1 Carbon! Nobody knows what it is. Do Now: Card Sorting Activity worksheet Please take a pencil (that you can keep!), worksheet, and a set of cards Feel free to work with your neighbors Example: Potato French Fry

Carbon! Nobody knows what it is. Cindy Valencia California Academy of Sciences Renny Talianchich California Academy of Sciences

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4 Findings and Misconceptions What is carbon? Carbon dioxide is bad air or pollution that comes out of cars. Carbon dioxide is the same as air. Carbon dioxide is a gas, we put gas in our cars. Groups didn’t see the relationship between plants and fossil fuels. A tentative connection was carbon to carbon dioxide.

5 CO 2 into Plants: A Skit 4 groups connected CO 2 to plants. 3 groups connected CO 2 to leaves. Teaching Goals Carbon is in plants. Carbon can come from CO 2. Plants use carbon as a building block.

6 Fossil Fuel Formation Out of the ten groups, only one group made the connection between plants and fossil fuels. Carbon was a mystery to many students. What is carbon? Is it a gas? What does it look like?

7 What happens to the carbon when a plant dies?

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C C C C

10 C C C C C C C C

C C C C C C C C C C

12 Peat Plant Peat Lignite Anthracite

13 Carbon to CO 2 to Climate Change Students think: CO 2 comes from people breathing and driving cars Plants need CO 2, but don’t know how much plants use Climate change will happen in the future Teaching Goals: Sources of CO 2 in the USA Ability of plants to mediate CO 2 in the atmosphere Effects of climate change on San Francisco

14 What does burning fossil fuels do to the carbon? Carbon CO 2 Carbon

Transportation 15 How do Americans contribute to CO 2 in the air? Cars, trucks, buses, planes, trains, boats… Factories, construction, mining, restaurants,... Lights, electricity, heating, hot water… People exhaling CO 2 as they breathe… Businesses Homes Population

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33% Transportation 44% Businesses 21% Homes 2% Population 17

? 18 What absorbs CO 2 from the air? CO 2 Do the plants absorb all the CO 2 ?

19 Do America’s forests absorb all the CO 2 that Americans produce? Homes Transportation Businesses Population 50,552 million tons 18% Forest Uptake 72% Leftover

20 What happens to the extra CO 2 in the air? CO 2 The extra carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere. CO 2

21 When there is more CO 2, what happens to the atmosphere?

22 What does the extra carbon dioxide do? More CO 2 = Fever Less CO 2 = Healthy 100°F 98.6°F58.4°F57°F

23 Does excess CO 2 affect San Francisco? Future Piers closed already (ref?) Now San Francisco Zoo floods 475,000 people in California affected by coastal flooding

24 Energy is a big cause of CO 2 emissions

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26 Survey Non-divisible behaviors. Single step Required to change a person’s behavior Positive reinforcement Unlikely to choose actions that they feel they have no control over or interest in. Understanding what resources are available to students that are essential for doing these behaviors.

27 Thank you!!! PlantsTeacherResourceGuide.pdf 27