Carbon cycle and climate feedbacks
KS4 · 30 minutes · Explain forcing and feedback.
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Our learning goal
Explain forcing and feedback.
Your turn: Choose one thing you would like to understand by the end.
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My lesson notes & project
Full teaching script
- Today: Carbon cycle and climate feedbacks. Our goal: Explain forcing and feedback.
- Take one idea at a time. Pause after each sentence; ask for repetition whenever you need it.
- Carbon moves between air, ocean, life and rock. Burning fossil carbon adds it to the fast cycle far quicker than weathering removes it, so the atmospheric store rises — that is the forcing. Feedbacks then amplify or damp it: warmer air holds more water vapour (amplifying), melting ice reflects less sunlight (amplifying), extra plant growth absorbs some carbon (damping). The rock weathering that eventually restores balance works on a hundred-thousand-year clock, which is why the timing, not just the amount, is the problem.
- Together: choose one example from the explanation and show how it works. What do you notice?
- Your turn: Draw the carbon cycle with arrow thicknesses proportional to the fluxes.
- Reflect: what made sense, and what would you like explained differently?
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