Looking to Teach or Learn about the Carbon Cycle? Try This Do-It-Yourself Board Game for a Start

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA) It has been a dream of mine to tell the story of the carbon cycle from the point of view of a carbon atom. After attending a Wilson Center webinar on Inspiring Environmental Good through Games, I asked a Google Group for ways to make this dream a reality. I was directed to this easy-to-use board game: The Carbon Cycle Game (Adapted by Jennifer Ceven from “The Incredible Journey,” Project Wet). Designed for 6th grade students 20 years ago, this can easily be used at higher levels of students and for civic and faith-based organizations, for family fun and by environmental clubs.

Summary:
By rolling a die, students will simulate a molecule of carbon’s movement throughout various locations within the carbon cycle.

Objective:
o Students will describe the movement of carbon within the carbon cycle.
o Students will evaluate the relative timing of movement through various locations in the carbon cycle.

Materials:
o 7 Dice
o 7 Station Signs
o 7 Station Movement Directions
o Data record sheets for each student

Background:
The movement of carbon through various aspects of the natural environment is the focus of much scientific research.

Global warming and climate change can be attributed to the increased amount of heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide.

Students must develop an understanding of how carbon moves through the environment in order to appreciate the complexity of developing solutions to address problems associated with climate change. In addition, since anthropogenic influences impact how much carbon is reintroduced to the active carbon cycle, students should recognize that human actions negatively affect the environment.

Warm-Up:
o Review what carbon is (an element, the stuff of life)
o Discuss where carbon can be found on Earth.
o Discuss the role of carbon in each of the places identified.
o Review the processes that move carbon around in the carbon cycle

1. Physical processes
• Water currents
• Settling to the ocean floor or to the ground

2. Chemical and Biological processes
• Respiration – Exchange of gases through breathing
• Photosynthesis - The synthesis of complex organic materials, esp. carbohydrates, from carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic salts, using sunlight as the source of energy and with the aid of chlorophyll and associated pigments.
• Combustion – The act or process of burning
• Dissolving gaseous carbon dioxide into water, where it takes the form of carbonic acid
• Coming out of solution of carbonic acid to become carbon dioxide in the air (same process that occurs when you open a soda )
• Death and Decomposition - breakdown or decay of organic matter

As I reviewed the materials, as thrilled as I was to see my dream coming to life, I was disappointed that the materials did not include options related to renewable fuels, didn't recognize the methane coming from decomposing materials, etc., so I tried to track down the game's designer to see if it would be OK for me to make these adjustments.

I found Jennifer Ceven. She is no longer a 6th grade teacher; is now Dr. Jennifer McNally, Associate Professor, Science and Math, at Curry College in Milton Massachusetts. When I saw that, I suspected that not only was the science accurate in this game, but that the design reflected mathematical distributions of how carbon moves through the cycle.

You are welcome to revise the activity in any way and update it based on new information and data. As I said, this activity was created when I was a classroom teacher about 20 years ago, so I have a feeling that more information is known and available about carbon sources and sinks, so an update is apt.

I was going for simple and materials-light at the time, so when I found that the proportions of carbon emissions and sinks could be summarized by multiples of 1/6, using a standard 6-sided die for each station seemed appropriate.

As you refine the activity, using a variety of dice (perhaps a 10-sided die in one station and a 12-sided die in another) is an option.

Building it as an online game will allow you to set specific proportions without regard for physical materials. I like these ideas!

I'd like to put out this invitation to any game designers and climate mitigation advocates. Although the game can be used as-is to explain basic carbon cycle concepts (here it is in its entirety), it could be improved to include updated information about proportions of carbon emissions and sinks and illustrations of new ways we have developed to recycle carbon with use of biofuels and other biomaterials and bioproducts.

It would be great to keep it as a simple, easy-to-access board game; but expanded online versions based on this model would also be welcome.

If anyone takes us up on this challenge, please let me know so that I can add responsible resources to our online library.

If you know of any other educational resources related to defossilization, renewable fuels or the carbon cycle that we should consider for our library, please send information to us. info@AdvancedBiofuelsUSA.org.