Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What is carbon capture?

20 minutes

Find Out: What effect does carbon capture have on the carbon cycle?

25 minutes

Take Action: How is carbon capture being used to transition to a net zero economy?

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What is carbon capture?

Step 1.

Show your students the image of the simplified carbon cycle on the attached visual explainer. If you completed Lesson 1, your students will have seen this diagram and learned about the carbon cycle and the human impacts on it. If you haven’t completed this lesson, give students an overview of the carbon cycle by watching this video:

The Carbon Cycle - Ted-Ed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4cPmHGegKI)

source: https://www.sciencefacts.net/carbon-cycle.html

Step 2.

Pose the following design task to students either individually or in groups:

‘If in the future we are still emitting carbon dioxide as a part of fossil fuel combustion, what could we do to try and balance the carbon in the cycle and remove it from the atmosphere?’

Encourage students to think big to design an idea that would take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and return it to another part of the cycle. Encourage them to focus on the parts of the cycle that use/store carbon and the parts that emit it.

Students could draw their design, write it out or anything else they can think of!

Step 3.

Encourage students to share their designs with their class, explaining what their design is, why they think it will work and if there will be any adverse impacts. They might have already heard of terms such as carbon capture, carbon farming and carbon sequestration but might not know the specifics.

Find Out: What effect does carbon capture have on the carbon cycle?

Step 1.

Explain to students that there are ways that actually use their ideas to remove carbon from the atmosphere. These ideas are broadly called carbon capture or carbon sequestration.

Some of these technologies aim to capture carbon at the source where it is being emitted, such as at this geothermal energy plant in Iceland where carbon dioxide is released but is captured and turned into stone (even though it is a renewable energy technology, it still results in some emissions).

Iceland keeps its carbon underground - But how? - Energy Live News (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey88j_GO23k)

Other techniques include carbon farming, which is the process of changing agricultural practices or land use to increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil and vegetation (sequestration) or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, soil or vegetation (avoidance). This can include a lot of different processes. Watch the video below with your students to learn a little more about carbon farming:

Carbon Farming A Climate Change Solution - The Carbon Farm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDKSh1oTrsU)

This video explaining carbon farming is also useful if you want your students to look into a few more ways it can be done:

What is Carbon Farming? Why is Carbon Farming important?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_wBYKXqKs )

Step 2.

Discuss with students their learning from the videos they have seen by using the following prompts:

How close were their ideas to the real applications?
What did they learn that they didn’t know before?
What gives them hope for the future?
What worries them about the future?

Step 3.

Explain to students that while the ideas above may seem ideal to reverse/halt the damage that’s been done, it is not a quick or easy process. For example, there are projects like the Chevron Gorgon gas plant, where the implementation has been costly and hasn’t resulted in adequate storage (and there are more examples like this). However, there are still lots of practices that are being used and trialled to store what carbon we can. A lot of this sequestering (to separate and store) can be done in agricultural and land management applications, which is what we will focus on in this lesson.

If you’re looking for an extension opportunity students can investigate this issue further using the case study on Chevron Gorgon in the teacher content information.

Step 4.

Provide students with the link to the Million Jobs Plan. This plan was created by Beyond Zero Emissions and identifies key sectors across our economy where strategic investment over the next 5 years will have the most impact on climate change, our transition to a net zero economy, and the creation of the most jobs.

Divide students into groups of 2-3 and allocate each group a topic within the land use section of the plan. You might like to assign more groups to the larger sections:

Land revegetation (larger section)
Indigenous rangers managing fire
Regenerative agriculture
Biochar
Blue carbon (larger section)

Ask students to go through their section and note down:

What activities/projects are included in this area that will store carbon?
What are the positive impacts on the environment?
What type of jobs will these industries be looking for?
Any interesting or important points they didn’t know before.

Note: The Million Jobs Plan might be a little tricky to navigate for some students, but the goal here is for students to pick out some important and interesting points from their section rather than completely understand the whole picture!

Step 5.

Once students have had time to read through their section (and do a little extra research if needed), invite students to come back together and inform each other of the learnings they made about their particular section (especially if anything really interested them!)

Take Action: How is carbon capture being used to transition to a net zero economy?

Step 1.

This Take Action is designed for your students to look into some new and innovative ways that carbon sequestration is being done both in Australia and across the globe. You may like to divide your students into groups and allocate each of them to 1 of the methods below, or you may like to focus on 1 or 2 methods as a whole class.

The goal here is for your students to research the following points as they learn about their particular method.

What is this method, and how does it work?
What problem is it attempting to fix? (We would recommend thinking more specifically than just greenhouse gas emissions in general, as most of the above methods focus on a specific aspect).
What are the positive benefits of this method on greenhouse gas emissions, but also the environment and people?
What are the negatives of this method?
What jobs will be required in the future in order to upscale these methods?

Students can present their research in whatever way you think is appropriate. We would suggest a PowerPoint presentation, Canva or poster style!

Some resources have been included below to assist your students in navigating these topics, but encourage them to research more broadly if they have time - remembering to check their sources of course!

Cows and seaweed - Asparagopsis

Indigenous land management through traditional fire management techniques

Biochar

What is biochar? - Carbon Gold
The Morrison government wants to suck CO₂ out of the atmosphere. Here are 7 ways to do it - The Conversation
Biochar industry fuelled by agricultural waste expected to grow- ABC News

Managing soil carbon

Direct air carbon capture and storage

Step 2.

Pair up groups to allow one group to teach the other about their method and the research they found. Encourage groups to look for similarities and differences in the methods in terms of the benefits and limitations.

Step 3.

If you have time you might like to bring the class back together to talk broadly about the carbon sequestration process. After all their research, do students think this is a good idea to focus society's time, money and resources moving forward? Why/why not? Which techniques do they think will make the most impact?

Is removing the carbon from the atmosphere or stopping emissions altogether the more pressing issue?

Reflection

• What excites you about the future?
• What worries you about the future?
• How has your thinking changed over the lesson?
• Would you consider a job in any of these industries?
• Why/why not?

What Is Carbon Capture and How Does It Affect the Carbon Cycle?

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

What Is Carbon Capture and How Does It Affect the Carbon Cycle?

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables