Acid Rain What a Pain!

This six weeks projects, Acid Rain What a Pain! How do we prevent it? focuses on acid/base chemistry in conjunction with the current acid rain problem in Northeast United States and Texas. Texas Utilities proposed building nineteen large coal plants in Texas. A rally to protest the coal plants was held on February 11, 2007. The following link gives information on this rally along with information for future rallies and meetings: http://www.stopthecoalrush.com/.

Students will be mentored by the members of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. The best way to contact them is through their website: http://texas.sierraclub.org/press/newsreleases/20070125.asp. It is advisable to contact members and ask for mentors before the school year starts. Students will be exchanging information and data with the Sierra Club as well as presenting their final projects to them.

The project requires students to research statistics on acid rain. Students should use credible websites, books found in the library, and articles from scientific journals. Students will use this information to develop ideas for a solution to preventing the formation of acid rain and present their findings to the class, the community, and government leaders. The following chemistry text book was found to be very useful in connecting acid/base chemistry to acid rain:
Stanitski, Conrad L., et al., Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society, 3rd ed.,
Boston: Mc Graw Hill, 2000.  229-263.
A classroom copy of this book should be available for students to use as a reference; it would be beneficial for the teacher as well.

The U.S. Environmental Projection agency provides an excellent website. It provides information on the causes, effects, measuring acid rain, and preventions of acid rain. These are all components that go into their final project.
http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/

The Girl Scout Web Page is another website with similar contents as the EPA.
http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/acidrain/education/experiments.html

In between projects, students have lectures and labs. The following website provides a titration simulation that is helpful for students to do prior to an actual titration. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/group/Greenbowe/sections/projectfolder/flashfiles/stoichiometry/acid_base.html

Acid Rain and Plant Growth

http://devacaf.caes.uga.edu/main/lessonPlan/acidRainPlantGrowth.pdf

Acid Rain Simulation Investigation

Antacid Effectiveness Investigation