Climate Simulation Activities: Simulating Changes in the Carbon Cycle

The following simulations come from the Ocean Sciences Sequence for Grades 6–8: The Ocean-Atmosphere Connection and Climate Change. Each simulation is part of a complete activity or series of activities on a particular topic within the curriculum sequence. However, the simulations are intended to stand alone, independent of the curriculum, as well. Below are suggested activities for use with the simulations independent of the curriculum.

To understand the following activity students will need to understand the carbon cycle, carbon flows and carbon reservoirs, and how it is represented in this Interactive Carbon Cycle simulation, all introduced in the previous simulation activity. They also need to understand that human industry is adding carbon flows to the Carbon Cycle, (in particular, increasing carbon flow to the atmosphere), causing the flow of carbon into and out of the atmosphere to be out of balance. In this activity, students simulate actions humans can take that effect carbon flows into and out of reservoirs, and predict how they might bring the flow of carbon into and out of the atmosphere back into balance.