The Carbon Trail: How Does Carbon Move Around the Earth?
Sim Lesson
Students use The Carbon Trail simulation to trace a carbon atom through reservoirs (air, living things, ocean, rock), noticing that carbon cycles by fast and slow pathways. Lesson Purpose Students often think carbon is used up or created. Following an atom shows that carbon is not destroyed; it cycles among reservoirs, sometimes in years and sometimes over millions of years.
The same carbon atoms have been on Earth for billions of years, moving between the air, living things, the ocean, and rock. How does a single carbon atom travel from one place to another? In this lesson, you will use The Carbon Trail simulation to move a carbon atom between reservoirs and see which paths are fast and which are slow.
Topics and standards: Science, Biology, Environmental Science, Simulation, Ecosystems, Ecosystem Relationships, Carbon Cycle, Earth Systems, Climate & Global Change, Earth System Interactions, SC.8.L.18.3, 7-LS2-1, TEKS Science 8.11.C