There Is No Away
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Acid Rain
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Program Overview
The Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) series includes more than 50 teacher's guides and handbooks for preschool through grade 10. About 35 of these are appropriate for middle school. The series also includes several assembly presenter's guides and exhibit guides. New guides and handbooks continue to be developed, and current titles are revised frequently. The series is designed to teach key science and mathematics concepts through activity-based learning. The time needed to complete GEMS units varies from about 2 to 10 class sessions.
Teacher's Guide
Recommended grade level:
6-8+.
Acid Rain focuses on an important environmental issue, fostering scientific inquiry and critical-thinking skills through varied activity formats. Students develop a working knowledge of the pH scale by measuring the pH of everyday solutions, they make "fake lakes" and determine how the pH changes after an acid-rain storm, and they investigate the effect of buffering to reduce the acidity of lakes. In other activities, students conduct a plant-growth experiment to determine the effect of various dilutions of acid on seed germination, present a play focusing on the effects of acid rain on aquatic life, play a "startling statements" game, and hold a town meeting to discuss possible solutions to the problem of acid rain. The unit provides students with much information on acid rain, encourages them to analyze complex environmental issues, and illustrates interrelationships of science, technology, and society.
Each of the 8 activities takes 50 minutes to complete; several activities also involve follow-up homework assignments. The guide includes directions, extensions, brief background information, and reproducible student record sheets.
Key to Content Standards: 5-8 (see app. C)
UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: Systems, order, and organization; evidence, models, and explanation.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry; understandings about scientific inquiry.
LIFE SCIENCE: Populations and ecosystems.
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: Structure of the earth system.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Understandings about science and technology.
SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES: Personal health; populations, resources, and environments; natural hazards; risks and benefits; science and technology in society.
HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE: Nature of science.
Price:
$16 (ISBN 0-912511-74-5).
Publisher/supplier:
LHS GEMS.
Materials:
Available locally, or from commercial suppliers.
