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Zoo Poo

What Makes You Hot?

ZOO POO

Does burning zoo poo reduce CO2?

Created in the Making Global Local workshops, University of Colorado at Boulder

Driving Question

Does burning zoo poo reduce CO2?

Grade Level

10-12

Lesson Time Requirement

Three to five 50-minute class periods

Climate Literacy Principles Addressed

  • 3.  Life on Earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate
  • 7.  Earth's climate system is influenced by compjlex human decisions involving economic costs and social values

Colorado State Standards Addressed

  • High School: PS3, PS5, PS6, LS1, ES4, ES5

Learning Objectives

  • To determine whether the amount of CO2 produced in a coal fired plant is more or less than the CO2 produced in a Biomass Gasification plant.
  • To use common statistical measurements of mean, median, and standard deviation to answer the question
  • To formulate questions about what the data can actually tell them data.
  • To decide what information they would need in order to answer their questions about the data. (The initial data does not really allow us to answer whether there is a differ-ence in CO2 emissions).

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ZOO POO

Does burning zoo poo reduce CO2?

PDF of lesson plan

Full ZIP file of lesson plan, handouts, and resources

 

Prior knowledge students will need in order to participate in the lesson:

Students need to

  • Know what climate is
  • Understand what the impact of increased concentration of CO2 on the climate
  • Have some understanding of the carbon cycle

Common student misconceptions and prior understandings:

  • Students do not know what nutrient accounts for the greatest mass in a tree.
  • Students often make conclusions based on comparing means, without understanding statistical significance.
  • Students have limited understanding of the idea of variance in a population.

Materials:

  • Questions About Trees powerpoint (see Handouts)
  • Presentation software
  • Computers with reliable internet connections

Introduction to Lesson

Carbon dioxide emission is a drawback of power production. In this lesson, students will investigate the carbon dioxide emitted from different types of power plants, to determine whether burning biomass (“zoo poo”) can significantly decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

Lesson Sequence:

Day 1:

  1. Go through the (A) "Question about Trees" Powerpoint (see Handouts)
  2. Show the Webisode: Learn More About Climate: New Energy for Colorado (http://learnmoreaboutclimate.colorado.edu/)
  3. Address the following questions
    • Do biomass gasification plants emit less CO2?
    • What information do we need to answer this question?
    • What do we need to measure?
    • How do we analyze the measurements?
  4. Hopefully students will realize that CO2 emission depends on the size of the power plant as well as what type of fuel it burns (ie.., small power plants emit less CO2) so merely measuring the tons of CO2 emitted by a plant in a given year, will not lead us to a very clear conclusion.
  5. Students should be able to come up with the idea that the measurement that is need would be tons/MWh (in other words the amount of CO2 per energy produced)

Day 2: Introduce the students to the CARMA.org website

  1. Give each group of students the names of 4-5 coal plants and 4-5 biomass plants.  Note:  Handout (C) CARMA Data, has the full data set as of 2010.  You may start with the plants listed on this sheet, but the plants may have changed since this time.
  2. Each group should find the necessary information about these plants and record it into (B) the CO2 Data Template (see Handouts).  Students may notice that many biomass plants report zero emissions.
  3. Then ask each group to find 4 more biomass plants and 4 more coal plants that are nearby. Record the data for these plants into the spreadsheet.
  4. Homework is to read information about Statistics and answer pre-lab questions. You will need to find a relevant reading on statistics and measurement.

Day 3 (and homework): Analyzing the Data

  1. Students program the spreadsheet to find the Tons CO2/MWh for each plant
  2. Students need to sort their data to find the mean, median and Standard deviation for the Tons CO2/MWh for the coal plants and the biomass plants.
  3. Students will then collect data from another group, and find the mean, median and Standard deviation for the Tons CO2/MWh for the coal and biomass plants in the combined data set
  4. Finally the students email their data to the teacher, who compiles the class data, and post the data on the webpage. Students will then find the mean, median and Standard deviation for the Tons CO2/MWh for the coal plants and the biomass plants in the class data set.  Note:  As the sample size grows, students should notice an effect on the standard deviation.
  5. The students they use the class data set to answer the question: Do biomass gasification plants emit less CO2 than Coal plants? They need to make sure to support their answer with evidence from the experiment. Make sure that your conclusion is based on statistical significance.
  6. Post Lab Questions
    1. What happens to the magnitude off the standard deviation as the size of the data set increases? Explain.
    2. How reliable do you think the measurements are? How could you check the reliability?
    3. What is the difference between systematic error and random error? Even though you did not perform any of the measurements in this investigation.
    4. After careful analysis of these data, you probably have a number of questions. List all of the questions that come to mind. There really is no wrong answer here, but please briefly explain what makes you curious about the aspects that come to mind.

Follow up lesson:

Day 1: Give students CARMA data (2009 Data) that has been collected. Have students evaluate data for reliability - where is information obtained from? Have them cross reference data and evaluate.

Day 2: Class discussion of data reliability. Students should see data differences in coal plants vs. biomass plants. Students need to evaluate the reasons for differences.

**Note: It was noted that on the data that the information is "0" for emissions for some plants. This needs to be evaluated further. What are the reasons? Are their carbon offsets in place? Further evaluation found various testing programs in place.

