A PROJECT CRITICAL WEBQUEST
Too Much Air Pollution Caused By
New York City Public Buses
Presented By:
Mrs. L. Colón
High School for
Law and Public Service
New York, NY
INTRODUCTION
Have
you ever walked down a New York City street and have a bus pass you by blowing
hot exhaust fumes at you? You can feel
the soot hitting your face and body and you cover your mouth so the soot
doesn’t enter. However, smoke filled
with microscopic soot particles and chemicals do enter through your nose and
mouth and become trapped in your lungs.
The outside of your body can be washed and cleaned, but your lungs,
however, cannot be, and the debris left behind by these fumes will build up,
stay trapped, and ultimately cause many respiratory diseases.
New
Yorkers face many respiratory problems because of this pollution. Although there may many causes to these
illnesses, bus pollution of the air is a major contributor because of its large
and constant release of fumes.
Air
pollution has been a problem since the start of the Industrial revolution and
the invention of the automobile way back the late nineteenth century. New
Yorkers have been suffering the consequences ever since. Lung caner, Tuberculosis, Emphysema has been just a few of the
fatal diseases caused by air pollution.
Here is
your chance. You along with your classmates will attempt to find public polices that will stop this lethal situation. You will
report to the mayor’s office on Environment and the EPA when you complete the
web quest. Good luck. Your work can save the lives of millions. You have a
daunting task!
TASK
You are an environmental consultant team working for the
Acme Environmental Company and the Mayor of New York City has asked you for
ideas on how to reduce the amount of pollution caused by public buses in the
city. The mayor has invited you to speak
at the upcoming council committee meeting which will focus on reducing air
pollution. He has asked your team to
present a 20 minute speech to the committee on
your findings and proposed solutions.
Your speech must include illustrations
of data such as tables, charts, and graphs along with the appropriate sources. Your illustrations may be either in poster
board or PowerPoint.
Process 
Roles
ü Group Manager: gets group together,
makes sure all members are on task, edits all materials used in presentation
for errors
ü Resource Manager: gathers all needed materials and supplies for
presentation, makes sure all members have what they need to get the job done
ü Health expert: knows all the
effects of air pollution on the lungs, knows all respiratory illnesses
ü Recorder: takes notes, writes out the speech based on
what the group has come up with and agrees on
ü Production: makes
all the visuals – posters or power point slides of graphs, tables, charts, and
pictures
Follow
these steps:
1.
You will
be assigned to a research team where YOUR INSTRUCTOR will assign a role to
play.
2.
All
members of group will research and find information to include in your
speech. Remember the steps of the Public
Policy Analyst and complete the worksheets as a group. All six worksheets MUST
be completed using the internet resources and outside sources. These will be
included in your task projects
Worksheet 1: Identify
the problem
Worksheet 2: Gather
the evidence for the problem
Worksheet
3: Determine
the causes for the problem
Worksheet 4: Evaluate
an existing public policy
Worksheet 5: Develop
solutions for the problem
Worksheet
6: Choose
the BEST solution
3.
After completing all
the worksheets, prepare a 20 minute
speech based on the six steps and the worksheets. Your speech should include the problem,
evidence of the problem, causes of the problem, and an evaluation on the
current public policy on that problem, how you developed the solution, and the
best solution you came up with.
4.
Be sure to include
why your solution works best. Remember
you are trying to convince the city council committee to pass this policy as
law.
5.
Speech should have an
introduction and all members of the team must introduce themselves and the
company they work for.
6.
Each member of the
group will take a turn speaking for four minutes each (total of 20
minutes for the whole group). Each
member should have their own copy of the speech plus a copy for the
teacher. Each member will receive a
total of 20 points for his/her part in the speech (a total of 100 for the
group).
7.
All materials and
supplies such as poster boards and LCD projectors should be set-up before you
begin.
8.
All illustrations or
pictures should have a title that explains what the audience is looking
at. It also needs to say where you got
the illustration/picture from. Other
than that, there should not be any text in the PowerPoint slides or posters.
9.
You need to have four
to six slides or posters, no more any less, so make each one count.
10:
Hand in the speech with a copy of the list of works cited (references) attached
to the end and the illustrations/pictures.
11: The poster board
and power point may be used in conjunction with your speech.
RESOURCES
Listed
below are some useful websites on your topic:
Use these sources to complete all six
worksheets of the PPA
New York State Department of Health
New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation
These websites will
help you write a speech and cite your sources:
Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Speech
EVALUATION 
Air Pollution by NYC Buses Speech Rubric
|
Speech |
Maximum 60 points |
|
Are all 6 steps of the PPA clearly demonstrated
in the speech? |
30 points |
|
Is the speech 20 minutes long? |
10 points |
|
Is the speaker clear and
understandable? Is he/she speaking to
the class? |
5 points |
|
Have all speakers taken turns? Did each speak for 4 minutes? |
5 points |
|
Is there at list of works cited attached
to the speech for the teacher? |
10 points |
|
Illustrations |
Maximum 35 points |
|
Are there at least 4 illustrations? |
10 points |
|
Do the illustrations have a title? Do they show the source? |
10 points |
|
Were there graphs, tables, or charts included? |
5 points |
|
Were they relevant to the speech? |
5 points |
|
Were they neat, clear, and easy to read? |
5 points |
|
Resources |
Maximum 15 points |
|
Does team have all needed supplies and
materials including copy of speech? |
5 points |
|
Are all 6 worksheets completed and
attached? |
10 points |
|
|
|
|
Total Points Earned |
110
points |
CONCLUSION
By completing this web quest, you now have a better
understanding of air pollution and the effect it has on our bodies and our
society. You are now aware of how
vehicles, such as buses, use fuels that are hazardous for humans and the
overall environment. You have learned
what kinds of chemicals are released by fuels and why they are harmful.
You have also become proficient at using technology to
research problems, gather evidence, look for information, and present your
findings. You will also have used your
creative skills to show your findings.
Most importantly, you have learned how to analyze current
policies on social problems and suggest better ones to replace them. You have become a thinking public policy
analyst!
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION—LET’S
HOPE YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE!
Standards 
Science Standards
STANDARD 2: Students will access,
generate, process, and transfer information, using appropriate technologies.
Key Idea 1: Information technology is used to retrieve,
process, and communicate information as a tool to enhance learning.
Key Idea 6: In order to arrive at the best solution that
meets criteria within constraints, it is often necessary to make trade-offs.
STANDARD 7—Interdisciplinary Problem
Solving
Students will apply the knowledge and
thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology to address real-life
problems and make informed decisions.
Key Idea 1: The
knowledge and skills of mathematics, science, and technology are used together
to make informed decisions and solve problems, especially those relating to
issues of science/technology/society,
consumer decision making, design, and inquiry into phenomena.
Key Idea 2: Solving interdisciplinary problems involves a
variety of skills and strategies, including effective work habits; gathering
and processing
information;
generating and analyzing ideas; realizing ideas; making
connections among
the common themes of mathematics, science, and technology; and presenting
results.
Earth Science Standards
Standard 4 Key Idea 2.2d
Temperature and precipitation patterns are altered by:
·
natural events such as El
Niño and volcanic eruptions
·
human influences including deforestation, urbanization, and the
production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
English
Language Arts Standards
1:
Language for Information and Understanding
Students
will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will
collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and
generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and
electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written
language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.
Standard
3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Students
will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
As
listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information,
and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As
speakers and writers, they will present, in oral and written language and from
a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas,
information and issues.
Standard
4: Language for Social Interaction
Students
will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction. Students will use
oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide
variety of communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and
their views.