Bushfire and ice
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- model the movement of carbon dioxide through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- record data and graph the amount of time that carbon spends in different parts of its cycle.
- draw a representation of the carbon cycle.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students’ ability to draw graphs of the movement of carbon.
- students’ ability to represent the movement of carbon through Earth's sphere.
Potential summative task
Students working at the achievement standard should:
- explain how interactions within and between Earth's spheres affect the carbon cycle.
- analyse and connect data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships, and anomalies.
- construct logical arguments based on evidence to support conclusions and evaluate claims.
- select and use content, language, and text features effectively to achieve their purpose when communicating their ideas, findings, and arguments to specific audiences.
Refer to the Australian Curriculum content links on the Our design decisions tab for further information.
Whole class
Bushfire and ice Resource PowerPoint
7 dice
1 set of Station cards from the Carbon cycle game Resource sheet
Each group
Sticky notes
Each student
Individual science notebook
Data sheet from Carbon cycle game Resource sheet
Lesson
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRe-orient
Recall the fire triangle from the previous lesson and discuss how it relates to a bushfire.
- What are the reactants in a combustion reaction?
- Fuel and oxygen.
- What else do you need in a combustion reaction?
- Heat.
- What are the products in a combustion reaction?
- Carbon dioxide and water.
- What type of materials are used to fuel a bushfire?
- Dried leaves and grasses, fine bark most commonly.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkWhere does the carbon dioxide go?
(Slide 28-29) Discuss the 2020 bushfire shown in the photo from the European Space Agency and remind students of what occurs during a combustion reaction.
- What makes up the smoke shown in the picture?
- Carbon dioxide, water, and small particulate matter—often containing carbon.
- What is carbon?
- An element, single type of atom.
- What does carbon look like?
- What molecules in the process of combustion of fuel contain carbon?
Pose the question: Where does the carbon and carbon dioxide go?
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkCarbon cycle game
(Slide 30) Introduce the Carbon cycle game.
Discuss how carbon is an essential element in many different molecules. Provide examples of the types of molecules that contain carbon.
- What types of molecules might contain carbon?
- Carbon dioxide, DNA, enzymes, methane (all organic molecules).
- Where do we find carbon dioxide?
- The atmosphere.
- Where else might we find carbon?
- Students may identify rocks and living things.
(Slide 31) Discuss how scientists group together different parts of Earth into systems called spheres, including the atmosphere (air), geosphere (mantle, earth, soil and rocks), hydrosphere (water), and biosphere (living things).
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Record the definition and examples of geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
- Why do you think we include all the air around the Earth under the one term ‘atmosphere’?
- So all scientists use the same term, and can understand each other's research. What happens in the atmosphere over one country, also affects other countries.
- What term could we use to group all the water on the Earth?
- Hydrosphere.
- What other groups could we use? Other than air and water, what other things do we need to consider?
- Geosphere: all the mantle, earth, soil, and rocks. Biosphere: all living things.
- Is carbon found in all these spheres? What type of carbon-containing molecules might be found in each of these spheres?
- Atmosphere: carbon dioxide.
- Geosphere: calcium carbonate in limestone and marble, coal, and fossil fuels.
- Hydrosphere: dissolved carbon dioxide and other molecules.
- Biosphere: DNA, glucose, and enzymes.
Provide students with the Carbon cycle game Resource sheet and explain that they will role-play as carbon atoms travelling through the carbon cycle. Show the students the station cards that are placed at different points (with the dice) in the room.
Divide the class into seven equal groups and assign them to one of the seven carbon locations. Encourage students to read the cards and identify the different parts of the room that they could move to next.
Each student should line up to take their turn to roll the dice and move to another part of the carbon cycle, recording their movements after each toss.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Record your movements as a carbon atom on the Carbon cycle game Resource sheet.
The carbon cycle
The carbon cycle can be described as both a slow cycle and a fast cycle.
Carbon is the fourth most common element in the universe. Most of the carbon on Earth is stored in the rocks, soil, and fossil fuels of the geosphere, while the rest cycles through the hydrosphere (ocean), and biosphere (animals and plants). The carbon cycle can be described as both a slow cycle and a fast cycle.
The slow carbon cycle can take hundreds of thousands of years and describes the movement of carbon between the geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. 50 million years ago, the uplift of the Himalayan mountains exposed a fresh source of carbon in the rocks. Water in the atmosphere can combine with carbon dioxide forming weak carbonic acid. The acid chemically weathers the rock, releasing ions such as calcium, magnesium, and sodium. The calcium ions form calcium carbonate that sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This, together with the shells of dead ocean organisms and corals are cemented together into sedimentary rocks such as limestone. Organic carbon can become part of this cycle through dead matter being trapped in layers of mud and forming fossil fuels. Volcanoes can return carbon to the atmosphere through gas vents and eruptions. Many components of the slow carbon cycle are called carbon sinks because they can store carbon for a long time.
The fast carbon cycle describes how the carbon cycle moves within the time of a single human lifespan. Carbon is one of the main components of the complex organic molecules found in the biosphere. When these complex molecules are broken down into simpler molecules, energy is usually released. This makes the complex carbon molecules a good way to store energy. This process of using carbon dioxide and water to produce carbon-based sugar (glucose) occurs through photosynthesis in plants and phytoplankton (microscopic organisms found in the ocean). The carbon is released when animals eat the plants or phytoplankton and use the chemical reaction of aerobic respiration to break down the carbon-based sugar to produce carbon dioxide and water. If plants are allowed to grow, they can become a carbon sink and store carbon for longer than our lifetime.
