I have been expanding on my environmental chemistry unit idea. The only problem is that I am not sure if six weeks is enough time. That is what I have between Spring Break and the end of the year. It would encompass just about everything we will do. Electrochemistry, Acid/Base chemistry, concentration, ions and metals, potentially organic (I’m not sure about tests for organic pollutants) and we could at least discuss radioactivity in connection with pollution even though that is not a problem here.
The final lab/project (possibly test) would be to write a procedure and run a series of tests on the river water over the course of two class periods. They would have to do a write up and presentation on their test results, and on possible problems from the pollution or clean-up ideas. (clean up ideas have more potential for chemical explanations).
To prepare them to do this, they would need to do at least four preparatory labs to learn the lab techniques and theory so they could write the procedure. They would need to have at least one, preferably two previous lab write-ups so they knew how to do those (they are not really part of the curriculum here for some reason). They would also need to learn about environmental chemistry in a more general way.
The coolest idea I have is that they can do a lab where they make solutions of known concentration and measure their absorbance, and then when they get the data from the river they will be able to figure out the concentration from the class graph of concentration vs. absorbance. (each pair would do a different concentration so that we could have 10 or so points on our graph).
Can I plan this fast enough, so that I can start them on it????? Is this actually possible or is it way over my head?
Part of me thinks this easier to plan, because I have this big goal that everything needs to lead up to. Every concept we learn, every equation we practice, will somehow need to help them be able to do this final task.
I am less worried about my students content knowledge than about their lab/problem solving and general independence. Can I teach them how to be that independent in six weeks? That is a lot harder than just teaching them the chemistry.
