This is a starter for teachers, it can be expanded into Language arts, PE,
Health, Government, Ethics, Business, History, and for all age groups
K-12-adult. It just requires a little thought.

Ask students if the know the following:

For Math The weight of a gallon of gas? How many gallons fit in the family car? How many times a week does the car get filled up? What is the cost of the fuel for a year at current prices? What will fuel for a year cost at $4 a gallon? $5? $6 or $10 How much weight in (Carbon or CO2) fuel did your family put into the air in one year?

Advanced thoughts: Where does carbon based gas come from?

Where does it go to?

For science: The carbon cycle is simple, Carbon in the air CO2 gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed in many numbers of ways bonding with oxygen to form the gas CO2

What major three elements are all plant life made of? C, H, O, Where does a tree absorb its H2O from the ground? or the air? Where does a tree absorb its (CO2) carbon from? What does the photosynthesis processes in the leaf create with the water and the carbon dioxide? CHO+O2 Water from the root system is bonded inside the leaf with to carbon dioxide from the air. This photosynthesis process creates sugar and oxygen. (For younger kids I only use the words Sugar or Sugar compounds and Oxygen I do not get into formulas)

11H20+12CO2 = C12 H22 O11 + 6O2 The carbon cycle is simple, Carbon in the air gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed in many numbers of ways bonding with oxygen to form the gas CO2

Most of the Carbon weight of a tree comes from the air not the soil. After you cut a tree down and dry out the logs almost all the weight of the log is carbon compounds that came from the air. Carbon can be a heavy gas in the air and become a solid through photosynthesis, We can rot or burn the wood and release the carbon as a gas back into the air. All surface animals eat carbon based foods, and release Co2 as they digest or as they rot back into the air. NOW the complex part: Carbon that was trapped in the ground as coal or petroleum is not part of the balanced carbon cycle. We dig it up, bond it with oxygen (Burn it) to create CO2. and we do not trap the CO2 and put it back into the earth from where we dug it up. We are also reducing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere by bonding it with buried carbon.

If a tree weighs 2 tons after it is cut down and dried out: How many trees would we have to grow each year to trap the equal weight of carbon that we dig out of the ground and put into the air? How would we put all that solid carbon or trees back into the ground where it came from?

Good carbon cycle: Carbon in the air gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed by human and made into energy on a bicycle, carbon is expelled as a gas CO2. The carbon cycle is in balance. The air is cleaner you are healthier.

The question here is How do you make cycling fun? How do you get to school, events, date, work, get groceries, take tools or computers to work, how do you dress professionally for work and ride a bike. How do you stay clean, dry, warm, cool on a bike? Are there bikes that have protection from rain, snow, wind? Do they have windshield wipers, turn signals, great lights, comfortable seats? (Look up Velomobile's) What is there to learn in the bicycle world that I do not know?

What are the costs for a car? Insurance, fuel, maintenance (Oil, Tires), repairs, tolls, licence, Plates, city stickers, loan/lease/purchase, customization? Health benefits? How much will fuel cost change in the next ten years? 15 years? 20 years? When will you not be able to afford fuel?

What are the costs for the bicycle? maintenance (Oil, Tires), repairs, purchase, customization ? Health benefits?

For both you have food cost, after sitting in a car for a few years you will need to add gym membership cost to the car costs.

With the money you save riding a bike can you afford to live a better life? Eat nicer foods, have money for nicer trips, or what ever you like to do with some bucks in your pocket? Or will you always be broke paying for expensive personal transportation? Have kids write down ideas on how they would spend money now, when they are in college, when they are in their twenties, or thirties? How much money would they save by the time they were 40?

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