The combustion of fossil fuels causes the fast release of carbon in the slow carbon cycle. This has had an impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Carbon is the fourth most common element in the universe. Most of the carbon on Earth is stored in the rocks, soil, and fossil fuels of the geosphere, while the rest cycles through the hydrosphere (ocean), and biosphere (animals and plants). The carbon cycle can be described as both a slow cycle and a fast cycle.
The slow carbon cycle can take hundreds of thousands of years and describes the movement of carbon between the geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. 50 million years ago, the uplift of the Himalayan mountains exposed a fresh source of carbon in the rocks. Water in the atmosphere can combine with carbon dioxide forming weak carbonic acid. The acid chemically weathers the rock, releasing ions such as calcium, magnesium, and sodium. The calcium ions form calcium carbonate that sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This, together with the shells of dead ocean organisms and corals are cemented together into sedimentary rocks such as limestone. Organic carbon can become part of this cycle through dead matter being trapped in layers of mud and forming fossil fuels. Volcanoes can return carbon to the atmosphere through gas vents and eruptions. Many components of the slow carbon cycle are called carbon sinks because they can store carbon for a long time.
The fast carbon cycle describes how the carbon cycle moves within the time of a single human lifespan. Carbon is one of the main components of the complex organic molecules found in the biosphere. When these complex molecules are broken down into simpler molecules, energy is usually released. This makes the complex carbon molecules a good way to store energy. This process of using carbon dioxide and water to produce carbon-based sugar (glucose) occurs through photosynthesis in plants and phytoplankton (microscopic organisms found in the ocean). The carbon is released when animals eat the plants or phytoplankton and use the chemical reaction of aerobic respiration to break down the carbon-based sugar to produce carbon dioxide and water. If plants are allowed to grow, they can become a carbon sink and store carbon for longer than our lifetime.
The combustion of fossil fuels causes the fast release of carbon in the slow carbon cycle. This has had an impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRepresenting the carbon cycle
(Slide 32) Discuss how the different parts of the carbon cycle move at different speeds.
- Did anyone become ‘stuck’ at any part of the carbon cycle?
- These are called carbon sinks.
- Did some parts of the carbon cycle move faster than others?
- Fast cycling occurs within and between the biosphere (plants-animals) and the atmosphere (respiration and decay).
- Did some parts of the carbon cycle move slower than other parts?
- There is slow cycling between the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere (carbon becomes trapped in the hydrosphere and geosphere).
- How effective would this model be in predicting the levels of carbon in the different spheres?
- Very limited as only a small number of carbon atoms are moving over a short time.
- What are some of the limitations of using modelling to test a science concept?
- It doesn’t always show everything. The nature of a model is for it to be limited to our current understanding. Models become more complex as our understanding grows.
- How could a more accurate model be made?
- Collect a large amount of data on the levels of carbon in different locations change over long lengths of time. Use a computer to analyse the data and generate a model.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Draw a column graph of the amount of time (number of turns) you spent in each sphere, to show the slow and fast sections of the carbon cycle.
- Where does the graph suggest most carbon spent their time?
- How long does it take for a rock to break down?
- Do you think this is reflected in the length of time the carbon spends in the geosphere?
- How could the carbon in the geosphere be released faster?
- Through combustion of fossil fuels.
- What have you heard about carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere? (Revisit this in lesson 4.)
- How could we support long-term storage of carbon?
(Slide 33) Discuss how this graph and the carbon cycle can be represented in a diagram that shows the movement of carbon.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Draw a carbon cycle diagram. Revisit each of the stations from the carbon cycle game if required.
Create a gallery walk where students walk around and examine each other’s carbon cycle. Encourage them to identify key things that they think are an effective way to communicate. Sticky notes can be used to make notes on ways to improve on their diagrams.
Discuss key features in different diagrams that illustrate how carbon moves through the different spheres.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Make any changes to your diagrams.
Optional: Watch the video Real world: The carbon cycle – Essential for life (5:43).
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- use the carbon cycle diagrams to identify ways to:
- encourage carbon to enter the slow part of the carbon cycle.
- reduce the release of carbon from the slow carbon cycle.
- identify current carbon capture systems that are being used.
Gallery walk
What is a gallery walk?
The role of students in a gallery walk is that of a critical audience. They move around the classroom like they are in an art gallery, in silence or whispering with a partner. The purpose of this activity is for them to notice how similar or different others’ work is to their own.
As students view and read others’ representations, they record relevant comments and questions about the science onto a sticky note, which they put on the posters.
A teacher's role is to encourage students to take their time to read the work of the other students. If students are writing comments, remind them to be respectful. Students should include positive comments as well as ask questions about things not covered or displayed. Students may use the sentence stems “I like…” and “I wonder if…”. They should sign their comments to show ownership of them, as members of their class science community.
The role of students in a gallery walk is that of a critical audience. They move around the classroom like they are in an art gallery, in silence or whispering with a partner. The purpose of this activity is for them to notice how similar or different others’ work is to their own.
As students view and read others’ representations, they record relevant comments and questions about the science onto a sticky note, which they put on the posters.
A teacher's role is to encourage students to take their time to read the work of the other students. If students are writing comments, remind them to be respectful. Students should include positive comments as well as ask questions about things not covered or displayed. Students may use the sentence stems “I like…” and “I wonder if…”. They should sign their comments to show ownership of them, as members of their class science community.
Linking the carbon cycle to Earth’s spheres
The Earth’s spheres can be emphasised through the use of colour.
When students are making links between the different parts of the carbon cycle, different colours can be used to identify the way the Earth’s spheres interact. In this example, the atmosphere is represented in black, the geosphere in red, the hydrosphere in blue, and the biosphere in green.
When students are making links between the different parts of the carbon cycle, different colours can be used to identify the way the Earth’s spheres interact. In this example, the atmosphere is represented in black, the geosphere in red, the hydrosphere in blue, and the biosphere in green.