Vance Ballard

NEUTRALIZATION

TEKS:

(1)  Scientific processes. The student, for at least 40% of instructional time, conducts field and laboratory investigations using safe, environmentally appropriate, and ethical practices. The student is expected to:

(A)  Demonstrate safe practices during field and laboratory investigations; and

(B)  Make wise choices in the use and conservation of resources and the disposal or recycling of materials.

(2) Scientific processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:

(A)  Plan and implement investigative procedures including asking questions, formulating testable hypotheses, and selecting equipment and technology;

(B)  Collect data and make measurements with precision;

(C)  Organize, analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data; and

(D)  Communicate valid conclusions.

(12)   Science concepts. The student knows that interdependence and interactions occur within an ecosystem. The student is expected to:

(D)  Identify and illustrate that long-term survival of species is dependent on a resource base that may be limited; and

(E)  Investigate and explain the interactions in an ecosystem including food chains, food webs, and food pyramids.

Day 1

As students enter the room, greet them and ask them to place their property at the front of the room. Ask them to take only a pen or pencil with them to their seats, and please silence or turn off any electronic equipment they have.

Instruct the students to take one of the large index cards provided and fold it lengthwise to form a name plate. Write the name they would like us to call them on the name plate, but it has to be reasonable if they are going to be creative.

Five E Organization

Teacher Does Student Does

Engage: I will ask the students if anyone knows what a franchise is, or what the idea behind a franchise is. I will share that franchises could be anything from food related (McDonald's or Sonic) to service related (travel agencies or landscape companies) to retail businesses (window tinting or electronics). A franchise is where an individual or a group of people purchase the rights to hang a sign that is easily recognized. They are basically buying the use of a popular company name, and in most cases they must follow very strict company policies to keep that privilege. I will announce that I own the outlet mall in San Marcos and I would like to franchise a new location in southwest Austin. Are any of them interested in franchising my mall? I will build the structures and stock the stores and they can pay me a portion of their net profits until they have paid their franchise fees in full. Instruct the students to take one colored sheet of paper and a couple blank sheets of paper and fold them in ½ to make a little journal for the next couple of days. Ask each group to come up with a team name and write it on their journal. Now that we have our teams in place for our big money making project, we will need to address a few important issues regarding construction. Has anyone heard of the Edwards Aquifer? It is a huge lake that is underground and it supplies drinking water for Austin and San Antonio and much of south central Texas. There are many different aquifers underground all over the world. Can anyone tell us about the recharge zone that is in the Austin area? The recharge zone is where the water runoff enters the aquifer, and can we think of any problems that might be an issue when we go to build our money making mall? We will be focusing on the water quality issues related to the recharge zone of our water source. Specifically, the properties of acidic runoff, and how they will impact the Edwards aquifer.

Name some popular franchises, or maybe some will understand and relate what a franchise is. General interest to entrepreneurial excitement. Make folders with team names. Someone will recall the name from the news, or even tell us about it. Someone will tell of the signs on Mopac and maybe even what a recharge zone is. Air and water quality issues. Ecological habitat issues. Traffic, trash, crime, and noise pollution.

Evaluate

Are they interested and participating in the conversations. Call on the ones who are not actively responding to some of the prompting questions. Ask their opinion about how to best accomplish our goal, or what their goal is?

Explore: We will do a little mini-lab with various samples of household food items and pH paper strips. The unknown items to include tomato based products, vinegar product, milk of magnesia, citrus product, tap water. We will ask the students to create a chart to include 3 areas. guess unknown guess the pH test the pH modify guess for unknown An example of the chart will be put on an overhead or chalkboard. The safety procedures will be reviewed before unknowns are passed out. Treat all unknowns as dangerous chemicals or microorganisms. DO NOT consume anything during lab. You should not even have your personal food open. Notify teacher(s) if spill occurs to ensure proper cleanup. Wear appropriate protective gear. E.g. lab coats, eye protection, gloves, etc. Dispose of unknowns in appropriate containers. DON'T JUST THROW IN TRASH!! The students will be provided the samples and asked to conduct the mini-lab; record the data, discuss the results, and prepare to share if called upon.

Students will create a chart for the group to record data as indicated. They will discuss the data and prepare to share if called on.

Evaluate

Observe them discuss observations and record data. Maintain focus to the task. Interact with them to understand their thought processes as they go through the mini lab.

Explain: Learning Experience(s) We will ask the groups to share some of their discoveries. What's the significance of a pH of 7? What is the significance of a pH number above or below 7? What does it mean to get farther away from 7? How do we get a number back to 7? How do we get a number even further from 7? Ask them about what were some things that made them change their guesses. It's important to explain to the students the process for experiments is to obtain data given a set of variables and the data isn't always what we expect. Lab error or unexpected results are as important as perfect labs with expected results. Some extremely important information was discovered by accident. A scientist gets an unexpected answer and looks at why.

