"More than material matters. You must change your ways."
- Joy Williams, 1989, "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp"
Continuing our exploration of human threats to the natural world, this lesson integrates the textbook's information on industrial air pollution with primary sources from China's 2013 smog inundation and a Beijing smog stimulator that brings the phenomenon home to the United States. Refreshing our memory of "propaganda" from English class - specifically the Time Safari, Inc. advertisement in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" - we identified its attributes in a list of over-exaggerated statements released from Chinese media: "5 Surprising Benefits of Smog." After watching a short, subtitled video excerpting a Chinese news program's smog coverage, we identified its main ideas about the smog's human health hazards and rewrote the list into a "5 Surprising Detriments of Smog" Public Service Announcement. Enveloping the skylines of New York and San Francisco in smog through a virtual converter, we discussed our theorized responses to such levels of air pollution if it were to descend on our state.
In our lab section, an online game bookended our experiment to broaden the human-oriented lens of air pollution offered through the Chinese smog case study and present air pollution's effect on nature. Addressing another form of industrial pollution, "Pesky Petroleum: Cleaning Up an Oil Spill," introduced us to oceanic oil spills. We viewed photographs from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, tested different absorbents to extract olive oil from a tray of water, and wrote a condlucing letter to a gasoline company currently drilling in the arctic about their dangerous activity based on how our lab report observations suggested the difficulty of clean-up.
|
Textbook Chapter Page Read-Aloud Ch. 6-2: Air Resources To introduce industrial air pollution, we read aloud a page - "Air Resources" - from our textbook's Chapter 6-2: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources. The single-page excerpt can be downloaded to the left. Provided below is an enlarged image of the air pollution diagram from the textbook page, which we used to discuss the causes and effects of air pollution. We filled in the definition of "smog" on a Four-Square Vocabulary Card in preparation for your homework. We also made some predictions based on the information and diagram: Which do you think is the leading cause of industrial emissions (industry, transportation, ore smelting, power generation)? Which is the worst consequence of air pollution (smog or acid rain) and why? |
Textbook Page Diagram: Causes & Effects of Air Pollution
|
Industrial Air Pollution: Effect on Humans Chinese Media New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television's media coverage of China's 2013 consecutive days of intense smog provides English captions to relay the traffic and health effects of the haze, the smog's location and duration, the Chinese Communist regime's governmental response to the environmental hazard, a poem written about the smog, and firsthand accounts - or quotes - from Chinese residents. The video is provided to the left. During the video, take notes on the effects of the air pollution in China. In an extension writing activity for the televised media coverage, you will use your notes to complete a propaganda rewrite activity. |
Industrial Air Pollution: Propaganda Rewrite
China State Media's Five "Surprising Benefits" of Smog As alluded to and paraphrased in the televised Chinese media coverage of the 2013 smog, Wang Lei, an editor for China Central Television's website, posted an article citing five "surprising benefits" of the dense haze on December 8, 2013. While it wasn’t clear whether the piece was meant to be genuine or satirical (although, suggesting the former, just a day later, an article on the positive military benefits of smog was released), the video captured the negative response it received, since the post added pollution promotion to the government's overall inaction to the hazard. In class, we activated our prior knowledge about "propaganda" from English class (it was used to describe the Time Safari, Inc. advertisement in Bradbury's short story, "A Sound of Thunder"). Then we read Lei's "5 'Surprising Benefits' of Smog," and discussed why it would be classified as propaganda and how and why its effect differed from the effect of the Time Safari Inc, advertisement on Eckels. As an independent writing extension activity, we rewrote Lei's "5 'Surprising Benefits' of Smog," transforming the propaganda into a Public Service Announcement by replacing the false - or, at the very least, exaggerated - information with the "5 Surprising Detriments of Smog' based on your video notes. Since it necessitates the selection of the top negative consequences of smog, the rewrite promotes main idea identification. |
|
|
Industrial Air Pollution: Effect on Humans Beijing Smog Stimulator To bring the international "airpocalypse" home to the United States, we looked at Marketplace's Beijing "Smog Stimulator" tool. Sliding from 0-500 on a non-scientific air quality scale (created and superimposed from a cross-comparison of Beijing city photographs before and after the smog descent), six (6) city images can be manipulated to stimulate Beijing-like air pollution. A class discussion elicited student opinions on whether or not such air pollution would induce their relocation or if they would tolerate masks, health risks, and limited visibility driving conditions to stay in the Big Apple. In class, volunteer students came up to the SmartBoard to pick and pollute one of the following city's atmospheres and skylines with smog:
|
Pollution: the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that cause negative change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light.
Smog: fog or haze combined with smoke and other atmospheric pollutants from industrial coal burning.
