In this experiment, students will test the levels of tropospheric ozone present in the air.
Students will perform the experiment, analyze their data, and learn about ways to reduce tropospheric ozone.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students will gather data and see evidence of pollution that affects human health and the environment.
The directions for the experiment are well written and easy to follow.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have basic prior knowledge about the atmosphere.
Teachers will need to gather materials ahead of time.
Differentiation
Students could work in groups for this experiment, pairing students with different strengths.
Science classes could explore the reasons for potentially higher levels of ozone during warmer or sunnier weather.
For math and statistics lessons, students could calculate other parameters from the data such as the mean, median, and mode.
Other resources related to this topic include this article from the American Lung Association on ozone and this StC air pollution unit about air pollution.
Scientist Notes
This resource spotlights a practical way to measure ozone concentration using the Schoenbein chart. The darker the colour of the paper, the more ozone concentration. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS2: Earth’s Systems
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
PS1: Matter and Its Interactions
MS-PS1-2 Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
