The Carbon Cycle Under Pressure

Lab Brief #14

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Today's mountain was yesterday's ocean floor.

What you'll learn

Carbon moves constantly between air, oceans, living things and rock. Those flows were roughly balanced for thousands of years; burning fossil fuels adds carbon that had been locked in rock for millions, faster than the slow sinks can absorb it.

Key words

carbon sink
A store that absorbs more carbon than it releases, such as the ocean or a growing forest.
fossil carbon
Carbon locked underground for millions of years and released by burning fuel.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where will the water go first?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

carbon flux data
poster paper
ruler
coloured pens

⚠️ Safety first

Have an adult check your set-up before you start, and tidy everything away afterwards.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "carbon sink" and "fossil carbon" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Draw the carbon cycle with arrow widths proportional to real annual flows. Mark the fossil fuel arrow and state what fraction of the natural flows it represents.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

A carbon sink is a store that:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Burning fossil fuels is unusual because it releases carbon locked away for:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌋 There are 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth right now.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is shaping the ground you walk on, slowly, every single day.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find a rock outside and try to guess how old it is.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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The Carbon Cycle Under Pressure

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