Digital Commons Network^™

Oxygen Give And Take, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Summary: This is a series of three activities followed by a worksheet. The concepts taught include gas production (O2 and CO2), chemical reactions, catalysts, and pollution caused by combustion. Correlation to National Science Education Standards

• Content Standard 9-12 Physical Science B Chemical Reactions

• Content Standard 9-12 Earth and Space Science D Geochemical Cycles

There's A Hole In My Umbrella: A Mini-Unit On Acid Deposition, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will gain an understanding of acid deposit ion and the environmental impact it has both nationally and globally. National Science Standards: As a result of these activities, students in grades 9-12, will

• develop skills in scientific inquiry (standard A).
• observe changes in properties of matter (standard B).
• gain an understanding of environmental quality related to both natural and human-induced hazards (standard F).
• understand that science is a global challenge (standard F).
• evaluate results of scientific experiments and observations (standard F).

Indoor Air Pollution, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives: Students will learn about indoor air pollutants the types and legal concentrations and affects on human health. The students will also determine the pathway for the formation of radon.

National Science Education Standards: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of the structure of the atoms; environmental quality; and natural and human-induced hazards.

As a result of their activity the students will have a better understanding of the atom’s parts and how the atom disintegrates and interacts with the environment. The students should have a better understanding of the …

There's A Whole Lotta Spillin' Goin' On!, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Unit Learning Objectives: The learner should be able to:

1. Compare and contrast hazardous chemical spills 2. Comprehend how hazardous chemicals affect the environment.
3. Explain the difficulty involved in cleaning up a hazardous spill.
4. Explain how the chemical travels once it is released.
5. Assess how hazardous chemicals affect the human body and animal life.
6. Analyze a chemical spill and its affects on its surroundings.
7. Create an emergency management system based on a real life situation

Evidence of Understanding: By the end of this unit, students should be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of hazardous …

Is Air Quality In The Index?, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

• Make predictions and explanations based from evidence.
• Identify sources of air pollution that affect air quality.
• Interpret and apply the Air Quality Index.
• Have the desire to share Air Quality information with others.

5-8 NSES Standards:

• Standard A: Inquiry •Standard D: Structure of Earth Systems
•Standard E: Science and Technology
•Standard F: Personal Health, Population, Resources, Environmental and Natural Hazards, Risks and Benefits, Science and Technology in Society

9-12 NSES Standards:

• Standard A: Inquiry
• Standard D: Geochemical Cycles, Origin and Evoluti
on of the Earth System
• Standard E: Science and Technology …

Trouble Breathing?, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective:

Students will make connections from everyday situations to air quality. Students will know the 7 criteria pollutants established by the EPA and monitored by each state.

National Science Education Standard:

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, students w ill learn that natural environments may contain substances that are harmful to human beings. Maintaining environmental health involves establishing or monitoring quality standards related to use of soil, water, and air.

It’S Time For A Change, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Learning Objective: (adapted from the Secondary National Science Content Standards)

1 .Chemical reactions may release or consume energy. Some reactions, such as burning fossil fuels, release large amounts of energy by losing heat and emitting light.

2. Light can initiate many chemical reactions such as the evolution of urban smog.

3. The total energy of the universe is constant. Energy can be transferred by collisions in chemical reactions. However, it can never be destroyed.

4. Everything becomes less orderly over time. In energy transfer the overall effect of the energy spreads out uniformly like the warming of our surroundings as …

You're One In A Million: An Activity In Comparing Of Concentrations, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

Prior to the introduction of criteria pollutants and NAAQS values, it may be helpful to familiarize students with the scale at which criteria pollutants have been deemed harmful. Often numbers as small as these can seem almost abstract, but the following activities will help to make them accessible and concrete to the students,making the discussions of NAAQS values more meaningful.

To Burn Or Not To Burn, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective : Students learn how a locally proposed power plant may impact the environment of their community.

National Science Education Standards:
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, students
should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understandings about science and technology

As a result of activities in grades 9-12, students
should develop understanding of

• Personal and community health
• Environmental quality
• Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

Factories - Friends Or Foes?, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will be able to role play various points of view considering placement of a factory and its effects on air quality.

National Science Education Standards:

Standard E - Understandings about science and technology

Standard F -

• Personal health
• Populations, resources, and environments
• Natural hazards
• Risks and benefits
• Science and technology in society

Standard G - Science as a human endeavor

Finding The Planetary Boundary Layer, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will learn about the presence of the planetary boundary layer within the troposphere. Then using real life data, observe the changing levels of the boundary layer.

National Science Education Standards:

• Standard A: Science as Inquiry
• Standard B: Teacher will guide and facilitate a learning environment
• Standard D: Students will be provided with time, space and resources to conduct their research.
• Standard E: Science and Technology

Be Particular About Our Matter!, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

--Demonstrate that particulate air pollution can be invisible to the eye.
--Students will collect and observe particulate matter.
--Students will identify pollen grains and make their own pollen map for Davenport.
-- Students will collect and interpret local environmental maps.
--Students will investigate health risks involved in polluted air.

