Friday, January 29, 2010

Grade 3: Carbon Foot Printing and the Importance of Global Citizenship


Description:The choices we make in our homes, our travel, the food we eat, and what we buy and throw away all influence the carbon footprint we leave on our environment. By making more environmentally-friendly choices, we can positively impact our environment on a local, national, and global level ensuring a healthier environment now and for generations to come.
Dates:
Sign up method:Email: jenny_burroughs@caboces.org
Grades:3
Subjects:Technology/Information Science
Outcomes:Students will be able to develop a sense of interconnectedness to the global community, so that when they research carbon foot printing, they will generate solutions to positively impact their local community as well as impacting the global community as a whole.

Students will increase their background knowledge on the topic of carbon foot printing, so that when asked, they will successfully generate and deliver a presentation on the importance of global citizenship, and making smart environmental choices.
Methods and Activities:Key Experiments and Activities:

Dry Ice Experiment (45 min): In this experiment, students will be utilizing the scientific method to ultimately calculate the volume of dry ice that is equal to the quantity of CO2 that is generated each year by a typical American family. Key curricular concepts that will be covered include the phases of matter, density, and a concrete understanding of the measure of one ton of CO2. ( Resources used: BOCES Density Kits)

Completing Carbon Foot printing Calculator Survey (3-5 days): In this phase of the project, students and their families will be completing a survey containing general questions regarding their eating habits, travel, and the disposal of waste. Students will then be inputting this data, into an online survey which calculates the amount of CO2 (in tons) generated in a year by each family. Key curricular concepts that will be covered include: surveying, data collection, graphing, measurement, citizenship, and pollution.

Global Collaborative Discussion on Research Findings: To sum up this project, students will be using the Distance Learning Lab to communicate with another third grade possibly in China, who will have also completed the dry ice experiment, and carbon foot printing survey. Both classes will engage in a collaborative discussion in which the will report their findings, as well as discuss future goals and objectives based on what they have learned. Key curricular concepts that will be covered may include: critical thinking and problem-solving strategies, a cross-curricular unit on China, as well as summarizing and comprehension strategies.


Jenny Burroughs
jenny_burroughs@caboces.org
716-376-8270
BOCES CATTAR-ALLEGANY-ERIE-WYO