NIEMI (ENERGY) CARBON AND THE ENERGY WE USE Photograph of the La Cygne Power Plant (Kansas City Power and Light) Photo by Tina M. Niemi June 14, 2007 VERSION #2 1
Lesson #1 Combustion Exploration What burns? Materials Needed: Candle Matches Oil lamp Jar 1. Light a candle. Which of the following statements is true about burning a candle? The wax is burned up in the candle flame The wax is not burned up: it holds the wick in place as the wick burns. The wax is not burned up; it melts and keeps the wick from burning too fast. 2. Light an oil lamp and describe what is happening. 3a. Place an inverted jar over the burning candle. Describe what happens and why. b. Using a smaller jar, predict what will happen if you repeat 3a? Explain why this happened? 4. Obtain a tall and short candle, light both. Predict which candle will go out first when you put a jar over both. Place the jar over both candles. What happens? 2
5. Repeat the experiment. Did you get the same results? 6. Not everyone will get the same answer. WHY? 7. Contrast wax and oil? 8. Place a knife or other metal object into the flame? What happens to the metal? 9. What is fire? What part of the flame is the hottest? The coolest? Concept introduction: Combustion and Fuels Wax, wood, fuel, hydrocarbon, combustion, carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, gas, oxidation, fossil fuels, energy, chemical energy, thermal energy, steam, soot Basic Combustion Equation: fuel + oxygen => carbon dioxide + water + heat C x H y + (x + y/4)o 2 => xco 2 + (y/2) H 2 O + heat For Methane: CH 4 + O 2 => CO 2 + 2 H 2 O + heat How do we generate electricity? 3
Application #1 Burning Wood in a Test Tube Materials Needed: Ring stand and test tube clamp rubber tubing holder beaker of water Source of flame (Bunson burner or propane torch) and matches Test tube Rubber stopper with pipette opening 3 pipette bent with a right angle Thin wood splint Bromthymol Blue (BTB) (mixed 9 parts water to 1 part BTB; 15 ml should turn green when you blow into it with a straw) ph paper or ph meter Place a wood splint in the test tube and firmly place the rubber stopper that has the bent pipette pointing down out of the stopper (see diagram). Place a flame underneath the test tube. 1. Observe the test tube experiment and describe what you see. 2. Explain what has happened. 3. Make a prediction of what would happen if you take a match and hold it up to the pipette. 4. Take a match and hold it up to the pipette. Describe what happens. 4
5. Explain what you observed. 6. Now put the rubber tubing on the pipette exhaust that is at the top of the rubber stopper and run the tubing to a 50 ml beaker of BTB solution. What do you think will happen? 7. What have you observed? 8. In another beaker filled with water, measure the ph of the water. Place the exhaust from the burning experiment into the water, measure the ph of the water. Describe what you have measured. Application #2 Burning Coal Materials Needed: Coal sample in addition to the list for the experiment above. Powder coal sample and repeat the procedure outlined above. 1. What did you observe? 2. How did this experiment differ from burning wood? 5
Lesson #2 What is Coal? A 300 million year old swamp 6
Lesson #2 -- What is Coal? Exploration: Dissecting Coal Materials Needed: Coal and other carbonaceous rock samples; Rock Hammer, hand lens. 1. What is a fossil fuel? 2. What is coal? 3. Make observation of a hand sample of coal and fill in the following data table. Break the coal apart & observe with a hand lens or under a binocular microscope. Property Smell Description Color Physical properties Density Material present 4. Explain how coal forms. 7
Concept Introduction: Photosynthesis, pyrite, sulfur, carbon, Coal, lignite, plant, peat, decay, biodegradation, anaerobic, aerobic, pressure, temperature, time, Bituminous coal, fossil fuel, swamp, carbon dioxide, methane, water Applications Making Coal (Adapted from the American Coal Foundation) http://www.teachcoal.org/lessonplans/coal_formation.html Materials Needed: plastic 2-liter soda bottle plastic wrap sand leaves, other organic matter mud Time: 6 weeks to complete the experiment 1. Cut the top off a plastic 2-liter soda bottle and line the bottom with plastic wrap. Place 4 inches of sand at the bottom of the bottle. Cover the sand with 2 inches of leaves and other plant matter. Submerge the entire collection until it is covered by 2 inches of water. 2. Make observations of what the experiment looks like and note texture, color, and water height. What do you think will happen? Make a hypothesis of the changes that will occur. 3. Observe all the components in the container over a period of 2 weeks. Keep a record of your changes. 4. After 2 weeks, use a sifter to cover the plants with 2 inches of silt and mud. 5. After a month, pour off the remaining water and let the experiment dry thoroughly over 2 weeks. 4. Remove the formation from the container. Dissect and describe what you see. 8
