Learning about Carbon: IASS Develops Educational Resource
30.10.2019
The “Future Box: Carbon” developed by the IASS in cooperation with Berlin’s Futurium Museum offers school pupils an exciting and hands-on introduction to climate change and raw materials. This learning resource is suitable for use in classes from 8th Grade up and for all school types. The Future Box can be used in different subjects and will help to build awareness of sustainable development issues.
Carbon compounds are primarily used as fuels. However, they are also used in the manufacturing of a wide range of products, and particularly in the chemical industry. Carbon is all around us in everyday life: it is used in the manufacturing of lunch boxes, laptops, mobile phones, and even our clothing. Pharmaceutical products and fertilizers are also carbon-based.
Carbon is a vital raw material for many industries and our modern society. The industrial demand for carbon is currently met largely through fossil resources such as oil, natural gas and coal. In future, we will need to increase the share of carbon from renewable sources and recycle carbon on a large scale in order to mitigate the climate crisis and address the dependency of some countries on this resource. The learning materials in the Future Box enable pupils to learn about the role of carbon in our everyday lives and the impacts of individual actions and those of industry, as well as about alternative sources of carbon such as CO2 and biomass.
The Future Box: Carbon
- contains six sets of high-quality cards
- is suitable for teams of five children
- is designed for use in classrooms from 8th Grade upwards
- features a modular, interdisciplinary structure and can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom
Additional learning materials are available for download https://co2inside.de/glossar-und-downloads/, including suggestions on how the Future Box card sets can be used in the classroom.
Free educational resource
The Future Box: Carbon is available free of charge from the IASS. Our researchers will be visiting school classes in the Berlin/Potsdam area through to the 2019 Christmas holidays to workshop the Future Box: Carbon. Educators wishing to invite one of our researchers into their classroom should contact Barbara Olfe-Kräutlein.
