Activity 1 - Acid rain

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials

• Ph paper and glass jars
• Lab note -

See - Acidification On Animals

Focus questions:

1. What is fresh water?
2. What is acid rain?

Learning outcomes:

1. Explain how different water sources have different levels of pH.
2. Learners will test different samples of water and explain how water sources are different based on the different substances that flow into them. Pollution.

Exploration -

1. Put learners in pairs.
2. Ask. How do we get clean drinking water?
3. Listen to the responses and have a discussion about the importance of keeping a source of fresh drinking water.
4. Have learners clean three glass jars of water and allow them to drip-dry.
5. Discuss how to collect rainwater, river water, and lake water. (Could have them collected in advance).
6. Demonstrate how to measure pH by dipping pH paper into the water samples.
7. Record the pH values as well as the weather conditions at the time of sampling.
8. Have them organize the data in graph or table form and discuss the results.

Invention -

1. Discuss the data and make explanations about the water as a source for drinking.
2. Explain and discuss what percent of the earth's surface is covered by water. Illustrate with a map and or globe.
3. After listening to the responses identify the percentage and ask, what percent of the available water is fresh water.

Discover

Describe the information in the Acidification On Animals - chart and the different affects on different animals.

Activity 2 - Ozone Pollution: Smog Alert

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials:

• 4 small rubber bands, 1 wire clothes hanger, magnifying glass, plastic bag

Focus questions:

What affect will outside air have on different objects?

Learning outcomes:

1. Collect data from an experiment and describe how air pollution affects objects.

Exploration

1. Put students in pairs.
2. Discuss causes and effects of air pollution.
3. Bend two hangers so that when you stretch the rubber bands over the hangers, they are tight.
4. Hang the hangers outdoors in a shady place so its out of the sun and leave it there for two weeks and hang the other in a sealed plastic bag next to it to serve as a control.
5. When two weeks are up, look at the rubber bands.
6. Do they look the way they did before, or are they cracked?
7. Check with magnifying glass, too.
8. Touch the rubber bands.
9. Do they feel the way they did before, or are they hard?
10. IF they look and feel the way they did before, then the air is quite clean.
11. If they look cracked and felt hard, then the air is polluted.
12. Leave rubber bands out for a few more weeks.
13. Discuss their observations and inferences from both experiments.

Invention

1. Recall and review

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Activity 3 - Effects of fire & wildfires on the atmosphere

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials:

• 10-gallon fish tank, glass lid for fish tank, sand or gravel, 30 to 40 wooden matches, lime-water (calcium hydroxide), two small glass beakers or jars, water, long fireplace matches
• Lab notes -

WARNING: This activity should be conducted under adult supervision. And outside. The container can be sealed and brought in when it is safe to do so.

Focus questions:

1. How does smoke pollution affect the environment?

Learning outcomes:

• OBSERVE how burning gives off gases, ash, heat, and light and describe how each can be a pollutant or advantageous to organisms and the environment.

Exploration

1. Put learners in pairs.
2. Cover the bottom of the fish tank with 8 centimeters of sand and/or gravel.
3. Take 30 to 40 matches and place them in a tight circle in the center of the tank.
4. Fill the two beakers or jars with limestone. Place one jar inside the tank and one jar just outside the tank.
5. Wet the outside of the tank with water so that the lid will form a tight seal with the tank.
6. Light the matches with one of the long, fireplace matches and then immediately slide the glass lid onto the tank.
7. The matches will burn and give off billows of smoke, soot, and ash.
8. Leave the lid on the tank and observe the beakers of lime water. 
9. Record observation.

Invention

1. List observations.
2. Ask. What do you observe?
3. What would be considered beneficial? Heat and light in specific situations would be essential for survival. Ash can be beneficial as fertilizer and inhibit growth of some organisms that infect other organisms.
4. What would be considered pollution? Smoke, soot, too much heat, ash.
5. Discuss the affects of each.
6. Continue to make observations for the next two to three days.
   

Discovery

Activity 4 - Algae growth with various amounts of fertilizer

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials

• For each team of four- 4 tumblers, 1 vial, alga culture, 2 light sources, and 1 package of fertilizer pellets, bottle of BTB
• Lab notes -
  

Focus questions:

1. How does fertilizer affect the environment?

Learning outcomes:

Collect data to model and explain how fertilizer promotes plant growth, plants grow, die, and decompose; which produces carbon dioxide. Which can be a pollutant in excess.

Exploration

1. Ask. What is the function of commercial fertilizers?
2. Introduce algae.
3. Ask. What would you prediction an effects of fertilizer on algae might be. (remember, algae are green plants). It will help th plants grow better.
4. Learners should set up four tumblers of aged water with varying amounts of fertilizer, but with similar quantities of algae
   1. Tumbler 1 – algae in aged water with no fertilizer
   2. Tumbler 2 – algae in aged water with a little bit of fertilizer (3 pellets)
   3. Tumbler 3 – algae in aged water with some fertilizer (6 pellets)
   4. Tumbler 4 – algae in aged water with a lot of fertilizer (12 pellets)
5. Tumblers should be filled about two-thirds full of aged water before the fertilizer pellets are added to three of them.
6. After each is filled with water and fertilizer, add about one-half vial of alga culture to each tumbler from the classroom alga-culture.
7. Label each tumbler as to the amount of fertilizer it contains, the date, and the group members’ initials.
8. Place all of the tumblers in a circle underneath the light source to ensure they all receive the same amount of light.
9. Students should use charts to graphically display the amount of growth in each tumbler each day.  The chart could use terms like “no growth, some growth, most growth.”
10. When a layer of dead algae is discovered at the bottom of the cup, call this to the class’s attention.  Ask the children what they think will happen to the dead algae. 
11. What happens to organic matter?
12. Ask the student’s how the decomposition of the dead algae affects the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the water.
13. Remove a sample of the dead algae from each culture and place it in freshwater for a couple of days, then test each sample with BTB.
14. Ask the students what they discovered.
15. Visually display these findings on a chart.

