Lesson Idea | Climate Change and Cars
Summary
This lesson introduces students to the concepts of climate change and what affects it. By the end of the lesson, students should have a basic understanding of the greenhouse effect, the carbon cycle, global warming, and how transportation can contribute to global warming. Students work together to understand how various forms of transportation have costs and benefits, and which modes of transportation are better for the environment.
This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Engineering Connection
Understanding the negative impact gas-powered cars have on the environment empowers engineers to develop alternative modes of transportation. With the rise of electric vehicles on the market, different engineers who specialize in chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering (and various other disciplines in engineering) can work together to design and develop car materials that are more sustainable and environmentally conscious.
Learning Objectives
After this lesson, students be able to:
• Describe the greenhouse effect.
• Recall the role carbon dioxide plays in the greenhouse effect.
• Recognize how transportation can affect the greenhouse effect.
Educational Standards
NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science
Pre-Req Knowledge
An understanding of the atmosphere, gases, energy, and transportation.
Introduction/Motivation
It is important for us to understand how we can prevent climate change. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that supports life because it traps and releases heat at the same rate, which means that we have just enough heat to sustain life. If we release too much heat, we will become like Mars, not warm enough to sustain life. But if we trap too much heat, we will become like Venus, too hot to sustain life.
A carbon footprint is how much carbon dioxide an individual releases into the atmosphere. As people who live on this planet, our goal should be to reduce our own carbon footprints and push for industrial changes that will slow down global warming. One of the main ways an individual can reduce their carbon footprint is through the transportation they use.
Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers
This lesson introduces students to the concepts of climate change and how cars can contribute to it. Students learn about the basics of the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle. They also learn how transportation affects our atmosphere. Students work together to understand how various forms of transportation have costs and benefits, and which modes of transportation are better for the environment.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in Earth’s atmosphere that trap the heat from the sun. The process of trapping heat from the sun is called the greenhouse effect. A greenhouse is a glass building used to grow plants. It stays warm through all of the seasons because it traps heat from sunlight during the daytime and that trapped heat stays throughout the night, keeping the temperatures in the greenhouse warm enough for plants to grow. Even during the cold of winter! The Earth’s atmosphere functions similar to a greenhouse.
The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn traps more sunlight and warms up the Earth significantly. We are at a point where we are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the Earth can handle.
This is what we call global warming, the gradual increase of Earth’s temperature due to the excessive release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—and this is what is causing our climates to change.
Climate is the overall weather conditions that are expected in a region at a particular time of year. This is different from the weather which we can think of as more of a day-to-day phenomenon. Did it rain today? Is it sunny today? Those are weather conditions and what we describe when we say “what’s the weather like today?” Climate is more long-term: “Antarctica is at the southern pole, so it will be cold all year round. We can expect it to snow there every day because we have seen that for the last 30 years.”
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Lesson Idea | Climate Change and Cars
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