Air, Water, and Soil Pollution in Austin

Project Description

Target Audience (9-11th)

This project provides an opportunity for high school students to inquire, learn and practice scientific phenomena in and outside the classroom.  It focuses in the growth of students as real scientists by encouraging them to research a common problem around Austin, investigating immediate solutions, and proposing a plan of action to the community. Students will be presented with inquiry lessons to learn about the chemistry aspects and immediate consequences of pollution in the air, water, and soil. The lessons include topics such as gas behavior in relation to temperature fluctuations (effects of global warming), acids and bases, pH (as a way to measure acidity), and buffers (solutions that help balance any change in pH in a given environment). These topics will prepare the students to examine and test pollution around their community. Students will be expected to present their research, results, and possible solutions to the immediate community in a presentation given to the open public.

Driving Question

What can today's pollution in Austin do to its community? How is Austin's pollution compared to Houston or Mexico City? What can high school students do to improve Austin's air, water, and soil quality?

Project Goals

The goal of this project is to academically instruct students on chemical aspects and practices that are basic and widely used by every scientist. In addition, it encourages students to research the problem that pollution generates (as a community issue), investigate immediate solutions, and propose a plan of action to the community to fight pollution and promise a cleaner Austin for tomorrow.

Project Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify different variables that affect the behavior of gases
• Formulate an experimental unit to measure the concentrations of ions
• Analyze the data and graph any relationships to see how pH depends on the concentrations of ions
• Identify what a buffer does to a solution
• Demonstrate proficiency in the use of chemical instrumentation such as barometers, thermometers, computer aids, pH meters, burettes, etc.
• Employ different methods to collect data
• Analyze data collected in different ways
• Identify the need and relationship of experimental results to the community
• Make valid conclusions based on experimental results
• Apply safety practices during laboratory procedures

Rationale

“Austin ranks 19th among large cities in the nation for the most air pollution from automobiles per person, according to a report released by TexPIRG, a non-profit public interest advocacy group” (http://www.dailytexanonline.com) 3-10-2004

Air pollution is a strong concern among Austinites due to the potential hazards presented to human health and biodiversity in our city.  Also, ozone days are issued more and more often by The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/index.html) as a consequence of increasing pollutants. Immediate action from the community needs to take place to preserve Austin.

To address this issue, students will participate in a six-week unit that contains major aspects of pollution such as car and factory emissions and their immediate consequences in our society.  Students will be presented with inquiry lessons to learn about the chemistry that affects the ecosystem due to pollution, including behavior of gases, acids and bases, pH, and buffers.  Furthermore, students will be able to design a project to investigate sources of pollution, collect data, and propose a solution to be implemented in the community. Students will ultimately present their work to their immediate community in a small science afternoon session where everyone is invited to support these students ideas.

Taking action against pollution is not an option. The interest from young students promises a cleaner Austin for tomorrow.

Background

This six-week project is divided into four sections that touch the key aspects that will help students understand the chemistry behind pollution. Students will have to have a general background of simple chemistry concepts such as determining concentrations and being able to recognize most common elements in the periodic table. These four sections are also going to introduce students with the technology necessary to collect data and interpret it.

First of all, students will be introduced to the behavior of gases when fluctuations in temperature and pressure take place. This portion will give students an insight of the effects in the behavior of atmospheric gases due to global warming. Secondly, students will be introduced to the concepts of acids and bases. They will further understand how these play a role in pollution such as the formation of acid rain. Students will be able utilize the notion of pH, and the correspondent equipment, as a tool that will help them measure the acidity or basicity concentrations of affected habitats such as a lake or soil. Finally, students will learn about buffers, which are solutions that counteract fluctuations of pH from external sources i.e. acid rain falling on a lake. They will investigate the different natural buffers that help out with this problem. These three units are going to be interconnected to the most important unit of this six-week project, students doing science.

Students will be given the opportunity throughout the six weeks to select an aspect of pollution that they will like to investigate around their community. Such aspects may include water, soil, and air pollution, effects on species living in Austin, medical instances affecting individuals in Austin, or the impact that Austin’s pollution may bring to the world. These topics are only suggestions but students will be able to research and select a focused question, with a partner, that interests them, and can be researchable and doable in the allotted time. This will relate what students have learned in their chemistry lessons, and will further give them an insight of how science is done by observing a phenomena, posing a question, formulating a way to investigate it with the tools provided at school and listed in the budget below, collecting data, deducing what the data means, and communicating conclusions drawn from the research.

Students will not only have the opportunity to express their results and improvement suggestions to the teacher, but they will also hold a science afternoon meeting where they expose their material to the immediate community. This will make the students realize the importance that their research brings for the benefit of the community. They will ultimately appreciate the purpose of the project as specified in the abstract above.

Standards Addressed

The project closely follows the Instructional Planning Guide to provide structure and consistency with what students should be learning at this period of time. In addition, it addresses the following 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:

B)  collect data and make measurements with precision; 

(D)  organize, analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data; and

(E)  communicate valid conclusions. 

 (14)  Science concepts. The student knows the properties and behavior of acids and bases. The student is expected to:

(A)  analyze and measure common household products using a variety of indicators to classify the products as acids or bases;

(D)  describe effects of acids and bases on an ecological system. 

Formative and Summative Assessment

The academic development of each student will be measured in utilizing formative and summative assessment as follows:

 

 

* Students will be able to drop their lowest grade out of the four quizzes, or homework assignments.

 

Project Rubric

 

The assessments in terms of quizzes and the test will be comprehensive. I intend to use a combination of theoretical questions, word problems, essay questions, multiple choice, and/or a freebee for extra credit.

Participation will be counted based on the number of replies that the student makes related to the topic. I will hold a maximum of 3 replies per topic per student. The highest replies from a student in the semester will be the highest grade and the rest of the students’ grades will follow accordingly.  In addition, discussions will not only be conducted as a class, but also in groups. Students will grade themselves on how much each student productively participated. The person with the highest percent participation in the group for a particular discussion will automatically earn 3 “used replies” and will earn 3 points for that discussion. The rest of the students’ grades fall accordingly.

Individual collaboration to the group in the project will be graded by the members of the group. Each member will assign the percentage of time and participation that each member contributed (including him/her).