Lesson 2: Types of Pollution

Objective: To identify the three main types of pollution, including air, water, and land
pollution, and to analyze the effects of these types of pollution.
Supplies: Pictures of smog, factory smoke, sludge, chemical dumping, and trash; water cycle
overhead, blue towel, 3 bowls, 8 plastic cups, food coloring, vinegar, dish soap, lemon juice, 2
spray bottles, and leaves; litmus paper, oil, trays, paper towels, sponges, newspapers, baking
soda, candles, matches, petroleum jelly, Pollution Prevention construction paper links and tape
Introduction (5 minutes), Large group activity
Think back to last week when we did demonstrations with the water jug, the landfill,
and the straws: What things can be polluted—what kinds of pollution are there? When student
makes a suggestion, stop for just a bit to show a picture of that form of pollution (Appendix C)
and to talk about what students think might be polluting that place (i.e. What things can pollute
the water?). Make sure to cover Air, Water, and Land pollution and remind students of the
demonstrations they did last week to explore these.

Water Cycle Demonstration (10 minutes), Large group activity

This week we will be looking at some specific types of pollution. Before we can look
at how something gets polluted, we need to know how it works normally, without pollution.
Use the water cycle overhead to briefly walk through the different stages of the water cycle.
We are going to be acting this out as a class. Establish one area of the classroom as the lake or
ocean. Use the blue towel to represent water that the students swim in at that area. In another
area of the classroom, gather several chairs together. This
will be the sky/clouds (they can stand on the chairs if they are
careful). Finally another area can be a table or desks where
students can work/live/etc. on land. Divide the students into
three groups and assign each of the groups to start at a
different point in the water cycle. Give each group 2-3 cups.
Each station will also have a bowl for water (The lake bowl
will be all the way filled). When students are at the lake,
they must fill their cups up with water. When they go to the
land, they must “rain out” their water onto the land (the
bowl). This is to show the movement of water. At least one
teacher should assist at each station.
Explain that every member of the class is now a
water molecule. There are always water molecules in each of the different stages: the lake,
the sky, and the land AT ALL TIMES in the real world and in our model. The teachers and the
students will act out the water cycle. The students in the lake will evaporate to the clouds. The
students in the clouds will rain or snow down onto the land. The students in the land will flow
down into the river. You can do one or two revolutions, making sure that the students get to
announce what they are doing with each change. During the second time through, explain that
some of the people on the land have been polluting it with trash, pesticides, and toxic
materials. Pour 2 drops of food coloring into the cup of water in the land. How long does it
take for the water, air, and land to be polluted?
The water shows us that everything is very interconnected. If we pollute the air, it will
affect the water and the land. If we pollute the land, it will affect the water and the air.
Discuss briefly with students.
Stations! (10-12 minutes each), Small group activity
We will be maintaining our three groups and acting as scientists at three different
stations. Each group will get to complete all of the stations eventually. Teachers can each man
a station or move around with their group. When it’s almost time to switch, one teacher will
indicate that the groups should start cleaning up and getting ready by flicking the lights. Make
sure to indicate to the students what the lights cue means. They will be responsible for helping
to clean up and walking calmly to the next station.

