Acid Rain Web Quest
Introduction
Why are the trees dying? How come there are no fish in the
lake? Why does the paint on my Dad's car look so bad? Where does that
terrible rotten egg smell come from in our school yard every Spring?
The answer to these questions is simple; acid rain is responsible for
many of the serious environmental problems facing us today. While the
answer may be simple, solving the acid rain problem is not.
The Task
A local citizens' group has hired you and a group of other
researchers to investigate acid rain. You will take on one or more roles as a Chemist, Ecologist, Health Scientist or Economist and
examine the issue from that perspective. Working within your Web Quest Team,
you will create a report detailing the problems caused by acid rain
and recommending ways that these problems can be alleviated.
Within your team, decide who is going to assume the four
roles. Use the questions appearing under each role to assist you in
your research. While you are responsible for completing your section
of the report, you will also be responsible for drawing up a series
of recommendations, along with the other members of your team, on how
to combat this serious issue.
CHEMIST
- What is an acid? 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?
- Describe the pH range and list various foods and chemicals that
correspond to the various pH levels.
- What is the pH of normal rain, and at what level does the
pH become dangerous?
BIOLOGIST
- What effect does acid rain have on trees and soil?
- How does the effect of acid rain on trees and solid affect us?
- What happens when lakes and aquatic systems become acidic?
- How does acidic water systems affect us?
- Are the aquatic systems in our area being affected by acid rain? If yes, to what extent?
- What are the danger signs which indicate the influence of acid rain upon aquatic systems?
HEALTH SCIENTIST
- How does acid rain affect humans?
- What are some of the direct effects of acid rain on humans? Are there any health problems associated with acid rain?
- What are some of the indirect effects of acid rain on humans? Does acid rain affect our sources of food, water, and air?
- What are the consequences of the effects of acid rain on people?
- What is the normal pH of our stomach? How does this correspond with the pH of acid rain? (see Chemist, above)
ECONOMIST
- What is the world trend in the problem of acid rain?
- Does acid rain affect building materials? What kind and how?
- Does acid rain have an effect on architecture? How? (mechanism)
- What does acid rain do to our roads, highways and bridges? How?
- What is the effect of acid rain on things made from metal such as automobiles, trains, buses, and other means of transportation? How?
- 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 estimated cost of preventing acid rain, or any solutions?
While you are researching your particular area of concern, look
for solutions to the problems caused by acid rain. While the final
section of your report, the recommendations, will be drawn up by the
entire group, you must be prepared to offer solutions in your
specific area of concern.
Web Resources
The Process and Learning Advice
The end product of this webquest will be the creation of a report detailing the causes and effects of acid rain. Each Web Quest Team member will be responsible for his/her section(s) of the report while the initial section, abstract, final recommendations and reference list will be arrived at through the cooperative efforts of the entire Web Quest Team.
- Get together with the other members of your group and
decide who will assume the responsibilities of each of the four
roles. Do some "brainstorming" on acid rain in order to come up
with ideas for the focus of your report. Develop a plan of
action to determine the organization, contents, and "look" of your report. Know your main objectives and devise an outline of all
the information your paper will contain
- Using the sites listed in the Resource section, begin to
research your project. Locate the information necessary to answer
the questions listed under your role in the Task section. As you
will be creating a paper, find some pictures that you can use
to help illustrate the causes of acid rain and the problems that
it creates.
- Take notes as you do your research. Bookmark any sites that
you find useful so that you can refer to them again quickly if
necessary. You are not allowed
to borrow passages from books, or articles, or Web sites without
identifying them in the list of references.
- After you have completed your research, begin writing the
first draft of your report. Make sure that you introduce your
section so that the reader knows what you are writing about.
Remember that you are writing a report about the problems caused
by acid rain and not just a set of answers to a series of
questions. Be aware of the reader - just because you understand
what you are writing about doesn't mean that the reader does, so write for non-scientists, especially in the initial statement and joint conclusion.
- Once each Web Quest Team member has completed his/her section, meet
with your group and present your draft findings. This is the time
that you can ask the other members of your group for advice on
revising your writing. Write your final draft.
Decide, as a group, what your position on acid rain will be.
Determine the recommendations and conclusions that your report will
present. Determine which members of the group will be responsible for
writing this section, and which members of the group will put all the
pieces of the report together. If the Team disagrees, a dissension statement is required which outlines the reasons for the other perspective.
Conclusion
After having researched and written your report on acid rain,
you should have a much clearer idea of the problems caused by this
phenomenon. However, being aware of the problem is not enough.
Perhaps you may feel that we should be doing more in solving this
environmental issue. A good starting point would be to write a letter
expressing your concerns to your local elected officials.
Evaluation
Each Web Quest Team member can receive a maximum of 5 extra credit points for completing this Web Quest. Three points shall address the perspective statement created by each individual Team member, and two points shall address the group work used to complete the paper.
Grading shall be based on neatness, spelling errors, accuracy of information gathered, quality of list of references, and similar criteria. In addition, each participant shall anonymously complete an evaluation form for each Team member which will affect the final grade.
WebQuest originally developed by Gerald Robillard at Our Lady of Peace School in Laval, Quebec, Canada and adopted as appropriate by Michael Russell at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, USA