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Student preconceptions about carbon fluxes

Physics students typically have prior knowledge on the topics of carbon emissions and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which stems largely from high school education. To some extent it can be argued that students also gain some ideas about these topics from the media. However, when teaching about carbon cycles at the graduate level precise quantitative data analysis is required and it is often found that the students do not have adequate information on the topic of carbon cycles, especially in the atmosphere. Of particular interest is the issue of data access: Do students know where to get reliable data on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations? Do they know how to access it, download it and analyse it on the fly? Positive response is seldom the case, which is rather unfortunate since physics students should possess such skills, to engage in public space more easily. To create effective ways of teaching about carbon cycles a plausible approach is to draw upon analogies with prior well- established ideas that the students are well acquainted with. For example, by using the analogy between accelerated motion and the rise of atmospheric carbon concentrations, we demonstrate how to effectively teach about rising atmospheric concentrations at the bachelor and high school level. We first devise a poll with questions on carbon cycle in the atmosphere, such as: data access, rate of increase of carbon dioxide, the effect of photosynthesis, emissions per capita and so on. Afterwards we demonstrate to the students how to easily access the data and do the analysis themselves.

carbon fluxes, carbon emissions, Keeling curve, student preconceptions

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