Air Quality Lesson Plans and Student Projects
(Middle-School through College)
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Projects are fun because students are in charge. The same is true when students elect to report what they know on multiple-choice tests, using knowledge and judgment scoring, rather than mark, and wait, until the next class period for you to tell them the right answers.
Make your next test a project. Award credit for judgment rather than for guessing. Reward students for taking the responsibility to report what they can trust they know or can do: the basis for further learning at all levels of thinking. |
The United States Environmental Protection Agency can use your help. The air quality standards have not been completed.
Each year, new information indicates the need for additional measurements. The latest discovery is that confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) are the greatest source in some locations of harmful emissions including ammonia (NH3). Ammonia contributes to acid rain, inhalable particulate matter and haze.
"Students should focus on becoming active and engaged citizens in both their local and global environments. Schools should use technology to connect students directly to peers in other parts of the world and promote service learning projects on issues that students can address at both the local and international levels, such as alleviating hunger, providing education support to students in poverty, and improving the environment." Stewart, Vivien, 2007. Citizens of the World, Association for Supervison and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 64:7:8-14. April, issue of Educational Leadership, The Prepared Graduate.
The following projects respond to local odors, multi-state air and water quality degradation, and the ethics and economics of producing meat in the US to sell to countries that lack suitable open land for CAFOs and the disposition of the wastes.
New ways of sensing these emissions are being developed. State and Federal governments have limited means of monitoring these widely scattered sources and the exposure of individual persons.
You can help today just as in past years when school children measured acid rain that is now linked to NH3. The newly found emissions can be measured in several ways.
The lesson plans review your five senses. The projects explore several ways of making meaningful measurements using your senses and instruments.
You are left to work out the science: question, answer and verify. Examples of simple measurements to the most modern follow:
Five Senses Lesson Plans
The newly found emissions contribute to haze. We can see their effect on air quality. These emissions (odorants) can also produce odors.
They can have effects on hearing, taste and touch of sensitive people. Their sense of well being can be used to measure some of the emissions.
The following links go to well designed lesson plans. They provide background information for teachers, and high school and college students.
Most* contain a Class Experiment with a Teacher Resource and an experiment to get you started. Then review other projects below to design your own air quality experiments.
1. Sight Simple Experiments
*Movement & Depth *Color Vision
2. Hearing Simple Experiments *Locating Sound Sources
3. Smell Simple Experiments *Olfactory Fatigue
4. Taste Simple Experiments Influence of Sight on Taste
5. Touch Simple Experiments *Two-Point Discrimination
Indoor Air Quality
You spend most of your time indoors. There are practical things you can do to improve indoor air quality. Relate indoor and outdoor air quality. This is good practice for working outdoors.
EPA Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program It is co-sponsored by
the National Parent Teacher Association, National Education
Association, Association of School Business Officials, American
Federation of Teachers, and the American Lung Association. Win a
Great Start, Leadership, or Excellence award.
Free EPA Indoor Air Quality Publications.
The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality.
Indoor Air Pollution: An Introduction for Health Professionals.
Pediatrics July 2006, Indoor air pollution from outdoor sources. Asthma
Symptoms Among Adolescents Who Attend Public Schools That Are
Located Near Confined Swine Feeding Operations.
Tobacco Smoke
Since 1964, over 40 years have passed before about half of public places have become tobacco smoke free. After the research, there is still great opportunity to develop ingenious ways of applying the results in your community.
The “average” person has become aware of the harm done by tobacco smoke. The battle is no longer just between individual smoke-sensitive persons and addicted smoke-tolerant smokers.
This experience with tobacco smoke is a good model for other air pollutants: Sensitive people, plants, and materials indicate a problem. Further study establishes sources, control methods, and the basis for regulation.
A general control is to prohibit smoking in public places. A specific application is in child custody cases, the non-smoking parent is favored, as exposing a child to second-hand smoke is considered child abuse.
American Lung Association Air Quality.
American Heart Association Environmental Tobacco Smoke.
Center for Disease Control And Related Links.
ASHRAE Environmental Tobacco Smoke Position Document.
The Natural and Trained Use of Our Sense of Smell
The first meaning of smell is captured in a simple exercise for all ages. The full meaning of smell is presented by skilled researcher writers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Current estimates put the total number of our olfactory receptor genes at 900, and of those genes, only 320 or so work. That is still enough to explain the range of responses people have to the same odorant.
Our senses can be trained and, as shown in the above exercises, tricked. Our senses tire and need rest. Our senses cannot detect everything in the air. When pollutants are added to the air faster than they can disperse, we may need a number of instruments to sense and manage them at safe levels.
A number of lower cost instruments have been specifically developed in recent years to detect air pollutants including odorants. These instruments can be more accurately calibrated than our senses. They can measure what our senses do not detect. They may also not be measuring what their users report they are.
