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TEACHERS: Smog City
Objectives
Students will:
- utilize an interactive smog visualization application, Smog
City
- see the relationship between ozone levels and variables such
as population levels and emissions
- design an experiment about ozone levels using a Smog City
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Materials
- Computers with internet access
NOTE: Smog City is a JAVA Applet that runs in your Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browser. For offline use, follow the
Download link for
instructions on downloading Smog City to your computer.
Student Worksheet (pdf)
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Assessment
- Was there any one variable that seemed to create a greater increase
of smog than others tested?
- Can you think of ways to reduce ozone levels?
- Discuss and assess the experiments created by all students. What
steps could be taken to control Emissions Levels?
- How could a population increase occur without an increase of
emissions?
Implementation Tips
For this lesson, it is necessary for students to test their hypotheses
by using the simulation, Smog City. If the network connection is down or
very slow, you can:
- download the Smog City program to all computers before the class
begins
- collaborate with the Computer Teacher
Notes
Three major factors affect ground-level ozone in Smog City: weather,
population, and emissions. Smog City allows the user to modify the
environment by adjusting the pollutant factors. The complexity of the
lesson can be increased by challenging the students to work with all three
sets of variable, Weather Conditions, Population Levels, and Emissions
Levels.
It might be helpful to lead the class through a simulation to
demonstrate how to use the model more as a tool instead of a toy.
After completing the exercise that introduces the students to the
basics of Smog City, have the students design their own experiment using
Smog City by selecting and changing only one variable. Suggestion:
Encourage the students to select the variable they think will most affect
ozone levels.
For example:
| Hypothesis: |
As Population Levels decrease, and Consumer Products increase,
will result in unhealthy levels of ozone. |
| Experiment: |
- Reset Smog City to ensure all variables are
back to "default" levels.
- Decrease the Population Levels to Half the
Current Population. As the population decreased, it was observed
in the animation that houses disappeared.
- Increase the Consumer Products dial to
maximum output. As the dial was turned, it was observed in the
animation that emissions from the houses increased.
- All other choices were left at the default
settings.
- Press Start.
- The simulation ran, showing the results of
increasing consumer products emissions for that system.
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| Data: |
After the simulation ran, the line graph
showed that the ozone levels did change as a result of increasing
Consumer Products and decreasing the Population to Half the
Population. The ozone levels slowly began to rise out of the "good"
level around noon. Quickly after that, the ozone levels rose and
peaked to "unhealthy for sensitive groups" levels around 4 p.m.
After 4 p.m., the ozone levels slowly declined and around 7 p.m.
were low enough to register in the "good" range again.
Ozone levels reaching the "unhealthy for
sensitive groups" range are serious because according to the EPA,
Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease,
such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion. |
| Conclusions: |
Raising the level of Consumer Products and
decreasing the Population does create an impact on the ozone level.
Although the resulting increase did create an unhealthy environment,
it was not the variable that had the greatest impact on ground level
ozone (smog). Upon further investigation, increasing the amount of
cars and trucks increased the ground level ozone to the Unhealthy
range. |
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