National Science Education Standards:

• Standard A: Students will conduct scientific inquiry
• Standard B: Teacher will guide and facilitate a learning environment.
• Standard D: Students will be provided with time, space and resources toconduct their research.
• Standard F: Risks and benefits; Science and technology in society

Concentration Is Essential For This Task!: An Activity In Comparing Of Concentrations, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

Students will be able to explain and give examples of both parts per million and parts per billion. In the next activity students will use these values in the analysis of air quality data.

National Science Education Standards:

Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties, which make them useful in different ways, for example, as building materials, as sources of fuel, or for growing the plants we use as food. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.

Scientific investigations involve …

Patterns Of Temperature, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

1. Students will analyze temperature distributions on a map.
2. Students will compare and contrast temperature variations on a weather map.

National Science Standards: All students should develop an understanding of: structure of earth system, science and technology, risks and benefits, and science and technology in society.

Clouds Over Your Head, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

• Students will become familiar with the four main types of clouds: stratus, cirrus, cumulus, and cumulonimbus and their characteristics
• Students will learn the weather map symbols for cloudy, clear or no clouds, and partly cloudy.

National Science Standards: All students should develop an understanding of: properties of earth materials, and changes in earth and sky.

Where Did The Water Go?, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:

•To predict what will happen to the water sprayed on the surface after setting for a short time.
•To predict the effect of moving air on evaporation

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties of earth materials, and changes in earth and sky.

Weather Maps And Fronts, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will use symbol knowledge learned from previous lessons to read and understand warm and cold fronts on a weather map.

National Science Education Standards:
All students should develop an understanding of:
properties of earth materials and changes in earth
and sky.

Highs, Lows And Patterns In The Wind, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:
1. Students will learn that H is the symbol for high pressure and L is symbol for low pressure on weather maps.
2. Students will properly identify areas of high pressure and areas of low pressure on current U.S.A. surface maps.
3. Students will begin to develop an understanding of weather associated with high pressure and low pressure areas.

National Science Education Standards: All students should develop an understanding of: properties of objects and materials, properties of earth materials, and changes in earth and sky.

Do The Dewpoint!, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:
1.Students will observe examples of condensation and deposition.
2. Students will observe, record, and analyze data.

National Science Education Standards: All students should develop: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties of earth materials,and changes in earth and sky.

Reading Universal Time, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding about science and technology, and science and technology in society.

Air Masses, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:
• Students will learn and become familiar with the four air masses: cold and dry; cold and humid; hot and dry; and hot and humid.
• Students will learn that air masses have specific characteristics: temperature and humidity, the leading edge of the air mass is called the front, a front is the boundary between two air masses, and movement of air masses brings certain weather conditions with it.

National Science Education Standards: All students should develop: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties of earth materials, and changes in earth and sky.

Structure Of The Atmosphere, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties and changes of properties in matter, understandings about science and technology, and structure of the earth system.

Winds Around Highs And Lows, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of motions and forces, structure of the earth system, and understandings about science and technology.

Fronts, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should be able to develop an understanding about scientific inquiry, structure of earth system, and understandings about science and technology.

Precipitation Patterns, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will demonstrate the relationship between precipitation types and surface temperatures.They will use forecast maps to predict where snow or rain will fall over the next several days.

National Science Education Standards – As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an
understanding of structure of the earth system.

Upper Air Plots, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives: Students will study air patterns at three different levels of the troposphere.

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties and changes of properties in matter, understandings about science and technology, and structure of the earth system.

Air Pressure And Weather, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objective: Students will learn about relationships between air pressure and weather changes.

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop: understandings about scientific inquiry, structure of the earth system, and understanding about science and technology.

Decoding Metar Data, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives: Students will decode a METAR report and convert the decoded METAR data to a station model plot.

National Science Education Standard: All students should develop an understanding of: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties and changes of properties in matter, understandings about science and technology, and structure of the earth system.

Reading And Using Meteograms, Storm Project

Open Educational Resources

Objectives:Students learn how hourly weather data is plotted on a meteogram, and how to interpret the data. They will relate meteogram data to surface weather maps.

National Science Education Standards: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of: abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, properties and changes of properties in matter, understandings about science and technology, and structure of the earth system.

As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of Energy in the earth System: The sun is the major external source of energy; Heating …

Sails: A New Gypsum Speleothem From Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico, Tullio Bernabei, Paolo Forti, Roberto Villasuso

International Journal of Speleology

The caves of Naica (Chihuahua, Mexico) are perhaps the most famous mine caves of the world due to the presence of gigantic gypsum crystals. Nevertheless, very little research has been carried out on this karst area until now. A multidisciplinary investigation started in 2006 with the aim not only to define the genesis and the age of the Naica gypsum crystals, but also on other scientific aspects of these caves. This paper describes a completely new type of gypsum speleothem: the “sails”, observed only inside the Cueva de las Velas, one of the caves of the Naica system. This speleothem …