Page 16 The Earth Scientist

© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Students in rural schools can produce substantial gains in environmental literacy through 

engaging activities on the carbon cycle and stewardship activities. The following article 

describes a NOAA Planet Stewards project that was intended to be one year in duration 

but is on-going into its second year due to the pandemic. Survey results document that 

substantial attitudinal and behavioral changes can be gained in areas of the country not 

normally served by curbside recycling programs through stewardship activities focused 

on recycling, reducing, and reusing materials in relation to saving atmospheric carbon. 

While the pandemic initially disrupted and delayed the project, it also forced the project 

to explore new ways to recycle materials that provided interesting insights into future 

approaches concerning environmental stewardship.

Introduction

It can be a challenge to relate something as complex as the carbon cycle to climate change, and 

it can be an even bigger challenge to relate a tenuous understanding of the carbon cycle to environmental stewardship that retains a meaningful, long-lasting impact on a student to motivate 

attitudinal and behavior change. While it may be easier to relate carbon cycle issues to students in a 

community that is well served by recycling and conservation programs, the potential gains in places 

that are lacking such programs provide remarkable opportunities to substantially shift opinion. If 

one really wanted to move the needle toward climate literacy, perhaps, there is no place better than 

rural South Dakota with its limited availability of drop-off recycling, nearly non-existent curbside 

pickup of recyclables, and, not surprisingly, low rates of recycling. Now, more populated regions of 

the country may wonder why this is the case. Think of all the times there was a bin for a certain type 

of recyclable conveniently placed there for you or neatly arranged curbside bins for sorting recyclables or various drops-offs located nearby for your convenience. Now imagine taking all of that 

away. You may think you would still recycle, and you would probably be wrong. The reality is that if 

you did not have these programs and convenience, recycling would be just as alien to you as it is to 

most of my students. I, myself, and my family used to burn our trash along with all of my burnable 

Runaway Carbon Cycle: 

Reducing Carbon Emissions through 

Understanding and Action

Spencer Cody
Page 17

© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

recyclables since I lived in a farmhouse during my early years of teaching and did not have trash 

pickup services like many rural residences. Because of these limitations, the tradition of a burn pit 

or burn barrel is engrained in many parts of rural America. When we moved to town and burning 

was no longer an option, we decided to save recyclables and drop them off in the nearest recycling 

center 85 miles away in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Recyclables were dropped off before the beginning 

of shopping trips in town making our trip carbon neutral many times over. This is a cumbersome means of recycling but is the only 

available option to many rural South 

Dakotans. Replicating this strategy 

among students was a key aim of the 

stewardship component of this project 

made possible by funding from NOAA 

Planet Stewards.

The Three Rs

The stewardship activity was coupled 

with an education component tied to 

our textbook’s unit on ecology and 

environmental science to relate carbon 

emissions to climate change for 7th grade 

Life Science students and 10th grade 

Biology students; however, components 

of the stewardship project were implemented in all grades in 6-12. 

This education component was paired 

with stewardship activities that focused 

on how students could individually 

decrease their carbon footprint through 

the three Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle. While the concept of the three Rs in 

conservation may seem a bit worn out, in reality for those students who are 

at the beginning of their environmental stewardship, this is actually an ideal 

place to start. The concepts of reduce, reuse, and recycle are not tired phrases 

for students who are not actively engaged in environmental stewardship. In 

fact, one will find that students unfamiliar with stewardship often get these 

concepts confused. That is why each student that participated in the project 

had to identify at least 10 items that could be recycled at home. These items 

would need to be brought into school, approved for local recycling drop 

off in Aberdeen, and weighed to determine the environmental impact of its 

production and its recycling. 

Having students bring in their recyclables for documentation allows the 

teacher to verify what is being recycled and allows students to apply specific 

calculations to determine the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the 

production of various items and how much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be saved if it is recycled. It has been my experience in working with 

middle and high school students that there is little awareness of what is thrown out in their homes 

and even more confusion over what is and is not locally recyclable. Frequently, when students bring 

in items to be vetted and measured, they bring in items such as single-use plastics or plastics that 

Table 1. Earth and Human Activity

Performance Expectation

MS ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the 

rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Dimensions Classroom Connections

Science and Engineering Practices

Asking Questions and Defining Problems

• Asking questions and defining problems in 

grades 6–8 builds on grades K–5 experiences 

and progresses to specifying relationships 

between variables, and clarifying arguments 

and models

• Students collect and analyze materials to 

determine the amount of carbon dioxide 

produced in the production of various items 

and how much carbon dioxide from the 

atmosphere will be saved if it is recycled

Disciplinary Core Idea

SS3.D: Global Climate Change

• Human activities, such as the release of 

greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, 

are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s 

mean surface temperature (global warming)

• Students identified an act of reducing and 

reusing in their daily life, document it, 

and calculate its impact over the course 

of a month and project that impact into a 

full year in terms of atmospheric carbon 

dioxide saved

Cross-Cutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

• Cause and effect relationships are routinely 

identified, tested, and used to explain change

• Students investigated the relationships 

of carbon dioxide emissions and climate 

change

Figure 3. A sophomore biology student calculates the amount 

of carbon dioxide produced for the production of each of his 

recyclable items and how much atmospheric carbon dioxide 

would be conserved if these same items were recycled.

