Great activity that addresses a common misconception that trees and other plants get most of their mass through the soil.
A basic knowledge of reading balanced equations and calculating and molecular mass is necessary to understand some parts of the reading.
Comment from expert scientist: The introductory reading materials need some clarification.
i) The article uses the term ecosystem when it means biosphere.
ii) It calls CO2 a waste product even though it is an end product.
iii) Carbon as part of the carbon cycle has 3 phrases: solid, liquid, and gas. The introduction states that carbon exists in only two phases.
iv) In plants, sugars are usually dissolved in water and not kept as solids.
v) Carbon dissolves in water, it is not absorbed by it as stated.
vi) More precise use of term 'equilibrium' is necessary. Human activities have changed the carbon cycle not its equilibrium.
vii) Glass window panes are optically opaque in parts of the infrared region of the spectrum. The explanation of the greenhouse effect is misleading, because greenhouse gases do not absorb all of the infrared energy.
viii) The increase in average temperatures is 0.6 deg C not 1 deg C.
Comment from expert scientist: When teaching this activity be aware that converting forests into housing may sequester more carbon than planting more forests because the decomposition rates of the carbon in housing is usually slower than the decomposition rates of forest.