Forest Carbon Sequestration Lessons

Lesson Overview

This sequence of lesson plans is designed to engage students in collecting data and using large data sheets to make claims about changes in regional forests based on data. The Essential Question students are tasked to answer throughout the learning sequence is "How will climate change affect our forests' ability to sequester CO2?"  

Students begin by learning how scientists use their questions to determine what graphs they will use to answer questions, using a dichotomous "Graph Choice Chart". They learn some basics about the carbon cycle and climate change, and then head outside to collect data on trees around your campus to learn about how much carbon might be sequestered locally.  They use the free online "CODAP" data graphing tool to analyze their results. Finally, they use CODAP to explore a "Big" forestry data set describing how forests are expected to change in various climate change scenarios and make conclusions about how climate change might affect the ability of our local forests to sequester carbon. Students wrap up their learning by making a creative product 

Within the larger context of the learning sequence, there are smaller lessons that you may choose to include, omit, or dive deeper into, based on your individual class.  

Recommended Learning Experience Sequence:

1. Choosing the Correct Graph

2. Background Climate Change Content (Carbon Cycle/Greenhouse Effect)

3. Local Field Data Collection

4. Introduction to CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Portal)

5. Interpreting Local Data Using CODAP

6. Exploring Bigger Data Sets

7. Pulling it all Together/Final Project