Photo credit: Spencer Cody
Page 18 The Earth Scientist

© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

have resins that are only recyclable in a few circumstances 

beyond our local means. These do not count toward their 

ten items. 

The goal of the project is not to fix the issue of all of our nonrecyclables or de facto non-recyclables but to get recycling 

items that are relatively easy to recycle such as cardboard, 

paperboard, paper, newspaper, magazines, resins #1 and #2 

plastics, aluminum, and steel/tin cans. This alone should 

reduce trash by roughly half in most cases. The trick is to get 

students to recognize what they throw away, what could be 

recycled, what the environmental impact is, and get them in 

the practice of recycling.

Discovering Reducing and Reusing

Additionally, students were required to identify an act of 

reducing and reusing in their daily life, document it, and 

calculate its impact over the course of a month and project 

that impact into a full year in terms of atmospheric carbon 

dioxide saved. Again, documentation and verification by 

the teacher was important. Frequently, students demonstrated their perception of reality about 

what could be reduced and it was not realistic. For example, a student trying to explain how much 

carbon dioxide they are going to save by using a cold-water cycle to wash a load of towels versus 

a warm-water cycle can yield almost comedic level responses from a student who obviously has 

never washed clothes. It is important to cut through this perception gap since, unlike most adults 

who have had to stretch resources for financial means at some point through reducing or reusing, 

these thoughts do not come naturally to many students. It can be a difficult 

process for them to brainstorm ideas for reducing and reusing, but when 

they start to realize the many different possibilities and what could be saved 

environmentally and financially, it becomes valuable information to them.

Contained Environments and Biosphere 2

Our Planet Stewards project started without a hitch in October of 2019 

with the initial administration of pre-surveys to capture pre-knowledge of 

climate literacy (Climate, 2009) and levels of environmental stewardship. As 

the pre-surveys cycled through the classes, there were many misconceptions 

concerning the carbon cycle and climate change. The surveys were based on 

similar surveys administered in a prior NOAA Planet Stewards project by the 

same investigator but now with an expanded set of questions on the carbon 

cycle, reducing, and reusing. Additionally, recycling was sporadic to nearly 

non-existent depending on what was being recycled. Practices of reducing 

and reusing were limited. Since there were a lot of misconceptions and 

questions surrounding the carbon cycle and sources of greenhouse gases, 

students began projects relating research into Biosphere 2 and developing 

their own contained environment while monitoring carbon dioxide levels. 

Students were given a 2-liter Vernier gas chamber and allowed to fill the 

chamber with potting soil and a variety of seeds then watered the chamber 

before placing the sealed lid back on. A Vernier carbon dioxide probe was 

Figure 4. Sophomore Biology students weigh their recyclable items in order to 

calculate the environmental impact production and recycling of each item.

Photo credit: Spencer Cody

Figure 5. Students experiment with sealed environments by 

monitoring carbon dioxide levels over a three-week period to

document levels as seeds germinate using cellular respiration 

and then begin to utilize photosynthesis.

Photo credit: Spencer Cody
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

attached to the sealed environment allowing for students to monitor levels within the container 

without opening it. 

As one would expect, the container initially registered carbon dioxide levels comparable to what 

would be found in a classroom, about 400-1,000 ppm, depending on how long and how many 

students had been in the classroom. The sealed environments and carbon dioxide probes were 

placed under grow lights that were left on for 24 hours a day. Within a day the carbon dioxide 

levels would usually spike due to microbial activity in the soil. Then within two to three days 

when cellular respiration from the germinating seeds began, a massive increase carbon dioxide 

levels would be detected. Bird seed often works well for cheap and quick germinating plants for 

many investigations, including this one. Once germination is fully underway, it is not unusual to 

have some containers peak beyond 20,000 ppm, levels that would cause serious health problems 

in humans. The carbon dioxide levels do not begin to level off until photosynthesis overtakes the 

cellular respiration rate. Usually, this happens about one to two weeks into the experiment. The 

level then declines to an elevated level of a few 1,000 ppm. These results usually shock students 

into realizing how delicate and complex the carbon cycle really is and why carbon is always at the 

forefront of environmental issues. The project then related these results to the Biosphere 2 and the 

human experiments on contained scientists from the early 1990s. To heighten the interest level of 

students in the results of the Biosphere 2 experiments (Zimmer, 2019), 13 students were selected 

among applicants in grades 6-12 to visit Biosphere 2 in March of 2020 to work with scientists on 

site and tour the facility to learn about current and past research relating to climate issues. These 

selected students became the motivational core around our stewardship and research efforts. Of 

course, March of 2020 had other plans.

