Study of the increase of the CO2 atmospheric concentration in an introductory university course of sciences

Abstract

This paper describes a system of activities to study one of the main causes of global warming: the increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The basic idea consists on using simple mathematical procedures and models, comprehensible for the students but for yielding results in agreement with reality and with those reported in scientific publications. The system of activities has been employed with students of the first year of an introductory course of sciences, and this has evidenced that it is viable and produces a great interest in them.