Lesson #3 Plant Gas interaction http://science.exeter.edu/jekstrom/web/cells/elodea/elodea.html 9
Materials Needed: 2 Elodea (water plants) (Also called Anacharis) Bromthymol Blue (BTB) Dissolved oxygen test kit 4 Test tubes Oxygen test kit Lesson #3 Plant Gas interaction Foil Lamp plugged into electricity Baking soda Drinking straws phenolphthalein Exploration 1. Let s look at testing gases in water. Place Bromthymol Blue (BTB) in solution in a beaker. Take the straw and blow into the blue-colored water. What happened to the water? Why? 2. Explain respiration. 3. Place one Elodea plant into a 200 ml test tube filled to the top with tap water. Label the outside #1, it will be the control that has nothing changed in its environment. Place a second Elodea plant into another 200ml test tube and mark that #2 and fill it to the top with tap water with a few drops of phenolphthalein until the water turns light pink. Wrap the test tubes in foil and set the test tube aside. After about an hour describe what the test tube looks like. (This experiment can also be done with BTB). 4. Place one Elodea plant into a 200 ml test tube filled to the top with tap water. Label the outside #3, it will be the control that has nothing changed in its environment. Place a second Elodea plant into another 200ml test tube and mark that #4 and fill it to the top with tap water with dissolved baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). 10
Observe what happens to the plants in the water. Describe what you see. What will happen if you move the #4 Elodea test tube very close to the light source? Make a prediction. Describe what happened. (Finish Item #3) 5. Determine the amount of dissolved oxygen in test tubes Take the oxygen test kit and measure the difference in dissolved oxygen in test tubes #1 and #3 Sample number Test tube #1 Test tube #3 Number of drops Concentration mg/l or ppm? Temperature Oxygen saturation Analyze the results and relate them to photosynthesis. 6. Determine the amount of oxygen saturation from the following nomogram. 11
Interpreting the Oxygen Saturation 125% > - too high for many species to survive 124% - excellent for most fish 79% - satisfactory for most fish 59% < - most species die 7. Contrast photosynthesis and respiration. What factors change the rate of photosynthesis? Concept Introduction: 12
Plant, respiration, Carbohydrate, glucose, water, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, transpiration Basic Photosynthesis Equation: Light + CO 2 + H 2 O => (CH 2 O)n + O 2 Exhaust, gas-interchange, diffusion, plant, stomata, chlorophyll, cell, Application: Observation of Gas Interchange Materials Needed: Leaf of a Wandering Jew Plant (Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula) Microscope Microscope slide Halite (table salt in solution) Leaves Perspire (called transpiration) Picture of water molecules leaving stomata - side view http://croptechnology.unl.edu/viewlesson.cgi?min=1&max=8&topic_order=5&lessonid=1092853841 1. What is a stoma? Take a Wandering Jew plant leaf, prepare a thin slice from the leaf on a microscope slide, and view it under a microscope. Draw a diagram of what you see. Identify the cells. 2. What is chloroplast? Take an Elodea leaf and look at it under a microscope. Draw a diagram of what you see. Identify the cells. 13
3. Observe the cell when different saline solutions are applied. Describe what happens. 4. In what part of a plant does the carbon dioxide and water combine to make food? 5. Where does the by-product of this process leave the plant? What fuels this process? 14
exhaust gas-interchange diffusion plant stomata chlorophyll cell diffusion respiration carbohydrate glucose water carbon hydrogen oxygen photosynthesis carbon dioxide transpiration pyrite sulfur carbon coal lignite plant peat decay biodegradation anaerobic aerobic pressure temperature time 15
bituminous coal fossil fuel swamp methane hydrocarbon Carboniferous wax wood fuel (biomass) combustion gas oxidation fossil fuels energy chemical energy thermal energy steam soot 16