Outdoor Air Quality
Visit the EPA Teaching Center and the Air Quality Index by State. (Click on Local Forecasts and Conditions and scroll to the bottom of each state page for links to real-time air quality data to be used in your projects.)
Three states post hourly data for ammonia (NH3) and two post for hydrogen sulfide (H2S). These react, during smog formation, to increase ozone and the fine particles that reduce visibility. They also are odorants emitted from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO).
Ammonia is lighter than air and diffuses rapidly under normal weather conditions. Hydrogen sulfide is heavier than air. Both can be trapped under a temperature inversion. These unique properties can be used in the design of experiments using data from online sources:
Iowa, Real Time Continuous Data Summary of 2002-2007 data from ten sites
sampling NH3 and H2S.
Missouri, Northern Counties Click Here to Load/Save the ASCII Report File TXT
that includes Mercer, NH3 and H2S.
North Carolina, Washington Region Martin, and Sampson counties
sample ammonia (NH3).
Confined Animal Feeding Operation Locations:
Google Maps Map, Satellite, Hybrid.
Google Earth (Download to compatible computer) 3D maps.
Search state Department of Natural Resources for water and air permits.
Weather for Past Three Days, including wind direction and velocity:
NOAA Under Local Forecast, enter City,ST.
Under Current Conditions, scroll down to either.
3 Day History or More Local Wx for nearby weather stations.
Schools and Colleges near air quality sampling sites:
Google Maps school at/near city, state.
Mapquest schools nearby and distance.
Obtain addresses from online “state” school directories.
Simple Air Quality Experiments
Regulatory work requires accurate, non-subjective, measurements. The regulations are expressed in average terms. One size fits all. This takes a few monitoring sites. Governmental agencies can do this.
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This compares to scoring multiple-choice by just counting the right marks. You have a score to assign a grade but you know little about what is of value to each student. |
The health effects are expressed as the rate of excess deaths or of shortened longevity, and as the increase of illness by counting the visits to doctors and of hospital admissions.
Your family physician is interested in one person: you. The health effects are expressed in how you are affected. The exposure of each sensitive person needs to be monitored. Only you can do this.
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This compares to scoring multiple-choice for knowledge and judgment. You know what is important, of value, and is the basis for future learning for each student. |
1. Haze
Airports report haze as visibility: How far a pilot can see near the ground. Visibility is determined by looking for familiar objects at known distances. Make a map (Google Maps) and mark a barn, silo, water tower, hill or building at various distances from your observation site. Pick these in a direction away from the sun. Or pick a set away from the sun and a set toward the sun. Observe them at various times of the day.
Relate your observations to those reported by weather reports or with the Air Quality Index. In which direction (away from or toward the sun) can you see the farthest? What reduces visibility the most, fog or smog? How does visibility change during the day?
2. Ozone
The first air quality experiments used plants and materials that were sensitive to the pollutants as indicators. We exposed a loop of natural rubber held by a clothespin and measured the cracks and the time needed to break the band. Also see instruments below.
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The left loop was exposed during March, 2007, in San Antonio, Texas. The cracking has almost cut it into.
The right loop was held indoors as the control.
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Vega, T. and Seymour, C. 1961. A simplified method for determining ozone levels in community air pollution surveys. J. Air Pollution Control Assoc. 11:28-33. January 1961.
Serano, E., Castro, M. and Macias, A. 1993. An improved direct method of rubber cracking analysis for estimating 24-hour ozone levels. Atmos. Env. 27:3: 431-442.
Odor Experiments
1. Odor wind rose.
Wind is a tricky thing to measure. It spirals clockwise around high pressure areas. It spirals counter clockwise around low pressure areas. It varies in direction and velocity from time to time as its swirling flow passes your observation site. The odor source may not be directly upwind of your site.
You need the wind speed and direction and a means of measuring the odor to construct an odor wind rose. Hourly measurements make a good starting point.
Iowa, Missouri, and North Carolina provide hourly measurements of odorants, ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), the substances that your nose detects as odors. For practice, select a 24 hour sample.
Sum the concentration for the odorant for four 90 degree quadrants starting with zero degrees (north). Label the four quadrants as NE, SE, SW, and NW. Draw a bar the length of each sum and in the direction of each quadrant.
Also label four 90 degree quadrants as N, E, S, and W starting with 316-45, 46-135, 136-225, and 226-315. Add these bars to the above graph or make a new graph.
Wind roses are also plotted for 8, 12, and 16 points when you summarize data for weeks, months, the four seasons, and for a year.
An odor wind rose for Mercer, Missouri, USA, December 12, 2006, indicated a source at 7 am and 11 pm in a southwest direction (206 degrees) as the wind switched back and forth during the day. A Google map shows a lagoon about 1500 feet upwind of the DNR sampler that is positioned about 6 miles east and 4 miles north of Mercer. The odorant levels were so low few, if anyone, could be expected to detect their odor. It would take someone on the ground at the time to verify a detectable odor from all the odorants in the plume.
