Look for: Student ideas about the pattern in each indiv…

10.A Integrate qualitative and quantitative scientific information in written text with visual displays of atmospheric CO2 levels, energy consumption, and human population levels to determine a correlation between human activities and CO2 emissions.

• Student ideas about the pattern in each individual graph. This pattern shows slightly increasing levels in population, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in the 1700s and 1800s, with a steep rise starting in the mid-1900s.
• Student ideas about a correlation in the patterns across the three graphs. The graphs follow a similar trend.
• Student ideas about how a growing population that consumes large amounts of mineral resources is correlated with the rapid increases in CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere.

If students struggle to compare the three graphs, consider chunking the graphs into time periods and focusing on specific time periods, asking incremental questions like:

How would you describe the change in population from 1800 to 1900?

What about 1900 to 2000?

Would that same description fit the energy consumption graph (or CO2 graph)?

Why do you think they might follow a similar pattern? How could they be connected to one another?

Construct a simple equation to pull together ideas about population growth with energy consumption.✱ Display slide G. Ask students, If we could write an equation to explain how more people and more energy per person would be related to CO2 in the atmosphere, what would it look like?

Students should suggest ideas about multiplying the number of people by how much energy they need leading to greater use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions. Sample equations might be:

• More people × more energy use per person = greater use of fossil fuels = high CO2 into the atmosphere.
• Number of people × energy use per person = total energy used in the world. Total energy × CO2 emitted per type = total CO2 emissions.

Introduce students to “per-capita consumption.” Say, We have a word that we use to describe how much stuff people use every day. We call it per-capita consumption. The “per-capita” means per person. It is all the stuff (energy, food, goods) that a person consumes every day or year. Can someone describe examples of what that might look like in your daily life?

Listen for students to suggest:

• How much electricity we use each day, like our electricity bills.
• How much we buy each day, like food or other stuff.
• How much water we use each day.

Give students an opportunity to describe what it might mean for them. It could be how much food they consume or electricity or gasoline. Add “per-capita consumption” to the Word Wall.