Topic 6 Practical Ideas
Topic 6 Practical Ideas
There are many activities that can be undertaken to do with the various types of pollution in this topic. In fact, I always used to do an assessed lab in this area under the old syllabus. In this new topic and with a growing emphasis on a variety of contributing factors to climate change, I see an opportunity to add some different (for me) activities.
6.2 Investigating Ozone Depletion
Ozone depletion can lead to an increase in ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This is the key to this investigation. You can purchase bulbs which emit UV-B or UV-C and then investigate the impact these have...
6.3 Investigating Car Pollution
I first discovered this idea from an AP Environmental Science workshop but have adapted it to encompass a variety of pollution tests for car emissions. You can do this as a stand alone activity or use...
6.3 Monitoring Air Pollution
Students find air pollution interesting to investigate but it can be hard to devise quantitative labs. There are a few different labs which my students have tried. I will outline a few ideas here. All...
6.3 Tropospheric Ozone Pollution
Tropospheric ozone is largely produced from the products of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and photochemical reactions from this. Areas with higher tropospheric ozone are usually along roads and...
6.3 and 7.2 Impact of Burning Vegetation
Vegetation burning can be a natural process, part of indigenous land management, and used to clear land. How a vegetation system burns and how it responds to that burning can be very different. In some...
6.4 Buffering Capacity of Soils
The impact of acidic deposition can depend very much on the soil type of the area. Acidic soils are affected much more quickly than a soil with a higher pH. A student of mine investigated this for her...
6.4 Investigating effect of acid deposition on plant growth
I've had students do various versions of this lab, usually using it as an opportunity for a "planning lab" in the old system where students chose to investigate an aspect of pollution on plant growth....