Acid Rain, Station 1

Who knows what an acid is? Acids are chemicals that are soluble in water. They have
very particular effects on people and living things. Have you ever had a cut in your mouth and
then taken a big sip of orange juice or lemonade, what happened? Orange juice is acidic.
Acidic doesn’t always mean that it is bad for us, but it can hurt if something is more acidic than
it is supposed to be. Imagine if you were a fish. How do fish breathe? Imagine you were a
fish in acidic water (like strong orange juice instead of clean, fresh water) and each time you
breathed it would probably enter your gills, hurting you and eventually damaging your body.
Sometimes pollution can make things that are acidic get into the water cycle like we just saw.
Factories and cars both produce chemicals called sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide that can
get into the air and cause acid rain. We are going to be testing to see what things are acidic and
what effects acidic things can have on living things.
First, we will be testing several things you might find in your house: dish soap,
lemon juice, and tap water. Make predictions—What do you think will be acidic? Use the
litmus paper to test. Compare the color on the paper to the color chart and figure out if your
guesses were right. What things are acidic?
Now we actually get to see the effects of some types of pollution. In these spray bottles
(hold up for kids to see), we have some “rain” from the sky. We want to determine which
one is polluted and which one is not. We also want to see what effects the polluted solution
will have. The supplies we have are: a cup of water, two leaves, two pieces of paper, and a few
pieces of pH paper. Ask, “How do you think we can test these to see if they are polluted?”
You can go through some trial and error with the students, being sure to explain that we would
never want to eat our samples, because no one would want to eat the polluted one. We
shouldn’t smell our samples either, because even that could be a bit dangerous.
What we eventually want to do (Try to allow students to figure this out), is to spray
each leaf with separate bottles to see if they have different effects. You can also have students
save this overnight in their classroom and it should show a more dramatic change. We also
want to spray the two bottles into different water cups and test them with pH paper to see
which one turns a different color. Explain that this means it has more acid in it, almost like the
water was like lemon juice.
You can explain, also, what is happening in these two situations. When the air is
polluted, it can get into the water (rain) and then rain down on the plants or get into the
water, which makes it harder for the plants and animals in the water to live. That’s why
the leaf turns brown and the water turns the pH paper. What does this tell us about factories
and cars? Not only can they make the air smoky, we see that they release chemicals like sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen dioxide that can form acid rain, pollute our lakes and oceans, and hurt
plants.
Oil Spill, Station 2
What is oil? What do we use it for? Oil is found underneath the earth’s surface, made
millions of years ago with dead plants and animals. Today it is extremely useful to power cars,
factories, and other machines. But oil can also be pretty dangerous for our environment. Why
might oil be dangerous? Remember talking about air pollution with the straws last week?
Today we are going to talk about another way oil is dangerous—what happens when in spills
in land or water?
With your pan of water, pour a bit of oil into the pan and have students make
observations about what happens. About half of the oil spills and pollution that happen
come from land, the other half come from tankers in the ocean that carry oil and may spill it.
When oil spills, why do we have to clean it up? Talk about who/what oil spills can affect. For
example, during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, 33,000 seabirds, 980 sea otters, and 136
bald eagles died. We are going to be environmentalists cleaning up this massive oil spill.
Within this pan, we must use different products to try to make the ocean free of oil. We
have sponges, paper towels, shredded newspapers, baking soda, and dishwashing liquid to try
with. We will rate each product from 1-5 in terms of effectiveness (perhaps have each student
in the group try with one device and have the group evaluate the effectiveness collectively.
Discuss: What is the best thing to use for cleaning up the ocean? Could we use them to
clean up a big oil spill-why or why not? Did any of the cleaning materials leave a residue
behind that could be damaging to the environment? How could we clean it up? Sometimes
when we use certain materials to clean off animals that naturally have a waterproof coating
(kind of like a rain jacket that they always wear!), we can take away the natural oils from their
feathers and leave them vulnerable without their natural defenses.

Air Pollution, Station 3

At this station, we will be looking at air pollution. Some people think that air
pollution is the biggest pollution danger facing our world today. The air is all around us all of
the time, but most times we cannot see it, touch it, taste it, or smell it. So how do we know if it
is polluted?
Light the candle (careful!) and have students observe the air above the candle. What
do they see? Maybe the air currents are moving, but we cannot see pollution. Now hold the
glass over the candle for a bit. We will see soot form on the glass, which we did not see
before. This is the pollution that results from burning the fuel, which in this case is the wax on
the candle. Most air pollution is the result of burning fuel, such as oil, wood, charcoal, or
natural gas. The tricky thing is that we often cannot see the pollution being released.
Have the students touch the soot on the glass if they want to. They will notice that it is real
“dirt.”
Now we will get to test the air in our school. Each group will get two white pieces of
paper on which they will smear petroleum jelly. Then they must place it in somewhere where
it can collect some air pollution. Groups can choose to put the paper outside (weight it down
with rocks or something and put in a place where it probably won’t get wet or thrown away…
maybe right outside the class’s window), in the classroom, in the lunchroom, etc. You might
want to label it so that other teachers or students do not think it’s pollution and throw it away!
You can check back in a few days, or next week at KFC to see what kind of debris and air
pollution it has collected.
Conclusion (10 minutes), Large group activity
We saw today that air, land, and water pollution can have many harmful effects. What
can we do to minimize these bad effects? What did you do last week in the Pollution
Prevention Project—what kind of pollution did you prevent? For example, if Sarah shares that
she and her mom walked to the store instead of driving their car, what kind of pollution did
they prevent? (Answer: Air Pollution). Commend students on great Pollution Prevention
Progress and also brainstorm new things to do for the project this week. Have students tape
links onto the chain and evaluate class’s progress.
Appendix C: Pollution Pictures
Smog in Houston

Factory Smoke
Sludge

Chemical Dumping
Litter

More Land Pollution

Appendix D: Pollution Cycle