Hoped for student response There will be some that get every thing right or correct data, and some that get inconsistent data. Neutral Below acid, above base More acidic/basic Dilute or neutralization Strengthen concentration or combine with stronger base They share some ideas on why the data came up different. Have them come up with some examples of discovery through unexpected results.

Evaluate

Do they have an understanding of what it means to record what you observe and analyze actual data. Do they understand that they can conduct another experiment or repeat each step several times to get an “average” as they conduct the lab?

Extend/Elaborate: Learning Experience(s) Review the properties of acids and bases and possibly neutralization. How will the things we learned today affect our approach to the mall? What are the sources of contamination related to the mall? How can we prevent or correct these problems? If we can't, do we continue with the mall because we want to make lots of money, and let someone else figure out how to repair the damage we've caused?

Hoped for student response Show understanding Apply to water quality issues Cars, trash, waste removal Spend money on trash crews, water retention ponds/treatment facilities Hopefully not, but we could explore other areas to build or more environmentally responsible business decisions.

Evaluate

Are they aware actions have consequences and do they understand there are choices?

Let them know that tomorrow they will be developing a testable question about how their mall will affect the aquifer. They will design an experiment with procedures, data collection, safety rules, and analysis.

Day 2

Welcome them back and ask them to follow same procedure as the day before. Place their belongings at the front and silence electronic equipment. Find their seats and review their journals for our comments. Ask them to reply to any comments in the journal or post any questions they have about what was commented on. The idea is to have communication in the classroom orally and in the journals with written dialogue.

Engage: Review the previous lesson and how it will apply to the problem we are faced with today. What are acids? What are bases? What is neutralization? Discuss interesting observations from the day before. What happened when we mixed some of the unknowns?

Respond with appropriate comments about acids, bases and neutralization.

I will explain that the Environmental Protection Agency has concerns with acidic run-off that is normally associated with high volume traffic areas. Specifically, the large parking lots that are built for shoppers (impervious cover) are known to have high concentrations of vehicle emissions that are acidic and toxic. They have notified me of test results that indicate my San Marcos location is on sandstone bedrock, and the data suggests dangerous levels of acidic run-off. We know the new location will be on limestone bedrock, and want to test the effects of these conditions to determine if we will contaminate the recharge zone.

Explore: Develop a testable question about how the mall will affect the recharge zone. Develop a hypothesis about the question. Develop an experiment to test the question using the materials provided to each group. Design a procedure to test the effects of dependent and independent variables in a controlled situation. Include safety guidelines as they relate to the A.I.S.D. rules. Collect data from the experiment. Analyze the data for relevance to the original question and hypothesis. Form a conclusion based on the data analysis.

Soil samples (normal and buffered), rain (normal and acidic), pH strips to measure, cups to test in, and filter paper if wanted. Have only one variable at a time. Test the control first to have something to compare change with. Normal soil is sandstone bedrock and buffered soil is limestone bedrock from 2 locations. Should conclude the limestone soil neutralized the acidic water.

Explain: Discuss the effect of the limestone on the acidic run-off. There are many other steps to minimizing contamination of recharge zone. What are some others?

The discussion should be centered on the observations that the limestone will neutralize the acidic water. The preliminary results will lead us to conclude that we will not contaminate the recharge zone as badly in the second location. Retention ponds, staff to clean parking lot of debris. Others?

Extend/Elaborate: Do we understand that the run-off is only one of the things we would need to address when building? There are many others.

Ecological habitats will be destroyed. Noise pollution and traffic congestion will need to be addressed for the neighborhood because they will not benefit from us making money across the street from their homes. They want peace and quiet. No loud cars with big stereos or loud pipes. Large trucks delivering goods. They want to be able to allow their children to safely play in the yard without worrying about someone running over them.

Day 3

Receive the students and have them follow same procedure from last 2 days. Have them respond to the questions in their journals. Ask them if anything is unclear about the lab from yesterday.

Have the groups spend some time preparing their presentations about what they have learned, or the procedures they used to collect data. There will be a round robin style of dialectic and individuals from different groups will be called upon to share something with their peers. Peer review will be utilized with respect.

We will finish up with the significance of recording data. It is much more important to collect actual data rather than make it up or make it fit. We will share that some very important discoveries have occurred because an unexpected result occurred from an experiment. Penicillin, pesticides, fire proof materials are a few examples.

It is important to thank them for their cooperation and acknowledge the hard work associated with the type of learning they were engaged in. It is difficult for any student to do something they're not used to and they were able to struggle through and successfully complete something new to them.