Trends in Atmospheric Sulfur Hexafluoride

Positives

• The graphs are simple and easy to interpret.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers may want to provide some background about sulfur hexafluoride's relationship to climate change.
• Students may need help understanding the units mole fraction and parts per billion.

• If the technical reading is distracting, there are PDFs of the graphs and data that teachers can use instead.
• The data is also downloadable in CSV files.

Differentiation

• The reading is very technical and is probably most appropriate for upper high school students.
• Students can work independently or in a small group to create a list of noticings and wonderings about the data.
• Students could research how sulfur hexafluoride is released into the atmosphere and potential solutions to limit this greenhouse gas.
• Other helpful resources include this video about greenhouse gases from Hot Mess and this video about the greenhouse effect from Khan Academy.