LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Christa Maxson

Title of Lesson: What is my Carbon Footprint?
Grade: 6
STANDARDS

(ESS.5 ) Obtain information and combine information about ways individual communities use science
ideas to protect the Earths resources and environment

(6.SP.B.S.) Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context by giving quantitative measures of
center

LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW
A carbon footprint displays a persons daily and long term choices on an environment. People are accustom to
their lifestyles, but are unaware that the earth will not be able to provide for their needs indefinitely. Student
will have a chance to calculate their carbon footprint and how many earths it takes to support their lifestyle.
Thus, bringing an increase awareness of our sensitive planet
OBJECTIVES
Students will be able to define a carbon foot print
Students will be able to calculate their carbon footprint
Students will be able to describe why it is to reduce their carbon footprint
Students will be able to learn mean, median, mode, and standard deviation of a data set
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
The students will create their own graphs of data they collected to show how many earths they need to support
their current lifestyle
PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE
Prior to this lesson, student will have to understand the concept of the green house gases and their affects that
was taught in previous days of the unit plan. Green house gases exist in the atmosphere that is surrounding the
earth and keeping it warm. If we get to many of these gases in the atmosphere, there is not enough heat that can
escape and our plant will get too warm.
MATERIALS

Computers with Internet access

White board and marks
Paper and pencil
Graph Paper for posters
Calculators
VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS
Carbon footprint: The amount of green house gases emissions caused by a person or a group
Carbon: A greenhouse gas that comes from burning fossil fuels
Green House: gases that retains heat in the Earths atmosphere: carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor,
ozone, and nitrous oxide
Emissions: Gases released into the atmospheres
Climate: The long-term weather events of a region

TEACHING PROCEDURES
1. Give students the definition what was a carbon footprint is. Discuss that what's going on in our lifestyles
each of use has a carbon footprint that contributes to greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.
These profound affects include rising temperatures, affecting growing patterns on vegetation, rising sea
levels eroding shoreline and more.
2. Students will go on to a computer and visit www.footprintcalculator.org in order to calculate their carbon
footprint. Students will answer a serious of questions to obtain information on the number of acres
needed to support their lifestyle and the number of earths if everyone lived the same way.
3. Students will then collect this data writing all of their values on a white board or on a piece of paper and
teacher can write values on white board.
4. Then student will have to calculate the mean of the data collected of Earths needed to support students
lifestyles. Student will then create a stem and leaf plot of the date. Identify the high and low values for
the class. Ask class how the mean is affected by these values?
5. Instructed students to calculate the standard deviation of the data set. The standard deviation will show
that it is more than 50% of the mean and their may be some people in the class with larger values for the
amount of earths to support their lifestyle
6. Next lead a class into a discussion about the data:
a. What is the average number of acres for the students in the class? What is the average of Earths
needed?
b. What statistic would you used to show the lack of awareness of the environment?
c. What is the biggest factor to increase carbon footprint?
d. What does these mean for future generations?
RESOURCES
In order to calculate carbon footprint use: www.footprintcalculator.org/
WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION
Giving students an opportunity to practice futures thinking. Students learning about their carbon footprint will
promote awareness that their actions do have consequences. We are often smug in personal daily activities and
unaware of the long-term impacts it has on the environment. These habit we have such as diets, energy usage
and so fore we don't relieves that the Earth will not be able to sustain for these needed resources indefinitely.
For many students, this will be the very beginning of increased awareness about how delicate the earth is to
remain balanced for the future.