Carbon Footprint of a Choice

Lab Brief #3

🎯 Your mission

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

⚡ The twist

What the body does in one minute is wilder than any cartoon.

What you'll learn

Comparing two options honestly means counting the whole life cycle, not just the moment of use. An electric car emits nothing at the tailpipe but has a large manufacturing footprint, so the fair comparison is over the vehicle's whole life.

Key words

carbon footprint
The total greenhouse gas released by an activity, over its whole life cycle.
life cycle assessment
Accounting for impacts from raw material through manufacture, use and disposal.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: how does the body solve this problem?

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

Get ready

🧰 What you need

emissions data table
calculator

⚠️ 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 footprint" and "life cycle assessment" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Compare a reusable and a disposable cup by counting emissions from manufacture, washing and disposal. Work out how many uses the reusable one needs before it comes out ahead.

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 fair comparison of two products must cover:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

A reusable cup beats a disposable one only after:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🐙 An octopus has 9 brains and 3 hearts.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Ocean Acidification 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: Your own body is doing this thousands of times every second.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find one thing about your body that's different from a friend's. Wonder why.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

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