Chem 505 Environmental Chemistry
EU1: Environmental chemistry involves the study of human influences, known as the atmosphere, on the four physical units of the earth surface., including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere.
EU4: Environmental chemistry is both empirical and theoretical. making quantitative environmental observations and using processes, mechanisms and theories in chemistry to explain them
EU#5 Environmental chemistry is a bridge between chemistry and human toxicology |
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What
Baseline evidence is essay#4 from my application to the MCEP. This essay represents a real life application project about ground level Ozone pollution in Wilmington, DE. It's an annual project in my own classroom where students conduct a scientific search, and then share in raising awareness about the ground-level Ozone problem during Earth Day. Later evidence#1 and later evidence#2 are different PIMs from Environmental Chem 505. Later evidence#3 are two questions from problem set#7 in Environmental Chemistry. Later evidence #4 represents the Transesterification reaction mechanism from Chem 503. These later pieces of evidence show my growth in conducting real life research as well as the use of the practical application of science concepts.
How
The early evidence is an annual project for my own students. The ground-level Ozone project is a real life application of science concepts, but this project is lacking more scientific tools. I used to limit the Wilmington Ozone pollution problem only to the I-95 highway, but after searching and analyzing different PIMs in Chem 505, I learned about other factors that play a major role that are equal to or exceed the local effects. In Chem 505, I also learned about the wind effect in transferring pollutants hundreds of miles even to the North and the South Poles.
Later evidence shows my growth in scientific concept application. Either working in groups or individually on various PIMs and studying real life applications, (e.g., the death of Alexander Litvinenko, lead in Washington DC drinking water, and the history of the acid precipitation across the USA). I have learned a great deal. Specifically, these PIMs helped me to expand my search for more applications of scientific concepts in real-world situations and to apply them in my classroom.
Why
I chose various PIMs from Environmental Chem 505 to represent solid evidence in my growth of the application of scientific concepts. In Organic Chem 503, I worked on some real life applications, such as synthetic organic polymers. However, in Chem 505, I was guided to search recent life-related problems more in depth. I chose examples from three different PIMs to represent my growth in the application of science concepts.
Conclusion
The base evidence and the later evidence show growth from my minimal knowledge and application of real-life problems in classroom to a more expanded knowledge base of various real-life problems. As a result, I use more applications from Chem 505 in my own classroom. For instance, now I use "The death of Alexander Litvinenko" PIM as an introduction to the study of radioactive elements as well as subatomic particles and radioactive decay. The use of these PIMs in my classroom reflects my growth not only as a learner, but also as an educator.
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