CO² and Global Warming

This week we focused on how the structure of carbon dioxide causes the atmosphere to absorb infrared radiation, leading to the greenhouse effect.

We began our exploration of the greenhouse effect by reviewing the connection of CO² and global warming through a brief video. We followed-up by creating models of carbon and oxygen using pipe cleaners and beads to show protons, neutrons, and electrons in their proper orbitals.

We then turned to ionic vs. covalent bonds, determining how electrons in CO² are arranged, and created a model of CO² with the help of its Lewis diagram. We ended with a discussion of two videos showing CO²'s interaction with infrared radiation referring to it against on our greenhouse effect demo.