Student Handouts:

  • Part A. “Question about Trees” PowerPoint
  • Part B. CO2 Data Template
  • Part C. CARMA Data (a filled-in version of the CO2 Data Template, with data as of 2010)
  • Part D. Report Information Sheet

Assessment:

Students will write a report for the lesson on statistics. This is the first report written in AP Chemistry, so a detailed information sheet is given to the students to help them.  See (D) "Report Information Sheet" in Handouts.

Lesson Development Prompts

This lesson was developed for high-school chemistry and environmental science courses by a collaboration of scientists, teachers, and educational researchers in the Making the Global Local workshops at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Background Reading for Students and/or Teachers

Additional readings and resources in the downloadable "Resources" folder

References:

Extensions:

  • See "Resources" folder for some additional readings and suggestiosn
  • Visit a coal-powered electricity generation plan
  • Visit to the Denver Zoo to see their biomass unit.
  • Teachers can either conduct the lesson as originally done, or simply take the data that the first class collected to formulate questions. They can then extend the lessons to include the following topics
    • Process of gasification.
    • How electricity is produced in a coal burning power plant vs Biomass plant
    • What are all of the factors involved in running the Zoo that might produce CO2 and extend that to daily life at school.
    • Why is there so much variance in the emissions of CO2 in biomass electricity plant?
    • How are emission data taken?

Climate Literacy Essential Principles Addressed

3. Life on Earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate.

  • e. Life—including microbes, plants, and animals and humans—is a major driver of the global carbon cycle and can influence global climate by modifying the chemical makeup of the atmosphere. The geologic record shows that life has significantly al-tered the atmosphere during Earth's history.

7. Earth’s climate system is influenced by complex human decisions involving economic costs and social values.

  • d. Industrialization has the potential to improve the quality of life in the short term but also creates long-term challenges, including increased energy demand and the resul-tant adverse impact on ecosystems and the climate system
  • g. Decisions about energy use and adapting to the effects associated with climate chage are made at all level from the individual to the global.
  • i. Slowing or reversing human impact on climate change trends might be accomplished by combining short term strategies such as conservation, more effective use of re-sources and the switch from carbon intensive energy to renewable sources with long term investments in technology research and implementation, and by adapting sus-tainable development strategies such as building alternative energy infrastructure and a green economy

Energy Awareness Principle
Being aware of the role of energy in the Earth system and human society allows us to take actions to conserve, prepare, and make informed energy choices.

  • B. The primary sources of energy used by society are non-renewable sources, such as fossil fuels and nuclear, and renewable sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and biomass.
  • C. Humans' use of energy has consequences on the environment that sustains them.
  • F. Developing a sustainable energy supply that minimizes impacts on the environ-ment will require informed decision-making, technological and societal innova-tion, and improved efficiency.


Colorado State Science Standards

High School: Physical Science
Apply an understanding of atomic and molecular structure to explain the properties of
matter, and predict outcomes of chemical and nuclear reactions

  • PS 3. Matter can change form through chemical or nuclear reactions abiding by the laws of conservation of mass and energy
  • Apply an understanding that energy exists in various forms, and its transformation and conser-vation occur in processes that are predictable and measurable
  • PS 5. Energy exists in many forms such as mechanical, chemical, electrical,
  • radiant, thermal, and nuclear, that can be quantified and experimentally
  • determined
  • PS 6. When energy changes form, it is neither created not destroyed; however, because some is necessarily lost as heat, the amount of energy available to do work decreases

High School: Life Science
Explain and illustrate with examples how living systems interact with the biotic and abiotic envi-ronment.

  • LS 1. Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and eventually exits an ecosystem

High School: Earth Science
Evaluate evidence that Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact as a complex system

  • ES 4. Climate is the result of energy transfer among interactions of the atmos-phere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere
  • Describe how humans are dependent on the diversity of resources provided by Earth and Sun
  • ES  5. There are costs, benefits, and consequences of exploration, development, and consumption of renewable and nonrenewable resources

About the Authors

These Making the Global Local teachers teamed up to share their expertise and collaborate in developing and piloting a reform-oriented lesson about zoo poop for 10th - 12th grade students.

  • Kiersten Helgeson, Biology and Environmental Sciences, Horizon High School
  • Julie Andrew, Chemistry, Monarch High School

These problem-based lessons were developed through an innovative process that brought together teachers, scientists and science education faculty for "Making the Global Local (MGL)," a teacher professional development workshop hosted by CU-Boulder in July 2009. Developing and teaching of the lessons is centered around a single driving question that students explore, discuss and answer. While addressing a variety of Colorado content standards, the lessons also seek to localize climate change for Colorado middle and high school students. MGL teachers then took their newly developed lessons to test and refine them in their own classrooms during the Fall 2009 semester.

Lesson Resources

You may download a zip file including all lesson plan handouts and resources.

References

Extensions

Teachers can either conduct the lesson as originally done, or simply take the data that the first class collected to formulate questions. They can then extend the lessons to include the following topics:

  • Process of gasification.
  • How electricity is produced in a coal burning power plant vs Biomass plant.
  • What are all of the factors involved in running the Zoo that might produce CO2 and extend that to daily life at school.
  • Why is there so much variance in the emissions of CO2 in biomass electricity plant?
  • How are emission data taken?

Other possibilities - a field trip to a coal plant or visit the Denver Zoo's biomass unit.

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