What goes into the air from burning fossil fuels that could be related to temperature rise?

The main role of this lesson is to (1) observe that the process of burning fuels gives off gases to the air and (2) motivate us to want to figure out how gases entering the air could relate to increases in temperature.

What We Do: 

• Examine the chemical composition of different fossil fuels to make predictions about what could go into the air.

• Burn fuels and gather data about the products of this process. 

• Make sense of the data we produced to generate a model of what’s going into the air when we burn fuels like gasoline or gas and coal in factories.

What We Figure Out:

• Fuels are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.

• Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide and water vapor.

• The atmosphere is primarily made up of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases.

• There are many everyday activities that involve burning fossil fuels, like driving a car, making things in factories, and drilling and mining.

Lab Preparation

Watch the following videos for lab instructions and how to prepare Bromothymol Blue (BTB) solution (Version A of the lab).

Lesson in Action

One teacher, Tiffany, demonstrates how she sets up the burning fuels lab in Lesson 2.2. Students first make predictions about the possible products of combustion by tracing the reactant elements - C, H, and O to name possible products. They predict and discuss ways to observe or measure the possible products. Students then conduct an investigation to test for products of combustion. At the end of the video students use what they observed to figure out that carbon dioxide and water vapor are products of combustion and they add this to a system model.