Skip to main content
MIT
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
Educator GuideAugust 19, 2021

Climate Change and Sequestering Carbon Educator Guide

TIL about removing CO2 from the atmosphere: guide for educators
Photo Credit
Luke Palmer via Unsplash

 

This Guide for Educators was developed by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative as an extension of our TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) podcast, to make it easier for you to teach climate change, earth science, and energy topics in the classroom. It is an extension of the TILclimate episode "TIL about removing CO2 from the atmosphere."

Browse all TILclimate guides for educators.

Description

Carbon dioxide is increasing in Earth’s atmosphere as humans burn fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. While technology is being developed that can remove CO2 from the air, it is an engineering challenge. Students model the challenge of carbon capture and graph the historic rise in carbon dioxide as observed at Mauna Loa, Hawai’i.

 

 

SWBAT:
  • Briefly explain some reasons for increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide

  • Understand that carbon capture technology is difficult to develop in part because the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is very low

  • Demonstrate that carbon dioxide has been rising in Earth’s atmosphere since at least the 1950s

Skills:
  • Create and/or interpret data via a line graph
  • Communicate scientific information
Standards:
  • HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL Speaking & Listening

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST Science & Technical Subjects

  • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.ID.A Summarize, represent, and interpret data

Disciplinary core ideas:
  • ESS2.D Weather and Climate

  • ESS3.C Human Impacts on Earth Systems

  • ETS1.A Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem

 

What is included in this Educator Guide
  1. How to use TILclimate Educator Guides (Download)
     
  2. Teacher pages (Download)
    • Includes materials, discussion questions, background resources, and adaptation suggestions for science, social science, and ELA teachers
       
  3. Student pages (Download)
    • Carbon capture hands-on model
    • Discussion questions
    • Math extensions
    • Graphing carbon dioxide (Mauna Loa data)
    • Solutions to climate change

 

Listen to the episode

 

Browse all TILclimate guides for educators
Share
facebook linkedin twitter email compact
by TILclimate Podcast
Topics
Atmosphere
Carbon Capture
Education
Forests
Student Skills
Group Project or Jigsaw
Communication
Data Analysis & Graphing
Read & Discuss
Modeling
Observation
Hands-On

Related Educator Guides

Winter Storms and Climate Change Educator Guide

We know Earth is warming, so why do we still get extreme winter storms? Students learn about albedo, climate, weather, the jet stream, and the polar vortex through hands-on demonstrations, data visualizations, and reading scientific writing.
Get the Guide

Carbon Offsets and Climate Change Educator Guide

Countries, companies and even individuals can pay for carbon offsets to reach “carbon neutral” or “net zero” targets. Students investigate carbon dioxide distribution, what carbon offsets are, the history of the Kyoto Protocol, and how forest health interacts with carbon offset claims.
Get the Guide

Travel and Climate Change Educator Guide

The future of transportation includes multiple modes and ways of thinking about how we get around. Students learn about Complete Streets, tackle urban street design, and design their own transit system for an imaginary city.
Get the Guide

Hydrogen Energy and Climate Change Educator Guide

Hydrogen has the potential to replace fossil fuels in many sectors of the economy. Students learn about how (and where) hydrogen can be produced from renewable energy, how batteries and fuel cells work, and where hydrogen could replace fossil fuels. They are challenged to explain batteries and fuel cells to another audience.
Get the Guide

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
Environmental Solutions Initiative
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge MA 02139-4307
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner