A Web Quest for 5th Grade

Designed by

Amy Abernathy, Caitlyn Cushner, Teresa Goddard, and Ben Kemp

Introduction

Task

Process

Resources

Evaluation

Conclusion

Credits

Introduction

Do you ever think about the air that you breathe? How much of the air that you breathe is pure and clean? Humans do many activities that contribute different substances into the air that affect all living things.

You have created an island and travel brochure based on an assigned state located in the Northeastern United States. Now its time to look more in depth at the region’s ecosystems and environmental issues and see how they are affected by location, society, and technology.

Task

Last Saturday when you were driving through the Northeast on your road trip you got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. As a car next to you began to move, you noticed the gases coming out of the exhaust pipe. You looked up around you and observed all of the factories and smoke stacks spilling toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Seeing all of this pollution being poured into the air made you wonder what you might be breathing in that you were unaware of. This shocking experience awakened you to the impact that humans have on the environment. You became intrigued and decided to play a more proactive role in protecting the environment.

You have decided to speak out and have been invited to a national conference for the Environmental Protection Agency focusing on the issue of air pollution in the United States. You have been asked to research and represent the Northeast region at the conference. At the conference you will be asked to make a presentation using factual data, graphs, and overall feelings and suggestions about this important environmental issue.

In order to find all of the information needed for a thorough presentation, you will need to consult a variety of sources and experts in the field.

Process

Step 1: In order to gather the necessary information for your presentation you will need to do some research. The following worksheet will guide you through the primary resources listed in the resources section of this Web Quest. Go to the worksheet by clicking here.

Step 2: For the next two weeks you will be collecting data from the following AQI website. Each day, for the next two weeks, you will record the number rating, the color rating, and the description of the rating for the air quality index from a Northeastern U.S. city of your choice. Use this link to gather data to use on your graph for the air quality index (AQI).

Step 3: Using the data and information on the Air Quality Index that you have been gathering the past two weeks, you will now organize this information into a graph. Click here for a guide on how to make your graph. After you have finished your graph, click here to answer a few simple questions.

Step 4: Now you have collected research from the various website resources, collected data for the AQI for a city in the Northeast U.S. over a two week time period, and have organized that data into a graph. Now it is time to compile all of your hard work into a PowerPoint slide show to present at your conference. Use the following link to find out how to create a PowerPoint slide show. You will also find an example of a completed PowerPoint slide show on this link.

Step 5: Now it is time to present your slide show at the EPA conference. Be sure to speak loudly, slowly, and clearly. Use your slide show as a guide to express your findings and feelings on this topic. Get your audience involved. Good Luck!

Resources

The following will help guide your research to have a comprehensive presentation:

Primary Resources

1. Look at this air pollution fact sheet

2. To learn about various topics relating to air pollution visit the Environmental Protection Agency site

3. To view a summary of the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws, read this site.

4. If you would like to see how air pollution affects your regions ecosystems, visit this site.

5. Acid Rain

6 & 7. To see how air pollution effects global warming or ozone depletion, see these sites.

8. If you want to sign a petition about reducing air pollution go to CleanAirNow.

Additional Resources

• This site contains useful information about indoor and outdoor air pollution.
• To learn more about contributions to indoor air pollution check this out.
• To find information on how you can take action locally, visit this site.
• The Office of Air and Radiation site discusses topics such as the ozone layer, acid rain, urban air, vehicles, visibility, etc. There is information about effects, amounts, problems, programs for prevention as well as links to publications and resources.
• If you want to read about the air we breathe, visit this site
• If you’re wondering how efficient and environmentally safe your parents car is, check this out.
• If you’re interested in how air pollution causes other types of pollution, the following may be useful:
• More Acid Rain
• Ten things you can do to help reduce acid rain

Evaluation

• The following rubric is designed to give you some idea of how your research, graph, and presentation will be graded. A point total will be assigned for each category depending on how well you meet the following criteria. Please read through this rubric and refer to it often to make sure that you have met all of the requirements for this project.

Rubric

Interdisciplinary and Disciplinary Criteria	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Correct information is used	Most information is incorrect	Half of the information is incorrect	Majority of information is correct	All information used is correct
Research sources are correctly cited	No research is cited	Small amount of research is cited	All research is cited, but incorrectly used	All research is cited and used correctly
Data for the graph has been collected for a period of two weeks and is used correctly	No data has been collected	Some data has been collected and is used incorrectly	Data is correct but was collected for a period less than two weeks	All data is correct and collected over a period of two weeks
AQI Data is color-coordinated	No color was used	Small amount of color was used	Color was used but not coordinated	Perfectly color-coordinated
Graph is clear, concise, and attractive	Graph is not understandable or attractive	Graph is attractive, but not understandable	Graph understandable, but not attractive	Graph is clear, concise, and attractive
Presentation follows a clear, concise, and sequential order	Presentation is not in order and is not understandable	Presentation is order, but is not understandable	Presentation is understandable, but not in order	Presentation is understandable and in order
Main points of presentation are summarized	Main points are not summarized	Few main points are summarized	Majority of main points are summarized	All main points are summarized
Possible suggestions for solutions are given	No suggestions are provided	1 to 2 suggestions are provided	3 to 4 suggestions are provided	4 or more suggestions are provided
5 to 8 PowerPoint slides are used	No PowerPoint slides are used	1 to 2 slides are used	3 to 4 slides are used	5 to 8 slides are used
PowerPoint presentation uses correct spelling and grammar	Presentation includes 10 or more spelling and grammatical errors	Presentation includes 9 to 6 spelling and grammatical errors	Presentation includes 5 to 3 spelling and grammatical errors	Presentation has 2 or fewer errors
PowerPoint presentation is eye-catching; includes pictures and graph	No PowerPoint presentation is used	PowerPoint presentation is eye-catching, but no graph or pictures are used	PowerPoint presentation is eye-catching and uses either graph or pictures	PowerPoint presentation is eye-catching and includes pictures and graph
					Total Score-out of 44 points possible

Conclusion

Through this Web Quest you have researched air pollution and its related topics, collected and graphed air quality data, and complied all the information into a PowerPoint presentation. All of these activities have guided you toward presenting the knowledge you have acquired at the 2003 EPA Air Pollution Conference, as a representative of the Northeast Region of the United States. In order to further develop your knowledge on air pollution, you can now take numerous other courses of action such as…

• Continuing your research by checking out additional websites like the ones listed in the resources section of this web page.
• Go to your local or school library to find even more resources!!!
• Talk to community members such as local environmentalists, conservationists, government representatives, or industry owners/workers.
• Join or create an environmentally active group such as Greenpeace.
• Petition your community for better air quality standards.
• Be aware of how environmentally friendly your family’s car is…what can you and your family do to cut back on car emissions?
• Stay alert of current events which pertain to your environment.
• Take a stand! Be active! What else can you do?

Credits and References

All of the websites we used are listed in the Resources Section of this Web Quest.

Thanks to the EPA and all of the other environmentally active organizations who helped us gain a new perspective on air pollution and its negative effects on the world around us!!!

Special Thanks to all of our professors for guiding us through this process!!!

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Original template created by Tom Ely and modified for this class.