Cover lesson · Science · Year 11 · Advanced
DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content · GCSE Integrated Science, Unit 2: Science in a Changing World
Name: Class: Date:
What this is: GCSE Integrated Science (Single Award), Unit 2: Science in a Changing World, topic 2.1.2 Carbon in our climate, climate change. It practises calculating carbon footprints in kgCO2eq using Global Warming Potential, and the spec’s point that climate change is often over-simplified, with opinions based on only part of the evidence. It also rehearses reading a folder of sources, the skill the Unit 1 pre-release Resource Folder needs. It is not NEA work, and the folder is not a WJEC pre-release.
Print: this sheet, one per pupil, and “The cow and the car: a source folder”, one between two. Pupils need a calculator and a highlighter. No computers are needed: the searching in Step 4 is planned on paper.
Run: 8 min read the folder and highlight · 14 min Step 2, the calculations · 12 min Step 3, the reliability grid · 7 min Step 4, search plan and reference · 14 min Step 5, the verdict, alone and in silence. Total 55 minutes.
Collect: this sheet. The answer key is in the worked example: one cow 3,080 kgCO2eq, one car 1,870 kgCO2eq, the Price family 7,007 kgCO2eq.
A post about cows and cars has been shared 48,000 times. Your job is to trace the claim back to the data it came from, check the numbers yourself, judge how reliable each source in the folder is, plan how you would search for more, and write a referenced verdict. The specification warns that climate change is often over-simplified, with opinions based on only part of the evidence. Decide whether that is what happened here.
Read all eight sources. Highlight every figure. The post makes three separate claims. Write them down separately.
| Claim, in your own words | |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 |
Use kgCO2eq = mass of gas × GWP and kgCO2eq = amount × emission factor. Show your working.
(a) The carbon footprint of one Nant-y-Wern cow’s methane in a year, using the 100-year GWP.
(b) The same cow using the 20-year GWP. Why might someone choose one GWP rather than the other?
(c) The Price family’s car for a year. Is “one cow does more damage than a car” true on these figures? By how many times?
(d) Complete the Price family’s carbon footprint. What percentage comes from the car? Give 1 decimal place.
| Activity | Working | kgCO2eq |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol car | ||
| Electricity | ||
| Gas heating | ||
| Flights | ||
| Food | given | 1,900 |
| Total | ||
(e) In Sir Gwernant, how many tonnes of CO2eq a year come from agriculture, and how many from transport? If agriculture’s emissions fell to zero, what percentage of the county’s emissions would be left?
For each source, think: who made it, why they made it, what evidence it gives, and when. Score reliability out of 5 and justify the score.
| Source | Who made it and why | Evidence it gives | Score /5 and reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Post | |||
| 3 IPCC | |||
| 4 Farm figures | |||
| 5 Welsh Government | |||
| 6 MooClear blog | |||
| 7 Farming union |
(a) Write a search you would type to find official figures for greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Wales. Use at least two of: quotation marks, site:, a minus sign.
(b) Write a second search that would help you check the methane figure for one dairy cow. Explain what each part of your search does.
(c) Write a full reference for Source 3 or Source 5: organisation, year, title, website address, date accessed.
Write 150 to 200 words on your own: Is the post’s claim supported by the evidence, or is it over-simplified? Deal with each of the three claims. Use at least two figures from your calculations and refer to at least two sources by name and year in brackets, for example (IPCC, 2023).