48x36 poster template

1
Planetary Processes and Personal Choice 10th
Grade Biology Lessons on Atmosphere Formation,
Carbon and Water Cycles, Air Pollutants and
Their Health Effects, and the Impact of
Transportation Modes Carol Clinton1, Anna
Hutchinson2 1 Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 2 Hughes Center,
Cincinnati, OH


Abstract
Activities
Conclusions




As part of a National Science Foundation program
(NSF GK-12), engineering graduate students
(Fellows) work with inner city high school
science and math students to bring current issues
into the classrooms. Fellows are initially
trained in lesson planning and other pedagogical
techniques then are teamed with volunteer
teachers from schools that were selected to
participate in the program. Fellows develop and
deliver content that links with
classroom-required curriculum, in a way that
authentically teaches science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM) skills. This
interaction between the Fellows, high school
students and secondary school teachers enriches
all three perspectives and helps prepare Fellows
for possible faculty positions. Over the course
of a school year, a series of lessons was created
by an NSF GK-12 Fellow and taught in a Cincinnati
public school 10th grade biology class. Topics
covered included formation of the atmosphere
(biogeochemistry), global water and carbon
cycles, climate change, air pollution, health
effects of criteria pollutants, and the impacts
of transportation options on the environment,
equity and the economy (sustainability). The
Fellow taught a related unit in their math class,
applying basic statistics to the prediction of
health effects and control of pollutants.
Effectiveness measures included pre and post
tests, surveys, graded class work, homework, and
other assignments. Results included higher
scores for the students and greater interest in
engineering. The lessons also gave them facts and
broader scientific perspectives on topics that
have recently been highly publicized, equipping
them to be more discerning citizens. Most
importantly, the series showed the
interrelatedness of natural and anthropogenic
influences on climate and discussed the impacts
of personal choices.

• Lessons comprise a module taught over 15 days,
  spread over a four-month period, to two classes
  of 10th graders, roughly 40 students. The lessons
  incorporated a variety of instructional
  techniques including direct and indirect
  instruction, questioning, and collaborative
  learning. Specific learning activities included
  lectures, demonstrations, labs, videos guided
  with a worksheet of data to gather from the
  video, field trips with a worksheet of questions
  to answer, and more. Details about the STEP
  program, including lesson plans for the
  activities is available after the end of the
  school year at http//www.eng.uc.edu/STEP. For
  all lessons and field trips an attempt was made
  to integrate math and science, to weave in
  real-world applications and examples, and to link
  the concepts to local Cincinnati situations.
  Information about college educational
  requirements and careers in science and
  engineering, plus examples from the Fellows
  experiences as an engineer were liberally
  sprinkled through these lessons and other class
  interactions during the year.
• Major components of this series included
• Earth History Formation of the earth, its
  oceans, and atmosphere plate tectonics origin
  of major life forms ice ages esp. impact of
  glaciers in Ohio climate variations and
  predictions for future supercontinent formation
  and climate. Students created a timeline of Earth
  history and took a quiz on lesson content.
• Living in a Greenhouse evaporation,
  condensation, dispersion, thermal inversions,
  carbon and water cycle review, GHG types and
  sources, IPCC predictions, climate models,
  potential effects in Cincinnati, sustainability,
  actions we can take to minimize GHGs
• Skittles Statistics colored candies represented
  contaminant level in environmental samples,
  statistical properties and plots of data sets,
  acute and chronic toxicity, predicting health
  outcomes
• Health Effects of Air Pollutants demonstration
  of CO2 formation through human respiration, lab
  where students constructed a spirometer and
  measured their vital lung capacity, respiratory
  system functions, criteria pollutants and
  sources, AQI, Cincinnati air quality data
• Carbon Footprint/Sustainable Transportation
  measuring particulates around school,
  representing data on maps and with plots,
  correlating particulates with sources, comparison
  of impacts of transportation alternatives (bus,
  car, bicycle, walking) and sustainability
  implications of transportation choices.

Average improvement in class scores for
individual students who took all pre and post
tests was 65. Not all students took both the
pre and post test. A total of 40 students
participated in the lessons. Total average
improvement in class scores for series was 90.
The lessons were effective in increasing their
knowledge of the information, and (perhaps most
importantly) in increasing students confidence
in their abilities to learn science and math.
Total positive reports for this metric were 70.
The students were also interested in engineering
following the lessons. A total of 84 reported
being very or somewhat interested. Roughly
45 reported that the lessons had increased their
interest in engineering (data not shown here).
Figures
References
Educational Goals and Objectives

• This was an original series of lessons.
  Individual lessons incorporated information from
  a variety of sources, including
• How the Earth Was Made (History Channel, AE
  Television Network, New York, NY, 2007)
• The Greenhouse Effect (Films Media Group,
  Cambridge Educational, Princeton, NJ)
• USEPA (numerous portions of website www.epa.gov
  and several publications)
• Teays River Fact Sheet, Ohio Department of
  Natural Resources
• Climate Change 2007 Impacts, Adaptation and
  Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II
  to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L.
  Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van
  der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge
  University Press, Cambridge, UK, 173-210.
• Air Quality Data Report 2006, and Burning
  Issues activity Hamilton County Department of
  Environmental Services, Cincinnati, OH
• Vital lung capacity activity Teachers Guide
  Grades 9-12 for Bodies the Exhibition, 2007
• Acid-base Indicators A Breath-activated
  Chemical Reaction Explore Experiment, Lyondell
  Chemicals, 2004

Small particles can have a big impact on the
(complex and interrelated) respiratory system
Ancient Bacteria helped form Earths atmosphere
Specific objectives relating to the Ohio
mathematics and science standards and benchmarks
for 10th grade level were set for each lesson.
Another constraint was meshing with the classroom
teachers course content maps for the academic
year, which included preparing the students to
take a standardized state test. Additional
personal objectives of the Fellow were to help
create scientifically literate citizens, and to
dispel fear about the potential impacts of global
warming.
Humans create anthropogenic intersections of the
carbon and water cycles.
State Standards

• Over the course of these lessons, more than 17
  Ohio science benchmarks from all 6 science
  standards, and 13 Ohio math benchmarks from 4 of
  the 6 math standards were addressed. Several of
  the standards were covered repeatedly and from
  different perspectives and in different
  applications. Standards addressed included
• Science Standards
• Earth and Space Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Physical Science
• Science and Technology
• Scientific Inquiry
• Scientific Ways of Knowing
• Mathematics Standards
• Number, Number Sense and Operations Standard
• Measurement Standard
• Data Analysis and Probability Standard
• Mathematical Processes Standard

Acknowledgments
Project STEP is funded through NSF Grant
DGE058532 Appreciation is particularly given to
the following for their assistance in development
and implementation of these lessons Ms. Anna
Hutchinson Hughes High School Dr.s Dan Oerther,
Paul Bishop and Anant Kukreti University of
Cincinnati Ms. Andrea Burrows University of
Cincinnati Ms. Anna Kelley Hamilton County
Department of Environmental Services
Students enjoyed the labs and lessons