Invention

1. Ask. What is a pollutant? A pollutant is any substance that is increased beyond the level that organism can use or tolerate.
2. In this case, the dead algae caused by the fertilizer is the pollutant.
3. Through discussion, children should realize that excess carbon dioxide occurs as a result of increasing the amounts of certain materials in an aquatic ecosystem.

Discover

Activity 5 - Chromatography demonstrations of how hazardous materials travel through the soil

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials:

• Large stack of paper towels, food coloring, water, several paper plates, plastic film canisters or other vials, spray bottle filled with water
• Lab notes -

Instructor’s note: When preparing for this sequence of activities, we could not find any models to demonstrate how chemical spills travel through soil. This is an attempt at such a model. The first model demonstrates how chemicals are transported along the surface of dry soil or sand. The second model demonstrates how chemicals are transported through dry soil or sand. It is important for people to understand how chemicals are transported through soil in order to gain an understanding of how important and how tricky it is to clean up any spills.

Focus questions:

1. Do pollutants stay in one place?

Learning outcomes:

Collect data to model how substances can be physical broken into smaller pieces and washed away with water to spread out and flow through soil.

Exploration

1. Organize learners into pairs and groups.
2. Ask. Do you think chemicals move through soil?
3. Give each student the materials.
4. Explain that they are going to create models of how chemicals travel across the surface of the ground and how chemicals travel through soil.
5. In each film canister, pour 1tsp.of water, and 1 drop of each color of food coloring, red, blue, green, and yellow.
6. Place a paper towel on a plate.
7. Pour the contents of the vials onto the center of one paper towel spread out flat.
8. Observe the results.
9. On another paper plate, place a large stack of paper towels.
10. Pour the contents of another vial in the center of the stack.
11. Observe the results (may look through the stack of paper towels).

Invention

1. Ask students what each modeled.
2. Using this model, what inferences can be made about chemical spills and the environment.
3. Using a spray bottle, mist the paper towels.
4. Observe the results.
5. Ask students what this demonstrates.
6. Ask students to describe possible ways to clean up such a spill based on their findings.

Discover

Activity 6 - Water off a duck’s back (oil pollution)

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials

• Cooking oil, shallow containers, eye dropper, hand lens, feathers (natural), liquid detergent (dish-washing liquid), hard-boiled eggs.
• Lab notes -

Focus questions:

1. How will oil interact with organisms in the environment?

Learning outcomes:

1. Describe how oil can be a harmful pollutant and difficult to remove from organisms and the environment.

Exploration

1. Organize learners into groups and pairs.
2. Give each group a shallow pan partially filled with water.
3. Add one drop of oil to the water and observe the interaction of oil and water and measure the area covered by the oil spill.
4. Estimate the area what would be affected by an oil spill involving a tanking truck holding 8,000 gallons of oil and a ship holding 30,000 gallons of water.
5. Put oil into a small container and add three boiled eggs.
6. Observe the interaction and remove one egg after five minutes and observe the egg before, during, and after peeling off the shell.
7. Try to remove the excess oil off the shell before attempting to peel the egg.
8. Peel the egg and observe the interior.
9. Remove the second egg after 15 minutes and the third egg after 30 minutes and follow the same procedure as the first egg. 
10. Record and discuss the observations.
11. Examine a feather with a hand lens and sketch what you see.
12. Dip the feather into water and sketch the results.  Continue this process after dipping the feather in oil.
13. Clean the feather with water and detergent and sketch what you see after viewing it with the lens.

Invention

1. Regroup as a class and groups demonstrate their projects.
2. Compare all the sketches and discuss the changes in the feather after it was exposed to the oil and then to detergent.
3. Discuss what effect these changes could have on normal bird activity.
4. Discuss other possible effects on birds from an oil spill and the impact of oil spills on other wildlife species, on humans, and on the environment.

Discover

Activity 7 - Oil spill cleanup device

First written by Steve Wiesler and Chad Beckius

Materials

• For each group or student – clear drinking glass, tap water, 6-8 washers, empty prescription medicine container, large enough for the washer to fit in, 24-inch
• Lab notes -

Focus questions:

1. How are oil spills contained?

Learning outcomes:

1. Make and describe how an oil containment system works.

Exploration

1. Organize learners into groups and pairs.
2. Fill the glass three-fourths full with water.
3. Place 2 to 3 washers in the container and tie the ends of the strings around the top of the container.  Tie the other ends of the strings together to form a loop.
4. Place the container in the glass of water and support it upright by holding the loop.
5. Continue to add washers until the top of the container is just below the surface of the water.  Remove the container and pour out any water, but keep the washers inside.
6. Pour the oil into the glass, then slowly lower the weighted container into the glass.
7. With the loop, support the container so that its top is just below the surface of the oil.
8. When the container fills, raise it, pour its liquid contents into the bowl, and observe the liquid.
9. Continue to fill the container until all the oil is removed from the glass.

Invention

1. Regroup as a class and groups demonstrate their projects.

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