The Education and the Environment Initiative [Pavley, Chapter 665, Statutes of 2003-AB 1548] directed the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Integrated Waste Management Board to develop Environmental Principles and Concepts for elementary and secondary schools in cooperation with the Resources Agency, State Department of Education, State Board of Education, and Secretary for Education. The Office of the Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Integrated Waste Management Board have reviewed and concur with the Environmental Principles and Concepts (PDF).
How is global temperature regulated? An experimental representation
- Simple experiments to help pupils understand how different parameters regulate temperature at the Earth's surface.
Interaction at the Air-Water Interface, part 1
- A very simple experiment to demonstrate gas exchange and equilibration at the boundary layer between air and water. Pupils will also observe acidification of water due to CO2 introduced directly in the water.
Interaction at the Air-Water Interface, part 2
- A second set of experiment to demonstrate gas exchange and equilibration at the boundary layer between air and water. Pupils observe a high atmospheric CO2 concentration will produce water acidification.
Uptake of Carbon Dioxide from the Water by Plants
- The following experiments will demonstrate the role of plants in mitigating the acidification caused when CO2 is dissolved in water.
Carbon Dioxide Fertilization of Marine Microalgae (Dunalliela sp.) Cultures: Marine microalgae in different atmospheric CO2 concentration
- An experiment designed to illustrate the impact of carbon dioxide on microalgal growth in the aquatic environment.
Introduction to the principles of climate modelling
- Working with real data in spreadsheets to create a climate model, students discover the global carbon budget and make their own predictions for the next century.
Global carbon budget between 1958 and 2007
- Working with real global carbon budget data, students produce graphs to find the best representation of the data to make predictions about human CO2 emissions for the next century. This activity is also a nice application of percentages.
Estimation of natural carbon sinks
- Working with real global carbon budget data, students estimate how much of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human activities is absorbed naturally each year.
How does temperature affect the solubility of CO2 en the water?
- The following experiments will explore effects of water temperature on sol