• In this activity, students will survey their community to determine where carbon is being sequestered or released from the soil, calculate their individual carbon footprints using a variety of calculators, and respond to a variety of reflection questions.

Positives

• This activity will inspire students to take a close look at their community and consider how they can help improve the local soil.
• The resource provides links to three carbon footprint calculators for students to explore.

Additional Prerequisites

• This is part of the Explore section of the Project Hero Soil Quest. 
• The Virtual Student Guide explains the activities.

Differentiation

• Teachers could have students work in small groups to survey different parts of the community surrounding their school and then compile the information to get an idea of the community's soil health.
• Students could make a map of their community to indicate the location of developed areas, natural spaces, and bare soil.
  
• Other resources on this topic include this video on how fungi sequester carbon in the soil, this PBS video on the importance of soil, and this video on how soil stores energy from sunlight.

The resource offers a step-by-step comparison of soil-based activities that could promote soil carbon storage and those that could hasten carbon emissions into the atmosphere. After completing the survey, students are given a set of questions to answer and this would inspire them to engage in solutions that would improve soil carbon storage in their community. The use of this resource in the classroom is advised.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.