LESSON

CONCEPT
REVIEW

Internet Investigation
The purpose of this activity is to examine differing types and structures of activities within
the context of the inquiry cycle and see how these might be used to support inquiry
process skills and content learning in an inquiry-based curriculum unit.

The following example lesson is representative of other lessons of this type. Please review
this lesson to address the following questions, which you will then post in this discussion
thread:

1. Briefly describe what you think the primary focus of this TYPE of lesson is (in the
context of the inquiry cycle). Don’t focus on the content of this lesson specifically, but
the type of thinking and learning that this type of lesson encourages.
2. What are the critical components of this type of lesson? What seems to need to be
included in the lesson to make it work?
3. When would this type of lesson seem to work best in the learning cycle?
4. What aspects of instruction with this type of lesson might a teach need to consider
regarding pacing, media, grouping, assessment, materials, or other aspects of
teaching?
5. What three things might you suggest to a teacher who is considering using this type of
lesson?
LESSON 10:
WHAT ARE POLLUTANTS AND HOW DID
THEY GET IN THE AIR?

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

Learning Objectives
Students will learn strategies for using online search engines to conduct research on known air
pollutants. Students will learn proper strategies for focusing on content, evaluating web sites,
documenting sources, and effectively using information from Internet searches to find quality
information for their pollutant presentations (in Lesson 13)

Assessment Criteria
Students are able to name and identify a particular pollutant that they have been assigned, identify
its sources, health effects, other effects, and possible strategies being considered for remediation of
the issues caused by excessing amounts of the pollutant.

Purpose
This lesson focuses on three separate goals. First, students learn effective strategies for searching
for reference content about scientific concepts or phenomena. If students haven’t been provided
some specific information about how to use and cite information they find (and avoid plagiarism),
and about how to use custom functionality of a search engine and web browser, these strategies are
provided in this lesson. Second, students will learn about a specific pollutant that affects air
quality, so that they can not only use this information on their own, but can also teach others about
the considerations related to that pollutant. Finally, this lesson, conducted as independent research
by individual students or groups, allows a wide range of content to be addressed through
specialization and sharing techniques among students, thereby making a more efficient use of
instructional time in class.

PREPARATION
Materials:
• Student Worksheet/Online Investigation of Pollutants

Set-up
Students will need to be assigned to a particular pollutant for this lesson. Because this will later
lead to a hands-on investigation of many of the pollutants listed here, and because students may
have significant prior knowledge (or confidence) in their internet search strategies, it is important to

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 remember that the pollutants you assign here will also be used later by the same students, and so
you should consider this when assigning pollutants for study to students.

This lesson also involves a considerable amount of time with students on computers conducting
searches and reviewing content. You will need to make arrangements for students to have computer
access, and should check some of the common web tools to see if searches using common terms
related to the pollutants bring up inappropriate content. Ideally, your school also has a policy /
strategy for students to take notes for later use in creating their presentations and synthesizing
content.

Time
Two-three fifty-minute periods.

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Introducing the Lesson
Review the driving question with students. Discuss how they have, to date, discussed a number of
issues related to what is in the air, including the many components of air that have always been
present, and are not considered to be serious health hazards. These include nitrogen gas, oxygen
gas, water vapor, carbon dioxide (in relatively small amounts as occurs naturally) and other trace
gases.

Explain that this lesson, along with the next two, will focus more on the components of air that ARE
harmful, and for the most part, are the product of human activity or efforts.

Ask students to brainstorm items that they know or consider to be airborne pollutants. Write items
from the list, so that they can be reviewed later. Ask the students, “How do they know these items
are pollutants?” Tell students that you are going to create a list of considerations that relate to all
pollutants. Ask students to now brainstorm a list of qualities that they might say about pollutants.
Examples might include that they are not typically present in nature, or that they can cause health
issues in people or other living organisms. While these are not definitive, they will help you identify
possible misconceptions that students may have.

Conducting the Lesson

Inform students that they are going to do some research on what people already know about
pollutants in order to better understand the problems and issues with air quality. Explain that
scientists go through a similar process, often called “library research” or “literature review” (even
though more of this now takes place on-line, and the “literature” mentioned is simply written, peer-
reviewed research findings. When scientists are investigating a particular question, before they try
generating a specific hypothesis to test, they need to find out what others have found on the same
issue or topic. Researching the work of other scientists to see if others have explored the same or
similar questions is helpful to the scientist to determine if a study is worth doing, or to see if there
are aspects of the research from other scientists that can inform their own investigation.

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To do this, students will either work individually or in small groups (this is your choice as a teacher,
though we would recommend small groups for efficiency and peer feedback for this process) on
investigating a particular pollutant that is known to affect air quality in some way. While there are
literally thousands of airborne pollutants that are the process of various industrial, commercial, or
mining efforts around the world, we have identified six primary pollutants that are more abundant,
and factor into the quality of air in most communities.

Student groups will be assigned a particular pollutant from the following list. Note that the last two
are optional, as they do not have easy follow-up activities in the next two lessons to investigate their
impact using a scientific experiment. While such experiments are possible, they can either be
dangerous, expensive (or equipment intensive, requiring specialized equipment or supplies), or
require a more complex understanding of the science before a proper investigation could be done.

• Particulate matter
• Carbon Dioxide
• Sulfur dioxide
• Nitrogen oxides
• Ozone
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• Carbon monoxide

Student groups will need to research these pollutants online, with a goal of creating a body of
knowledge that will be shared with other students during the presentations in Lesson 13.

Tell students that they should keep a word processor document open to paste content and reference
materials from their investigations. Students will need to make sure to keep track of what
information they find, where they find it, and to get appropriate information about the source of
information.

If using a lab or mobile computer lab environment, set up a set of expectations for what the students
should accomplish during the course of their research, and what types of sites or information is
appropriate to review for finding this background information. For instance, unless your school
already limits the types of content that can be viewed on the internet, you may want to suggest that
students first seek out documents and textual information about their pollutant, rather than videos
or other content.

Tell students they will need to be able to identify the source of any information they include in their
presentations, so it will be important for them to note not only the URL (web address) of the site
that they are on to find a certain bit of information, but that they also know a bit about who created
the site, and what it is used for.

Develop a set of guidelines that is specific to your school’s access to resources and information
through the Internet, and discuss these with students before beginning the research, and revisit this
with students each day that you are doing internet research. Such guidelines might include requiring
students to visit a minimum number of sites, to visit sites that mention specific research on a
particular pollutant (and cite that information within footnotes or links on the site), and to visit sites
that not only address the pollutant itself with basic facts, but sites that also provide regional or

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 location specific information about the pollutant. Some possible examples of these requirements
include the following.

Content Requirements:

• Name of the pollutant

• Chemical composition of the pollutant
• Basic properties about the pollutant
• How is the pollutant produced?
• How is the pollutant detected?
• What are the possible effects on human health from the pollutant?
• What are the possible effects on ecosystems and non-human organisms from the pollutant?
• Where does the pollutant typically exist (or where is it commonly produced)?
• How is the pollutant remediated?
• What affect does the pollutant have in Michigan?
• How is the level of pollutant detected?
• What are the acceptable levels of the pollutant?

Research Requirements
• Cite all sources for information gathered.
• Cite specific quotes that are used with the author information for the quote.
• Cite the URL of any site that is used.
• If conflicting information is found, state this and note the differences.
• Find sites that contain data collected on the pollutant in question.

Use the student worksheet / Online Investigation of Pollutants to document information (or an
alternate electronic document that students can “keep” as a notebook for their findings.

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