A minimal odor wind rose can be plotted from morning, noon, and night observations based on your sense of smell. Try not to miss any days.
2. Student performance related to clean air vs. polluted air can be based, in part, on No Child Left Behind test scores. This project is suitable for teachers and college students. See Pediatrics above.
Extending your Ability to Sense Air Quality
In the beginning sampling tubes were used that were accurate to +/- 25% of the full scale value. The burden of proof of individual exposure requires much more accurate data today.
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This same change has occurred with multiple-choice tests. Today, not only is a test score needed but what a student actually knows and understands must be measured to build high quality students with practiced self-judgment. |
Rapid advances are being made in sensing air quality to meet the need for accurate, less expensive, personal monitors. The offerings change daily on the Internet.
The following monitors are listed as examples that may prove useful in obtaining accurate data for individual exposure.
Different suppliers configure the instruments with different features. A monitor without an air pump (slower passive sampling mode) and no data logging (you record the readings) costs the least.
The following monitors are designed for industrial use in confined spaces. They only detect odorants in ambient air if they far exceed the odor threshold.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) odor threshold for H2S is 0.0005 ppm and for NH3 is 5.000 ppm. There is considerable variation from person to person. For example, H2S. (Remember 1 ppm equals 1000 ppb.)
- ATSDR reported values in underdeveloped areas: 0.02 - 0.05 ppb.
- Results of meta-analysis of H2S odor detection literature: 2% can detect at 0.5 ppb. (Amoore; Collins & Lewis).
- EPA reference dose for H2S: 0.7 ppb.
- Odor threshold for 14% of the population and annoyance level for 2% of the population: 2 ppb.
- Odor threshold for 30% of the population and annoyance level for 5% of the population: 4 ppb.
- WHO 30-minute advisory level: 5 ppb. (WHO, Jakkola)
- Odor threshold for 50% of the population and annoyance level for 11% of the population: 8 ppb.
- Neurophysiological health effect level: 10 ppb (average, with 100 ppb peaks; Killborne and Warshaw, 1995).
- Eye and nasal symptoms: 10 ppb (daily average) (Jakkola, South Karelia study).
- State of California ambient air standard: 30 ppb, 1-hour average.
- Annoyance level for 50% of the population: 40 ppb.
- Headaches, increased airway resistance in asthmatics: 2 ppm (Jappinen, et al).
Select a monitor that matches your needs. A strong source can be monitored by a low cost instrument. Search with "portable H2S NH3 monitor detector meter cafo" (without the quotes) for other instruments.
BW specifications H2S, NH3, VOC
BW Monitors H2S, $295; NH3, $495
ToxiRAE II specifications H2S, NH3
ToxiRAE II H2S, $195; NH3, $349; two-year lifetime
Volatile Organic Compounds (Chemicals or Contaminants) (VOCs) may be more related to CAFO odor than ammonia or hydrogen sulfide.
Odorants attach to inhalable particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10).
Also check with your state for sampling equipment for these and other odorants. The Missouri Air Conservation Commission provided NWMSU, Biology Department, with an ozone monitor for several years. The Lion’s Club funded a reliable ozone standard to keep it calibrated.
Sharing Your Air Quality Data
The emissions from CAFOs are much more serious than thought in the past. Much research is taking place to establish safe emission levels that influence metropolitan and community areas.
The data being collected is shared at three operational levels:
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Level |
Exposure Period |
Area |
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National |
Yearly summary |
Metropolitan |
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State |
Quarter, Month, Day, Hour |
Community |
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Local |
Minutes and Trigger Concentrations |
Individual |
Your project can focus on monitoring the day-to-day individual exposure to emissions and odors from improved operating procedures such as “Next Generation Technology” experiments. A progress report from Premium Standard Farms includes pictures. Different methods are used for different sized operations.
A “Good Neighbor” webpage allows local residents to adjust their schedules to regulate exposure to field applications of CAFO wastes. Students can complete unique odor and odorant monitoring projects in a few days. Premium Standard Farms is an example.
News
The Missouri Air Conservation Commission minutes for their 30 Jan 2007 meeting included the “Regulation of individual compounds as odor surrogates”. Since odors are very difficult to measure and regulate, this method again reverts to the practice of measuring what can be measured easily and accurately.
Its success depends on establishing a strong correlation between the odorant measured and the odor people experience. You can make records of odorant measurements and the odors you (and your cooperating experimenters) experience as a project carried out in a variety of settings.
Relate Minimal Odorant to Odor Experiment
Obtain an instrument to measure an odorant such as ammonia or hydrogen sulfide. Make observations morning and night. Record odorant level and each person’s perceived odor using a Nasal ranking system: 1. Non-Detectable, 2. Detectable But Non-Offensive, 3. Mildly Offensive, and 4. Strongly Offensive.
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The Internet is constantly changing. Please report broken links and other errors. |
Air Quality Projects that Result in more than Learning
5 November 2008