| Time needed for the activity: | approx 30 minutes |
| Students profile/age of the student: | 6-12 years old |
| Climate change topic | Plantlife and Climate Change |
| Connected subject in the curriculum | Science, Biology, Geography, Chemistry |
| Skills and competencies to be developed | critical thinking, content knowledge, teamwork, listening skills, decision making… |
| Terminology, keywords | Plants, Climate change, CO2, Food quality, Greenhouse |
| Teaching techniques and tools: | Warm-up activities, brainstorming, role games, case study |
| Methodological recommendations for the implementation | Additional notes useful to the teachers – Be simple when you communicate about Climate change/Topic – Be more interactive with pupils – Use different examples and activities to make the lessons more creative and motivational |
| Materials needed: | – Video-projector, – info-graphics, – paper, – stick it notes, – pens |
| Materials offered | Source: https://downloads.globalchange.gov/toolkit/Carbon_Cycle_A1%20_6.9.09.pdf Additional links: https://climatekids.nasa.gov/carbon/ |
Activity description, instructions for teachers
The students have heard about global warming, but most do not yet have the chemical background to understand what is happening.
The story of Democritus’ definition of the atom can be used to set a basic understanding. Using cheese as a prop as you talk will maintain the student’s curiosity. The story, in brief, is as follows: Democritus stated that if you take a piece of cheese and cut it in half, you still have cheese. If you take that half and cut it again, the smaller piece is still cheese. If you take that tiny piece and cut it again the tinier piece is still cheese. If you could continue cutting the cheese into tinier and tinier pieces you would eventually come down to the most basic of all particles that still have all the qualities of cheese. Democritus called that fundamental particle the atom.
The whole activity you will find in the link provided at the Source.
| Source: | https://downloads.globalchange.gov/toolkit/Carbon_Cycle_A1%20_6.9.09.pdf |
| Additional Source: | https://climatekids.nasa.gov/carbon/ |