Train students as ‘environment agents’ to help them develop analytical skills.
Environmental awareness is something I am proud to see in my students. Whether it is indignation about plastic pollution, a willingness to tackle teaching staff on wastage or determination to achieve the EcoSchools status, a great many of our younger generation are very switched on to environmental issues.
This lesson teaches them how chemistry, so often the cause of pollution, can also be part of the solution.
Students learn a range of qualitative tests before becoming ‘environment agents’, where they will participate in a hypothetical practical scenario to work out which factory has polluted a local stream.
Why teach this?
Chemicals in effluent cause water pollution, but chemists can also lead the clean-up. Teach your students to develop their analytical skills and train them to work as ‘environment agents’!
Key curriculum links
KS4 science students must be able to describe and carry out qualitative analytical tests to identify cations and anions in solution. Students learn and practice these tests in an environmental context with strong cross curricular links to geography.
This resource includes
- PDF lesson plan
- Scheme of work
- Helpsheet
- Observation sheet
- 11 worksheets
