Air Pollution Project
Mt. Pleasant, Washington DC
Lesson Plan for DC Metro Science for the People (http://www.dcmetrosftp.org) project with Bancroft Elementary School :
Is Your Neighborhood Hazardous to Your Health? (June 25, 2009)
Contact People: Peter Caplan (peter.caplan@yahoo.com)
David Schwartzman (dschwartman@gmail.com)
Week 1:
Introduction to Air Pollution: effects on health; particles vs gases
How do you get rid of a bad smell in a room?
How does the air in the room try to clean itself? Turbulence demo.
Outside air: Air quality codes
Activity: Collect related local newspaper, TV - plus Google.
Week 2:
Discussion of news items collected; intro to particles and ozone
Pollution and the atmosphere: AQI - what it is, what pollutants it applies to,
Dispersion demos: ink in water; onion in air, soap bubbles in air.
How does outside air clean itself When is pollution worst - season, time of day.
Week 3:
Measuring air pollution: Where in your neighborhood is the dirtiest air?
Group activity: Estimate particle concentration using sticky tape collector
Organizing observations: Keeping log of times, places, weather and AQI
Code red days: Is Mt. Pleasant complying?
Pollution’s effect on nature: Observing lichens in Mt. P – where are they healthiest?
Week 4:
Measuring particle concentration with a portable electronic sampler
Continue sticky tape measurements
Continue monitoring code red days in media, and note concurrent weather
Week 5:
Bring in all measurements and analyze any patterns found
What can we do about air pollution?
Questions for future studies to resolve
RESOURCES
- > Teacher AQI kit:
http://www.epa.gov/airnow/teachers/toolkit/teachers_full_toolkit.pdf
- > Large scale maps and hourly loop: (for loop, click on "ozone now" or "particles now")
- > Clean Air Partners action programs
http://www.cleanairpartners.net
-> other state and municipal ozone action days programs:
http://www.epa.gov/airnow/action.html
- > Ozone Action Days - daily map of which cities have AQI in unhealthy range
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.actiondays
-> MWCOG air quality forecasts & obs, past & present; maps
http://www.mwcog.org/environment/air/forecast/
-> AQI forecasts for Balt and DC: (with link to Balto haze camera)
http://www.mde.state.md.us/Air/index.asp
-> Monthly day-by-day air quality summaries:
http://www.mde.state.md.us/Programs/AirPrograms/Monitoring/aqsummaries/index.asp
-> Webcams can be looked at for visibility (smog) as well as traffic density:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/metro/traffic?nextstep=zoneDetail&zone=41
- > And, keep in mind: traffic counts (trucks, motos, buses, cars), gas station activity on code red days (compliance), public transit use, hospital admissions