major fluxes and pools
• Uses systems diagramming to make connections
between cycle components
• Address the concepts of units, residence time,
turnover rate, and issues of scale
Classroom Experiments
• Hands-on activities: range of cultivation experiments
with real plants
• Exploration and validation of variables necessary for
plant growth
• Demonstration that CO2 is incorporated into plant
biomass
• Understand changes in carbon storage at the plant
and ecosystem level
Field Measurements
• Designed similarly to existing GLOBE protocols
• Comparison of measurements between schools
• Allow students to make connections between the
global C cycle and their own schoolyard
• Highlight use of tools and measurement in field
investigations
• Promote the use of GLOBE Model for Student
Scientific Research
http://globecarboncycle.unh.edu
Website & Materials Access
Email:
[email protected]
Curriculum Framing Questions
“What types of questions might guide our teaching and
engage students in uncovering the important ideas at the
heart of each subject?”
Essential Questions:
Why is it important to understand carbon?
How do climate changes affect human lives?
How can we use systems thinking to understand the world?
Curriculum Framing Questions
Unit Questions:
How is carbon an important element in the Earth system?
Does the carbon cycle in land ecosystems relate to climate change?
If climate changes how would you expect vegetation & carbon storage to
change? Globally? Locally?
Can scientists measure the total amount of carbon stored and cycled in
land ecosystems?
How much carbon is stored in vegetation? Locally? Globally?
How does the uptake of carbon by schoolyard vegetation compare to the
emissions of carbon (carbon footprint) by the school?
Is there more carbon stored in the global human population or trees in
New Hampshire?
Curriculum Framing Questions
Content Questions:
Where and how is CO2 stored in a plant?
What is biomass and how is it measured?
How do scientists measure trees?
How is allometry used to calculate forest biomass?
How much carbon is being stored in the trees near my school?
What determines the upper limit of biomass in a given ecosystem?