Grade Level: 6,7,8

Goals:

*The students will learn more about acid rain and its harmful effects.

*The students will learn how to write a paper that compares and contrasts different ideas presented in two mediums.

Materials:

*Video on Acid Rain (Race to Save the Planet Series: Only One Atmosphere)

*Articles on Acid Rain

Content Areas:

*Language Arts

*Science

Concepts:

*Acid Rain

*Environmental Concerns

Procedure:

1. The students will begin this lesson by reading two articles that will be provided for them on acid rain. The teacher will stress the importance of paying close attention to the harmful effects that acid rain has on the environment that are presented in the articles. (The articles listed at the bottom of this lesson might be useful or the teacher may find some other articles.)

2. The class will then discuss the articles, describing things they noticed about the harmful effects of acid rain on the environment in the articles. The teacher may decide to write down the students_ ideas so that the students will have a reference for later when they write their brief paper. The teacher can also have the students recall how acid rain comes into existence based on previous discussions about the water cycle and contaminates that get into the water. The teacher can also discuss how acid rain effects the six port cities that they are studying. For example--Does acid rain only fall on one place? Do the clouds carrying acid rain travel to other parts of the world?

3. After the discussion of the articles and the effects of acid rain based on the articles, the students will watch a video on acid rain. The teacher should remind the students to jot down important ideas from the video as they will be discussing the video and will also be writing a brief paper comparing and contrasting information in the video and the information in the articles.

4. When the video is finished, the students will discuss the important ideas that they heard in the film. The teacher may decide to make a list of important ideas so the students have something to use as reference when they write their brief paper.

5. The teacher will then explain to the students that they need to write a paper comparing and contrasting the information presented in the articles and in the video. This brief paper needs to have specific information from both the video and articles in order to be successful.

Evaluation: The students will be evaluated based on the summary that write using the
compare/contrast paper rubric.

Approximate Time: 2 hours

Articles for student use:

~Boyes, Edward & Stanisstreet, Martin. "The environmental impact of cars: children's" ideas and reasoning." Environmental Education Research. Oct. 1997, Vol. 3, Issue 3, 269-283.

~Georgia, Paul. "The problem that wasn't." Christian Science Monitor. May 7, 1996, Vol. 88, Issue 113. 20.

~Nikiforuk, Andrew. "Acid rain's constant menace." World Press Review. Sept. 1997, Vol. 44, Issue 9. 34-40.

~Stevens, William K. "The forest that stopped growing: trail is traced to acid rain." New York Times. April 16, 1996, Vol. 145, Issue 50399. C4

~Sudo, Pail. "The state of the Earth." Scholastic Update. March 21, 1997, Vol. 129, Issue 12. 2-8.

The teacher could perform a lesson described in the Integrated Science Activity Book about acid rain. In this lesson (p. 275) the students use pennies and vinegar and see the results that occur when the two are combined. The lesson goes into more detail about why the reaction occurs as it does and how acid rain affects things similarly.

Teacher's Note:

A reminder that the teacher should set the criteria for the rubric so the students know what they need to do for successful performance. For example: The student needs all 3s and 4s for an A, etc.

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