Turning Classrooms into Carbon Capture Engines with Algae

Growing Algae in classrooms could lead to tons of extra carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere on an annual basis while providing new pathways for STEM education.

Introduction

The science is clear, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached a critical level. Governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals have all taken steps to reduce their footprint on the environment. However, even with those steps large quantities of human produced emissions still enter the atmosphere every year. Many have turned to carbon capture, a process that either through natural, artificial, or hybrid (a combination of natural and artificial) methods extracts carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The extracted carbon dioxide is then either stored in underground reservoirs, trees, or processed into refined products (such as fuel, construction materials, or polymers). However, many carbon dioxide extraction methods are out of reach within the classroom — where it would serve as an excellent experiment for STEM students seeking to learn more about our atmosphere and how carbon dioxide can impact it. This is where Algae provides a valuable use case — as many experiments related to algae can visually and interactively show such processes.

Algae in Classrooms