Propaganda: Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
|
LAB SECTION
Effect on Nature: Kinetic City's Interactive Stimulation
"Nowhere to Hide" Transitioning from industrial pollution's effect on humans to its effect on animals and nature, we discussed the case of the peppered moth in England during the industrial revolution (1760-1820). As a web-based science program, Kinetic City offers a interactive spin-off - "Nowhere to Hide" - of the historical peppered moth phenomenon. Pulling up the game interface on the SmartBoard, we observed the predator-prey relationships in a non-polluted natural environment stimulation for several minutes and discussed why the green bug population exceeded the orange bug population after several minutes. By dragging the slider to 100% air pollution in the natural environment, we discussed why the trees would change from green to orange due to the Orange-O-Dyne chemical factory based on why the white-lichen covered trees darkened during the industrial revolution. We let the polluted setting play out on the SmartBoard in the background as we completed our lab report. In a wrap-up discussion at the end of the class, we returned to the interactive stimulation to observe and discuss the new predator-prey relationships and the population counts that unfolded due to the factory's pollution. |
|
LAB REPORT "Pesky Petroleum: Cleaning up an Oil Spill" In this
lab, we will stimulate an oil spill cleanup. It’s not as easy as it looks: You
will compare and contrast the easiness of removing black Play-Doh from plastic
animals (which is what the removal process only appears to be based on what the animals look like in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico photographs) to the more realistic removal of vegetable oil from a tray of water. Testing
various “oil removers” – like sand, paper towel, cotton balls, a spoon, and
grass blades – you will attempt to soak up the (vegetable) oil in your “ocean,
which will be an aluminum tin tray. After
first ranking each “oil remover” in order of hypothesized effectiveness and
then observing and recording each method’s cleanup value, the activity will illuminate
the challenges (financial and efficiency) of an oceanic oil spill cleanup – and thus the reasons to take
extreme prevention measures. You will be
required to devise a system of observing to differentiate the effectiveness of
each absorbent, approaching each analysis from a variety of angles (i.e.
appearance of oil in water, amount of oil on absorbent, etc). Be sure to take
the time to record quality observations and develop a multifaceted recording
system, as they will be your primary means of data from which to compile a
conclusion. To understand the costliness of cleanup, each “oil remover” will
also cost you money to purchase, and you will be given a predetermined amount
of play bills and coins: $50.
|
Accountability: to be held responsible for something; to accept the consequences and/or responsibilities of an action or decision.
Conservation: the act of preserving, guarding, or protecting; wise use.
|
Materials & Methods Introduced with a Public Service Announcement from GreenPeace about the current threat of an oil spill in the arctic, the lab will continue to expose you to real-life oil spills. During station setup, photographs of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill will be circulated. We made predictions about the effect on marine life, then photographs of affected animals - like gulls, jellyfish, dolphins, and hermit crabs - were added to the circulation. First, we uncovered plastic animals from Play-Doh, noting the easiness of the procedure and noting the high resemblance of the Play-Doh-covered animals to the photographs. Since removal is not as easy as it looks, we then worked in groups of two (2) or three (3) to fill disposable aluminum trays halfway with water and drop four (4) Tablespoons of vegetable oil into the confined body of water, which more realistically stimulated an industrial oil spill into the ocean. We worked with five "oil removers" - a plastic spoon, cotton balls, grass clippings, paper towel squares, and sand - that mimicked two oil cleanup methods: skimming it off the surface and absorption. |
Observations & Data Recording To incorporate the costliness of oil removal, each material cost a different amount, and you had to purchase each with your given amount of play money ($50). The total cost for the five "oil removers" accumulated to $70. Before you begin to test the effectiveness of each "oil remover," you will predict their usefulness, ranking them in order of increasing effectiveness to form a hypothesis. Test the plastic spoon first. Afterwards, you may chose the order in which you test the absorbents. Purchase from the teacher must precede every material test. Your personal observations of how each absorbent responded to the oil will be your primary means of data, so take the time to take detailed notes and discuss what you see and feel with your group members. A checklist and two-column chart will help guide and organize your observations. When you finish testing all five (5) materials, re-rank the materials in order of increasing effectiveness to compare and contrast the actual results with your original hypothesis. Instead of indvidual questions for your data-synthesizing conclusion write-up, we wrote a persuasive letter that conveyed our findings to discourage the Shell's oil drilling continuation in the arctic. |
|
|
Lab Report Conclusion:
"Dear Shell..." Persuasive Letter Since we introduced the lab report with a Public Service Announcement about Shell - a motor oil company - and its threat to the arctic ecosystem (which is an example of impending oil spill that can still be prevented), you will synthesize your observation data from the lab to compile a concise, but informative persuasive letter urging Shell to evacuate the arctic due to your new knowledge about the difficulty of an oil spill cleanup and its effects on wildlife. Equipped with your observation data and the photographs from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, the lab report certified you to speak as an oil spill cleanup expert. Since your final project involves a persuasive letter, this concluding activity will provide informal practice in a lower-risk environment and allow you to receive teacher feedback before the final project submission. Think back to the techniques you employed (i.e. loaded words) and feedback you received on your "Invasive Species: Arleen v. The Girls" debate from English class. In your letter, be sure to include the following: .
|