FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT US AT connect@space.rice.edu Funded by NASA as part of the Earth Science Information Partners   Activity 7: Temperature vs. Carbon Dioxide Level: Grade 7-8. Also includes a more advanced version for older (Algebra 1 or Science) students Learning Objective: Students will graph Carbon Dioxide levels against Temperature change to see the trend of one against the other, using actual ice core data. Specific Science Content Standards Changes in earth and sky Structure and evolution of an earth system's history Risks and benefits Geography: how to apply geography to analyze the past Specific Mathematics Content Standards Variables and data Plotting and graphing Fitting to straight lines (extended version: correlations, logarithms, exponential functions) Earth Update: Atmosphere Introducing the activity: Tell students that ice cores can help us learn not only the temperature of the Earth in times past, but also the amount of Carbon Dioxide trapped in the air bubbles in the ice. This activity uses as source data a plot of each versus time, and asks the students to plot one variable (the Temperature) versus the other variable (the Carbon Dioxide content). Students can fit the data to a line y = mx + b to see how changes in Temperature and related to changes in Carbon Dioxide. The extended version has actual data tables to plot, and a discussion of exponential functions (Earth population) Activity 7: Temperature vs. Carbon Dioxide Activity 7A: the Algebra of Earth Science You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this activity. To download, click on the link below. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Last Update: December 12, 2001