Go to Water Unit Support. This inquiry provides students with a rich and meaningful environment to conduct investigations, learn relevant science content, and develop understanding of an environmental issue, air quality. The inquiry into the question is conducted in a collaborative environment where students work with peers, community members, and teachers to question, exchange ideas, offer explanations, and develop understanding. The learner develops an understanding of factors that affect air quality, their sources, and their effects on the health of humans, plants and the environment. In the context of learning about air pollution, the learner develops an integrated understanding of science concepts such as composition of air, states of matter, chemical versus physical changes, chemical reactions, acids and bases, atoms, elements, compounds, and mixture.
Learners conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data, and draw conclusions.
Through the use of Model-It, a dynamic modeling tool developed at the University of Michigan, students model their emerging understanding of factors that affect the quality of the air in their community.