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

Scott OllingerSarah Sallade

Rita Freuder

Mary Martin

Jana AlbrechtovaLara GengarellyGary Randolph

Annette Schloss

Haley Wicklein

Jen Bourgeault

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

Website & Materials Access

http://globecarboncycle.unh.edu

Email: info@globecarboncycle.unh.edu

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?

“What types of questions might guide our teaching and engage students in uncovering the important ideas at the heart of each subject?”

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?

Curriculum Framing Questions