Pandemic of Possibilities

Sealed environments, Biosphere 2 research, and carbon dioxide levels would pave the way toward 

the stewardship aspect of the project. As has been described before, students would need to document recyclable items, apply that recycling to a 30-day time period, and project the carbon dioxide 

savings out over a year. The same would need to be true with their documented acts of reducing and 

reusing. Stewardship activities began in December of 2019 and went well until March 13, 2020. It 

was a Friday, of course, when it was announced 

that schools throughout the state would be 

closed indefinitely. This canceled our field trip 

to Biosphere 2, which was to be the next week 

during our spring break. This also halted our 

recycling efforts since all drop off sites were 

closed to the public. Even aluminum cans were 

temporarily no longer recyclable. While we 

were able to continue with most of our efforts 

of reducing and reusing, our recycling stewardship ground to a halt. All the recyclables 

that we had collected were held in storage 

until later that fall once drop off sites started 

to open. What were we to do in the meantime 

to meet our recycling goals? In looking at our 

options, I noticed that a scrap metal recycling 

facility in Aberdeen was still accepting scrap 

metals with no aluminum cans. With this 

information I discussed scrap metals with 

Figure 2. A sampling of the data collected from the pre- and post-surveys from the projec

indicate a significant shift in reducing, reusing, and recycling behavior. While data on a wide range

of recyclables was collected, aluminum cans and newspapers represented the two extremes in 

what was already and what was not recycled. Similar shifts were experienced in all other areas of

recyclables.

Photo credit: Spencer Cody
Page 20 The Earth Scientist

© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

those students still trying to meet recycling goals. With a little socially-distanced coordination, 

we were able to easily exceed our recycling conservation goals by recycling scrap aluminum from 

junked ramps, platforms, rails, posts, siding, gutters, and downspouts. In fact, students were very 

interested in the idea of taking in scrap for money. The idea of finding shelterbelts (linear plantings of multiple rows of trees or shrubs) filled with junk, a typical place for rural families to discard 

old equipment, having profit potential and a major impact on conserving carbon really got their 

attention and may be a key area to explore for stewardship activities in the future. Without our 

participation in NOAA Planet Stewards, we would never have organized such an effort and would 

not have discovered such useful insights into recycling scrap through students’ stewardship.

Conclusion

Our goals of conserving at least 466 kg of 

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through 

acts of reducing, reusing, and recycling were 

met. While the stewardship component has 

been restarted and will run until our rescheduled Biosphere 2 field trip in June, we have 

successfully conserved 952 kg of atmospheric 

carbon through documented acts of reducing, 

556 kg through reusing, and 7,125 kg through 

recycling. Additionally, short-term shifts in 

attitudes concerning climate change and 

stewardship were documented. Some key documented gains included a more than doubling 

of students indicating that the Earth’s climate 

is changing, a nearly quadrupling of those 

indicating that climate change is caused by 

human activity, and a 65% increase in students indicating that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.

References

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science. (2009) United States Global Change Research 

Program. https://downloads.globalchange.gov/Literacy/climate_literacy_lowres_english.pdf

Zimmer, Carl. (2019) The Lost History of One of the World’s Strangest Science Experiments. New York Times. 

March 29, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/sunday-review/biosphere-2-climate-change.html

Figure 1. A sampling of the data collected from the pre- and post-surveys from the projec

indicate a significant shift in understanding the carbon cycle and climate change.

Photo credit: Spencer Cody.

About the Author

Spencer Cody teaches 7-12 Science at Edmunds Central Middle and High School in the Edmunds Central

School District in Roscoe, South Dakota. He holds a BA degree in Middle School and Secondary Biology

Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and an MS degree in Chemistry Education 

from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. He has taught for 15 years in the middle

and secondary sciences and is the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching including the 2018 

Sanford Inspire Teacher of the Year for South Dakota, 2020 North Central Section Outstanding Earth Science 

Teacher, 2020 EPA Presidential Award for Environmental Education, and 2021 Region Four Teacher of the 

Year for South Dakota. Spencer can be reached at Spencer.Cody@k12.s