Black Carbon: Dirty Sidekick of CO2

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

• Teaching Tips
  It is recommended that teachers review the teacher's guide to understand anticipated student responses. Teachers can include this resource within a climate change unit, but should follow lessons on how CO2 and methane cause warming so that this additional impact can be understood with context.
• About the Science
  Citations are present in student handouts. This lesson is based on solid evidence concerning the impact of black carbon on climate change and human health, and provides resources for students to dig deeper. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
• About the Pedagogy
  This resource provides Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core tags for educator use. This resource supports multiple learning styles by teaching concepts with video, worksheets, and class discussions. It also provides creative methods to gauge if students are excited to learn more about this topic. This lesson encourages student inquiry through annotated reading and class discussion. There is an introductory guided discussion about air pollution followed by a video to further introduce the topic of black carbon to students. The lesson concludes with having students complete exit tickets to develop student questions that can broaden the investigation, possibly leading to an extension through a separate lesson, [link https://cleanet.org/resources/55992.html 'Have the Talk: Conversations about Climate Change'].
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  A complete teacher's guide is provided. Some hyperlinks are broken, however the user is able to navigate to the webpage by copy and pasting the link into a browser. Teachers are guided through the lesson with recommended timing and suggestions for engaging students. Requires instructors to create an account. It is free, but still requires an account.