World Scholar's Cup (WSC) Science Curriculum 2025
FULL Guide with images
How Sea Levels Rise
Melting ice in the arctic and antarctic. As well as the fact that if you heat up the ocean,
water naturally starts to expand, increasing in volume.
Extreme Weather Phenomena
A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can collect, retain, and drop more water.
This is because warmer air can hold more water vapor than colder hair, which means
more rain. The summer getting hotter means that more wildfires will occur. This
affects weather patterns in such a way that wet areas become wetter and dry areas
drier.
Mass Extinction
A widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth
Geoengineering
The deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth's natural system
Carbon Sequestration
The process of capturing and storing CO2 from our atmosphere
Land use management
The process of managing the land to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, by planting
more trees (afforestration).
Biochar
A charcoal like substance which is made by burning organic material (biomass), with
the potential of storing carbon for thousands of years.
Biomass
Energy that comes from plants and animals
Enhanced weathering
When basalt is split in half, releasing charged particles which create bonds with the
CO2, and the product can be stored away.
Carbon dioxide capture
Captures CO2 produced from fossil fuel plants. Fossil fuels are heated up, multiple
other gasses and products are released through the exit tubes. To capture the CO2, a
chemical is sprayed that bonds only with the CO2 and falls back down. This product
is then heated up to the point where only pure CO2 gas is released, and it is then
compressed into a solid and sent to be buried underground.
Ocean fertilization
Scientists go to the ocean and dump iron fillings and multiple other nutrients as a way
to encourage phytoplankton growth. And since oceans naturally absorb CO2,
phytoplankton use CO2 to grow. Once they die, the CO2 they used for life gets buried
at the bottom at the ocean under the sedimentary rock.
Ocean upwelling
parallel winds push top warmer water away from the coast line to allow for colder
water from the bottom to reach the top of the ocean. This cold water is filled with
nutrients because of all the degraded fish at the bottom of the ocean, and as a result
the ocean becomes more productive. Specifically the production of phytoplankton,
which helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
, Solar geoengineering
Technologies that could in theory, reduce temperatures by reflecting sunlight away
from the earth, because with less sun reaching the surface, we have decreased the
average temperatures.
Aerosol injection
When you spray Sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and then it combines with water
to form sulfuric acid aerosols, and as a result these aerosols reflect sunlight.
Marine Cloud Brightening
This involves getting on ships, flying above the clouds, and spraying salt water onto
the clouds. These salt particles, help condense water vapor into liquid. With more
water, clouds would appear larger and brighter - thus reflecting sunlight.
High-Albedo Crops and Buildings
Paint everything as white as possible, so it reflect as much sunlight as possible. White
cities, as well as adding a gene which makes crops waxy, reflecting light.
Ocean Mirror
Massive fleet of sea vessels to create millions of micro bubbles on the surface of the
ocean to reflect away sunlight.
Cloud Thinning
The process of removing these thin clouds called cirrus clouds, because they reflect
some sunlight but absorb large amounts of long wave radiation - which warm the
planet
Space Mirror
By only reducing 2% of all sunlight is enough to cool the earth to pre industrial
revolution standards.
Solar radiation
Transmission of energy from the sun in the form of electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic radiation, is radiation across the entire spectrum - or a large spectrum
of light with various frequencies, including Infrared, UV, and Gamma.
Albedo
Describes how much light is reflected off a surface without being absorbed. An
example, would be snow, which reflects a lot of light, because it is white. A white
object is white because it reflects back all the visible wavelengths.
Ice-albedo feedback
Melting the ice in the artic and antartic decreases less albedo surfaces, increasing the
amount of energy absorbed, which increases the average temperature, resulting in
more ice is melted.
FULL Guide with images
How Sea Levels Rise
Melting ice in the arctic and antarctic. As well as the fact that if you heat up the ocean,
water naturally starts to expand, increasing in volume.
Extreme Weather Phenomena
A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can collect, retain, and drop more water.
This is because warmer air can hold more water vapor than colder hair, which means
more rain. The summer getting hotter means that more wildfires will occur. This
affects weather patterns in such a way that wet areas become wetter and dry areas
drier.
Mass Extinction
A widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth
Geoengineering
The deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth's natural system
Carbon Sequestration
The process of capturing and storing CO2 from our atmosphere
Land use management
The process of managing the land to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, by planting
more trees (afforestration).
Biochar
A charcoal like substance which is made by burning organic material (biomass), with
the potential of storing carbon for thousands of years.
Biomass
Energy that comes from plants and animals
Enhanced weathering
When basalt is split in half, releasing charged particles which create bonds with the
CO2, and the product can be stored away.
Carbon dioxide capture
Captures CO2 produced from fossil fuel plants. Fossil fuels are heated up, multiple
other gasses and products are released through the exit tubes. To capture the CO2, a
chemical is sprayed that bonds only with the CO2 and falls back down. This product
is then heated up to the point where only pure CO2 gas is released, and it is then
compressed into a solid and sent to be buried underground.
Ocean fertilization
Scientists go to the ocean and dump iron fillings and multiple other nutrients as a way
to encourage phytoplankton growth. And since oceans naturally absorb CO2,
phytoplankton use CO2 to grow. Once they die, the CO2 they used for life gets buried
at the bottom at the ocean under the sedimentary rock.
Ocean upwelling
parallel winds push top warmer water away from the coast line to allow for colder
water from the bottom to reach the top of the ocean. This cold water is filled with
nutrients because of all the degraded fish at the bottom of the ocean, and as a result
the ocean becomes more productive. Specifically the production of phytoplankton,
which helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
, Solar geoengineering
Technologies that could in theory, reduce temperatures by reflecting sunlight away
from the earth, because with less sun reaching the surface, we have decreased the
average temperatures.
Aerosol injection
When you spray Sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and then it combines with water
to form sulfuric acid aerosols, and as a result these aerosols reflect sunlight.
Marine Cloud Brightening
This involves getting on ships, flying above the clouds, and spraying salt water onto
the clouds. These salt particles, help condense water vapor into liquid. With more
water, clouds would appear larger and brighter - thus reflecting sunlight.
High-Albedo Crops and Buildings
Paint everything as white as possible, so it reflect as much sunlight as possible. White
cities, as well as adding a gene which makes crops waxy, reflecting light.
Ocean Mirror
Massive fleet of sea vessels to create millions of micro bubbles on the surface of the
ocean to reflect away sunlight.
Cloud Thinning
The process of removing these thin clouds called cirrus clouds, because they reflect
some sunlight but absorb large amounts of long wave radiation - which warm the
planet
Space Mirror
By only reducing 2% of all sunlight is enough to cool the earth to pre industrial
revolution standards.
Solar radiation
Transmission of energy from the sun in the form of electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic radiation, is radiation across the entire spectrum - or a large spectrum
of light with various frequencies, including Infrared, UV, and Gamma.
Albedo
Describes how much light is reflected off a surface without being absorbed. An
example, would be snow, which reflects a lot of light, because it is white. A white
object is white because it reflects back all the visible wavelengths.
Ice-albedo feedback
Melting the ice in the artic and antartic decreases less albedo surfaces, increasing the
amount of energy absorbed, which increases the average temperature, resulting in
more ice is melted.
