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Carbon Cycle Game!

You are a carbon molecule traveling through air, water, soil, plants and animals. Map your path from pool to pool (underlined)

through the fluxes (highlighted).

How to play

  1. Get a copy of the Carbon Cycle Game Board.
  2. Roll the dice at the Game Card called Start. The number you roll determines your first pool to map. Go to that pool. (Click on the link if playing electronically or go to the pool’s Game Card.)
  3. On your Game Board, add a tally or hash mark on your starting pool. (Think about making lines around the circle)
  4. Read the form of carbon you take (under the pool title).
  5. To determine your next move, roll the dice.
  6. Find your number on the chart on the Game Card. Read the text next to it. Multiple numbers can share a box in the chart.
  7. If the text sends you to a new pool, draw a line to the new pool to show the flux.
  8. If the text says to stay, add another tally mark to the pool where you are. At your next turn, roll again.
  9. When you move to new pool, add a tally mark to the new pool.
  10. Every roll of the dice adds a new tally mark to a pool.
  11. Continue play for 10-15 minutes.

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START

Roll the dice. What number did you get?

If you rolled

Start at

1, 10

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Roll 10-sided dice

Roll 10-sided dice

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Atmosphere

You are paired with two oxygen. You are part of carbon dioxide.

​

Roll

1, 9, 10

Stay in the Atmosphere. At your next turn, roll again.

2, 3, 4

A plant has taken you up as part of photosynthesis

and synthesized you into sugar or a longer carbon chain.

Become part of Terrestrial Life.

5, 6, 7, 8

You have dissolved in the waters of the Surface Ocean.

Roll 10-sided dice

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Terrestrial Life

You are part of a carbon chain like cellulose in a tree root, sugar in a fruit or muscle in an animal.

​

Roll

1, 2, 10

You’ve been converted by respiration into carbon dioxide (CO2). Go to the Atmosphere.

3

You’ve been turned into a root sugar and released into the soil by a root. Go to Soil Structure.

4

You have been respired/released by root cells as carbon dioxide. Go to Soil Structure.

5, 6

Stay as you have been consumed by another form of Terrestrial Life. At your next turn, roll again.

7, 8, 9

The organism you were a part of died, and now the carbon that was in the organism has fallen to the ground where it will soon decay. Go into the Soil Organic Matter, because carbon never dies!

Roll 10-sided dice

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Soil Organic Matter

You are part of a carbon chain such as cellulose in a fallen leaf.

​

Roll

1, 2, 3*, 4*, 10

Stay in the Soil Organic Matter. At your next turn, roll again.

*3

If you roll a 4 twice, you are carried down to the Surface Ocean by a stream. There you decay into carbon dioxide.

*4

If you roll a 5 three times, you are buried to become a Fossil Fuel.

5, 6, 7

The chain or molecules you are a part of decayed and became carbon dioxide. You are released into the Atmosphere

8, 9

You are consumed by a soil dwelling critter. Go to Terrestrial Life.

Roll 10-sided dice

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Soil Structure

Roll

1, 2, 3, 10

Stay in the Soil Structure as carbon dioxide. At your next turn, roll again.

4, 5, 6

The soil was disturbed, and you move into the Atmosphere. 

7, 8, 9

A microorganism consumes you as a root sugar. Go to Terrestrial Life.

You are released into the soil either as carbon dioxide through root respiration or root sugar that feeds microorganisms that protect the root.

�

Roll 10-sided dice

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Surface Ocean

Roll

1, 2, 3, 10

Stay  where you are in the Surface Ocean one turn. At your next turn, roll again. 

4, 5

Through wave action you have come out of solution as carbon dioxide gas. Go to the Atmosphere. 

6, 7, 8

The processes of water currents and ocean mixing sends you to the Intermediate/Deep Ocean layers.

9

Algae has taken you up out of the water through photosynthesis and synthesizes you into a carbon chain. Go to Marine Life.

You are carbon dioxide dissolved in the surface waters of the ocean.

Roll 10-sided dice

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Intermediate/Deep Ocean

Roll

1, 2, 3, 4, 10*

Stay  where you are in the Intermediate/Deep Ocean.  At your next turn, roll again.

*10

If you roll 10 two times in a row, you settle to the bottom of the ocean and become part of the Ocean Sediment.

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The processes of water currents and ocean mixing sends you to the Surface Ocean layers.

You are carbon dioxide dissolved in the deeper waters of the ocean.

�

Roll 10-sided dice

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Marine Life

Roll

1, 2, 10

You’ve been exhaled/respired and converted to carbon dioxide gas by algae. Go to Surface Ocean.

3, 4, 5

Stay as you  are consumed by other Marine Life. At your next turn, roll again.

6, 7, 8

The organism you were part of died and decays. The carbon is now drifting downwards in the ocean. Go to the Intermediate/Deep Ocean.

9

The organism you were part of died but does not decay. Instead, it settles onto the ocean floor and becomes part of Ocean Sediment.

You are part of a carbon chain in an algae or a marine mammal.

Roll 10-sided dice

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Ocean Sediment

Roll

1*, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6*, 7, 8, 9, 10

Stay in Ocean Sediment. At your next turn, roll again.

*1

If you roll a 1 five times in a row - After 10 million years you are compressed under conditions of great temperature and pressure to become Fossil Fuels.

*6

If you roll a 6 five times in a row, - After 10 million years you are released by a volcano as carbon dioxide gas. Go to the Atmosphere.

You can roll the die but you are not going anywhere anytime soon. You are Ocean Sediment and will become sedimentary rock.

�

Roll 10-sided dice

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Fossil Fuels

Roll

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Stay in Fossil Fuels for the remainder of play. At your next turn, roll again.

You are part of a carbon chain in oil or natural gas.

Roll 10-sided dice