In this unit, students are able to evaluate their own carbon footprint and plan ways to be better stewards of our Earth. Students are encouraged to use their voices and choices to make a positive difference in one of the biggest issues of the generation.
Power standard: Explain ways humans impact biodiversity, harming humans, and evaluate solutions.
State standard: 7.MS-LS2-6(MA). Explain how changes to the biodiversity of an ecosystem—the variety of species found in the ecosystem—may limit the availability of resources humans use.
7.MS-LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for protecting an ecosystem. Discuss benefits and limitations of each design.
How can we be better stewards of our environment?
What are ways individuals and communities can lower their carbon footprint?
Greenhouse effect: The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is one of the things that makes Earth a comfortable place to live.
Climate: is the typical weather in an area over a long period of time
Climate Change: Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time. NASA scientists have observed Earth’s surface is warming, and many of the warmest years on record have happened in the past 20 years.
Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem that is under threat from changes to climate.
Fossil fuel: Oil, coal, and natural gas come from the chemical remains of prehistoric plants and animals. When fossil fuels burn, we mostly get three things: heat, water, and CO2. We also get some solid forms of carbon, like soot and grease.
Carbon footprint: The amount of carbon from fossil fuel use you use from daily activities and habits. All that carbon stored in all those plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years is getting pumped back into the atmosphere over just one or two hundred years.
Ocean acidification: Ocean acidification is a change in the properties of ocean water that can be harmful for plants and animals. Scientists have observed that the ocean is becoming more acidic as its water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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