CARBON CYC

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FOSSIL

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MAIN IDEAS

Carbon Cycle: How carbon moves through Earth. Photosynthesis and respiration are part of the Carbon Cycle.

Fossil Fuels: Dead Plants and Animals decomposed and covered in layers of mud, over time it turned into coal, oil, and natural gases.

Global Warming: The sun heats the Earth and the greenhouse gases traps some of the heat. All of the pollution increases the greenhouse gases, trapping even more heat.

Climate Change: When Earth warms glaciers will melt, there will be more forest fires and big droughts all over the world. Lack of plants will cause more CO2.

Air Pollution: Car engines, power plants, etc., pollute the air with CO2, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide. Air pollution affects our health and leads to Global Warming.

VOCABULARY

Carbon Cycle: Flow of carbon between living and nonliving systems on Earth, essential for sustaining life.

Photosynthesis: A process in which living organisms use sunlight energy to make carbohydrates from Carbon Dioxide and water producing Oxygen as a bi-product.

Natural Gas: Fossil fuel; gas is made millions of years ago from the bodies of dead plants and animals.

Fossil: Any remains trace or impression of past life on Earth.

Fossil Fuels: Non renewable energy source formed over Geologic time from the compression and decomposition of organisms that lived millions of years ago.

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER

The Sun makes the plants grow. The plants feed the animals and make

oxygen and CO2. The plants and animals die, and over time make

fossil fuels. We use the Fossil fuels as every day energy that pollutes the

Earth increasing Greenhouse Gases causing Global Warming and Climate

Change.

EXPERIMENT

We tested which material burns the best.

Hypothesis: If we burn the cotton, then it will burn the best out of all the materials.

We burned Charcoal, Wood, and Cotton. The Charcoal smoked but did not burn. The Wood caught fire, burned and the flame went out fast. The Cotton kept burning even after it wasn’t over flame.

Conclusion: We proved our Hypothesis correct. The Cotton did burn the best out of all three materials.

GLOBAL LEVELS OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Where do Fossil Fuels come from?

Dead Plants, and animals compressed over millions of years to form coal, oil, and other natural gases.

2. What keeps Earth warm?

Greenhouse Gases!

3. What is Photosynthesis part of?

Carbon Cycle.

SOURCES

1. Gareth Stevens Critical Issues. What if We Do Nothing? Fossil Fuels. Page 6. Gareth Stevens Publishing. 2009.

2. Gareth Stevens Critical Issues. What if We Do Nothing? Fossil Fuels. Page 7. Gareth Stevens Publishing. 2009.

3. Gareth Stevens Critical Issues. What if We Do Nothing? Fossil Fuels. Page 24. Gareth Stevens Publishing. 2009.

4. Gareth Stevens Critical Issues. What if We Do Nothing? Fossil Fuels. Page 26. Gareth Stevens Publishing. 2009.

5. Michael J. Padilla. Science Explorer Environmental Science. Page 146. Prentice Hall. 2000.