Project Information
| Welcome to the Norwich Air Quality
Curriculum Pilot Project, a curriculum created for the Norwich Public
Schools in partnership with the Connecticut Department of
Environmental Protection (CTDEP) and the Center for Improved
Engineering and Science Education (CIESE). The Air Quality curriculum is designed to incrementally lead students, Grades 6 – 8, through Internet-based and hands-on learning experiments to discover not only the science behind air quality, but also the health implications related to poor air quality exposure. The curriculum is a spiral, inquiry-based curriculum, and as with all inquiry based curricula, the teacher must guide student discovery incrementally, ensuring student understanding at each step. Although the curriculum is Internet-based, it has been created with the intention that the classroom teacher will act as the facilitator, and must be well prepared, understanding all possible outcomes prior to using the materials with students. Beginning in Grade 6, students will learn the basics about ground level ozone and particulate matter, and learn how those air pollutants are detected and measured. The lessons will build off their existing knowledge base of Earth systems, scientific reasoning skills and life science skills established earlier in the 6th Grade science curriculum. Students in Grade 7 will continue to build upon their existing science and air pollutants knowledge base by determining what meteorological and air quality conditions are necessary to cause ground level ozone to form. Students will also apply their knowledge of the human body to determine how particulate matter and ground level ozone can be detrimental to their health. By Grade 8, all students should possess a working knowledge of ground level ozone and particulate matter and will be challenged to create a scientific investigation about ground level ozone or particulate matter. The caliber of the student investigation should be that of a science fair project, in which students will be able to show significant data collection, an analysis of the data and create a short presentation based on their project. The theme established for each grade level integrates air pollution topics with the science curricula currently taught in the Norwich schools. The activities in each theme increase in complexity to match student ability levels ranging through grades 6 – 8. The types of student inquiry activities vary from Internet-based, to laboratory, culminating in student driven learning through the creation of a scientific investigation. Each grade level unit will take approximately 2 – 2.5 weeks to implement, and have associated enrichment activities. |
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