ACID RAIN

 

Kumari Johal

Lincoln High School, Yonkers NY

 

Introduction 

Acid rain is responsible for many of the serious environmental problems facing us today. It affects large parts of the US and Canada. Acid rain accelerates weathering in carbonate rocks and contributes to acidification of rivers, streams, and forest damage at high elevations. When the acid builds up in rivers and streams, it kills aquatic life. In many places in the world, ancient and famous buildings and monuments are affected by acid rain. For example, the Statue of Liberty in New York, USA, has had to be restored because of acid rain damage. Buildings are naturally eroded by rain, wind, frost and the sun, but when acidic gases are present, it speeds up the erosion. Acid rain is formed when pollutants called oxides of sulfur and nitrogen contained in power plant smoke, factory smoke and car exhaust react with the moisture in the atmosphere

 

The trees have become leafless and dead because of their being exposed to acid rain

 

.

The first picture is the original sculpture, and the second one is how it looks on exposure to acid rain

TASK

      

The task is to

  1. Do a thorough research on causes, effects and solutions to acid rain problem. You should be able to answer the following questions
  • What is acid rain? What chemicals make rain acidic, and how does it happen?
  • Where do these chemical come from?
  • How do we measure the acidity of rain?
  • What is pH? What is the pH of normal rain, and at what level does the pH become dangerous?
  • What are some of the direct effects of acid rain on humans?  
  • How does acid rain affect buildings and monuments?
  • What does acid rain do to our roads, highways, and bridges?
  • What is the effect of acid rain on things made from metal such as automobiles, trains, buses, and other means of transportation?
  • What does the effect of acid rain cost us in terms of money?
  • What are the economic consequences of acid rain on fisheries, forestry, and agriculture?
  • What is the existing public policy on acid rain problem and solutions?
  • How will you improve the existing policy to control acid rain?

 

  1. Prepare Power Point presentation, 10-12 slides in length that includes multimedia materials (pictures, graphics, audio, video etc)

 

  1. Prepare and provide a review sheet for your presentation to the students.

 

 

  1. Present PowerPoint  to the class

 

 

PROCESS

 

PART 1: Look at the following web sites to gather information on acid rain.

 

http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/kids/acidrain.html

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/index.html

http://www.ec.gc.ca/acidrain/acidfact.html

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/acidrain/2.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/acid_rain.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/acid_rain.html

PART 2: After collecting the necessary information in part 1 of the process, follow the links below to complete work sheets to develop your PPA. Your public policy analysis must include the different steps:

 

1. Define the problem

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/select.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet1.doc

 

 

2. Gather evidence

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/gather.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet2.doc

 

 

 

3. Identify causes

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/identify.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet3.doc

 

 

4. Evaluate a policy

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/existing.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet4.doc

 

 

5. Develop solutions

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/solutions.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet5.doc

 

 

6. Select best solution

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/bestsol.html

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet6.doc

 

 

 

PART 3: Use your PPA worksheets to answer the questions in the Task Step and prepare PowerPoint and present it to the class

 

 

EVALUATION Your project will be evaluated on the basis of following                          

                                         Criteria

 

Beginning

1

Developing

2

Accomplished

3

Exemplary

4

PPA Worksheets and Content in the PowerPoint

 

Incomplete work sheets and limited information on causes effects and solutions to acid rain problem.

PPA worksheets mostly completed, includes information on causes and effects of acid rain but limited emphasis on solutions.

All six worksheets completed and includes  information on causes and effects of acid rain but not enough emphasis on solutions to this problem

All six worksheets completed and detailed information on causes effects and solutions to acid rain problem

Presentation

Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost.

Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time.

Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time.

Well rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience attention.

 

 

Attractiveness

Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentation content.

Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these distract from the presentation content.

Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.

Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.

 

Mechanics

 

More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.

Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.

No misspellings or grammatical errors.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

By the end of this project, you will have learned about what is acid rain, its causes, effects, solutions, and existing policies to control it. Also you would be able to make a contribution to find more effective ways to deal with this problem. I hope you enjoyed this web quest and appreciated this new way of learning. This project satisfies NY State learning standards in science. http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/mst/sciencestand/scistand.html