Your Family's Carbon Footprint

Activities for Conceptualizing Climate and Climate Change, Perdue University

Students investigate how much greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide and methane) their family releases into the atmosphere each year and relate it to climate change. To address this, students use the Environmental Protection Agency Personal Emissions Calculator to estimate their family's greenhouse gas emissions and to think about how their family could reduce those emissions.

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Educators might want to provide students with a parent letter explaining the lesson, since parents have to help students with determining the amount of electricity and water usage in their home. The students also complete the class carbon footprint. This may address equity issues - educator might have to adjust the discussion accordingly.
Students use the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) carbon calculator to calculate their family's greenhouse gas emissions. This calculator is credible and constantly updated. The greenhouse gas calculator, like many that exist, is too much like a black box and educator should stress these uncertainties and show students some exemplary calculations. In this activity, students use simple statistics to describe their results.This guides students to understand statistical concepts like mean, median, and mode. Comment from expert scientist: The activity lists nitrous oxide as a greenhouse gas, which it is, but then it gives the chemical formula as NOx when nitrous oxide is N2O. NOx nitrogen oxides are an important component of urban pollution but do not themselves really contribute to the greenhouse effect. Nitrous oxide also seems to not belong in this activity since the primary emissions of N2O are from industrial farming and fertilizer, which is not really controlled on an individual level and is not accounted for in the activity as far as I can tell. In addition, nitrous oxide is only a single compound, and it shouldn't be used in the plural form.
Students use class data to plot and analyze a graph of greenhouse gas emissions averaged for the entire class. The activity is nicely organized and has an attractive format that will engage students. The students develop strategies for reducing their family carbon footprint. All necessary data sheets are included in the lesson for student use. The worksheet exercise is very long.