Examine this graph from FRONTLINE/NOVA: What's Up with the Weather? Web site to see dramatic increases in three greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years.
Students conduct a simple experiment to model and explore the harmful effects of acid rain (vinegar) on living (green leaf and eggshell) and non-living (paper clip) objects.
Students are introduced to the differences between acids and bases and how to use indicators, such as pH paper and red cabbage juice, to distinguish between them.
The AirData Web site gives you access to air pollution data for the entire United States. Want to know the highest ozone level measured in your state last year? Ever wonder where air pollution monitoring sites are located? Are there sources of air pollution in your town? You can find out here! AirData produces reports and maps of air pollution data based on criteria that you specify.
By watching and performing several simple experiments, students develop an understanding of the properties of air: it has mass, it takes up space, it can move, it exerts pressure, it can do work.
Students are introduced to the concept of air quality by investigating the composition, properties, atmospheric layers and everyday importance of air. They explore the sources and effects of visible and invisible air pollution. By learning some fundamental meteorology concepts (air pressure, barometers, prediction, convection currents, temperature inversions), students learn the impact of weather on air pollution control and prevention. Looking at models and maps, they explore the consequences of pollutant transport via weather and water cycles. Students are introduced to acids, bases and pH, and the environmental problem of acid rain, including how engineers address this type of pollution. Using simple models, they study the greenhouse effect, the impact of increased greenhouse gases on the planet's protective ozone layer and the global warming theory. Students explore the causes and effects of the Earth's ozone holes through an interactive simulation. Students identify the types and sources of indoor air pollutants in their school and home, evaluating actions that can be taken to reduce and prevent poor indoor air quality. By building and observing a few simple models of pollutant recovery methods, students explore the modern industrial technologies designed by engineers to clean up and prevent air pollution.
The Phoenix metropolitan area, like many large cities, has problems with air pollution at certain times of the year. You can do a simple experiment to determine some of the factors that affect air pollution.
Students learn what causes air pollution and how to investigate the different pollutants that exist, such as toxic gases and particulate matter. They investigate the technologies developed by engineers to reduce air pollution.
Formulating and analyzing texts about air pollution. You will learn which air polluters are in our homes and how they can be prevented.
The purpose of this investigation is to have students analyze cloud cover and to compose written conclusions to a given related scenario.
Using gumdrops and toothpicks, students conduct a large-group, interactive ozone depletion model. Students explore the dynamic and competing upper atmospheric roles of the protective ozone layer, the sun's UV radiation and harmful human-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).
This lesson is designed to help students gain knowledge in using the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) to specify and download a microset of data, then to use the data to investigate the carbon monoxide level at a fixed latitude.
Students observe and discuss a simple balloon model of an electrostatic precipitator to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.
Engineers design methods of removing particulate matter from industrial sources to minimize negative effects of air pollution. In this activity, students will undertake a similar engineering challenge as they design and build a filter to remove pepper from an air stream without blocking more than 50% of the air.
This lesson is designed to help students gain knowledge in graphing a microset of data, then using the graphs to investigate trends in cloud coverage over a given locale. Students are provided content-related activities to enhance background knowledge.
Students will use the Live Access Server (LAS) to form maps and a numerical text file of snow cover for each continent on a particular date. They will analyze the data for each map and corresponding text file to determine an estimate of snow cover for each continent.
This lesson is designed to help students gain knowledge in using the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) to specify and download a microset of data, then to use the data to compare the ozone levels of selected regions around the world.
By tracing the movement of radiation released during an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, students see how air pollution, like particulate matter, can become a global issue.
In this lesson, students download cloud coverage and surface data from the NASA CERES S-COOL website student observation database, then use the Excel spreadsheet program to develop plots of the data. Students will use S'COOL data to identify factors that affect cloud formation.
Students use a sponge and water model to explore the concept of relative humidity and create a percent scale.
