For the 2018-19 school year, buy a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget. It’s a great resource for your class!
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.
A 5-Star Customer Review of Chemistry on a Budget at amazon.com states:
“[S]traight forward, to the point, using household chemicals…this is the lab book for you.
I teach high school chemistry and this is exactly what [I] was looking for. Labs included simple household chemicals that could be easily found. Nice format, easy to follow along procedures, and touches on every topic of our chemistry curriculum.”
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you -- Order Now. It’s a great resource!
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget
http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
*Some of you have already purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
“The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, commonly known as air, that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).
By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen,[2] 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
“The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has received reports from our flight attendant members, pilots and the traveling public related to health problems that they attribute to breathing poor quality air in the aircraft cabin. Maybe the air doesn’t have enough oxygen and maybe it is contaminated with oil, cleaning products, de-icing fluid, oil, or pesticides. Exposure to viruses (like the common cold) and bacteria (like tuberculosis) are also reported.
Basically, there can be four major types of problems with the air quality in the aircraft cabin:
- not enough oxygen;
- not enough outside air to dilute whatever is in the cabin air;
- a contaminated air supply; and
- exposure to high concentrations of pesticides on selected routes.”
“Most aircraft have strong filter systems. With the exception of some smaller or much older aircraft, airplanes are equipped with True High-Efficiency Particle Filters (True HEPA) or High-Efficiency Particle Filters (HEPA).
These filtration systems then filter and recirculate the air from the cabin and mix it with fresh air. The dirtier a HEPA filter gets, the more efficient it becomes, so it can easily handle the passenger load on a Boeing 747.
Air recirculation happens pretty quickly. The HEPA filtration system can make a complete air change approximately 15 to 30 times per hour, or once every two to four minutes. According to IATA, "HEPA filters are effective at capturing greater than 99 percent of the airborne microbes in the filtered air. Filtered, recirculated air provides higher cabin humidity levels and lower particulate levels than 100 percent outside air systems.
HEPA filters catch most airborne particles, meaning their capture standard is pretty high in term of commercial spaces. A HEPA filter's complete air change is better than most other forms of transportation and office buildings and similar to the standard for hospitals.”
https://www.tripsavvy.com/air-quality-during-your-flight-54164
‘Airplanes take about 50 percent of the air collected in the outtake valves of the passenger compartment and mix it with fresh air from outside that gets heated by the engines. That air is then passed through HEPA filters that sterilize it before it’s reintroduced to the passenger cabin.‘ ”
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41581445/ns/travel-seasonal_travel/t/does-airplane-air-really-make-you-sick/#.W41n3Lgnbcs
“ ‘Airplane air isn’t as bad as most people envision,’ said Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona at Tucson. Gerba, also known as Dr. Germ, studies germs and where they congregate and doesn’t worry much about the air quality on airplanes.’On a trip, it’s more likely that the food you eat and the things you touch will make you sick.’ ...
Many passengers mistakenly believe that the air in the cabin that they left the gate with is the air they have to breathe for the rest of the trip. ‘This is not true,’ said Boeing spokesperson Bret Jensen.
He blames low humidity for giving airplane air a bad rap. ‘The overall relative humidity aboard an aluminum airplane is low — around 6 percent — and people become dehydrated on long flights if they don't drink water regularly. This can make people feel different than when they boarded the airplane.’
Modern airplanes do recirculate air, ‘but don’t let that scare you,’ said travel health expert Mark Gendreau, the senior staff physician and vice chair of emergency medicine at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass.
Incidents over the years have occurred when airline passengers claim to have been sickened by the air in the airplane.
For example, on August 2, 2017 in ‘Oklahoma City [, OK] – [m]ultiple people were treated for breathing problems at the Will Rogers World Airport after an unknown odor was reported on a plane. … [A] Jet Blue flight en route to Ft. Lauderdale from California had to stop at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City when multiple people on board the plane started having breathing problems due to an unknown odor coming from the back of the plane.
Officials say three crew members and two passengers received medical attention.
The cause of the odor is still being investigated.”
https://kfor.com/2017/08/02/what-we-know-about-unknown-odor-that-caused-breathing-problems-on-plane-that-stopped-at-will-rogers-world-airport/
“The fresh air in a plane’s cabin, known as “bleed air,” is brought in through the engine. Because of this, toxins from the engine oil or hydraulic fluid can seep into the airplane -- either in minute quantities that accumulate over time, or in larger amounts if there’s a leak.
In the latter case, crew members and passengers have suffered from headaches, dizziness, tremors and other neurological symptoms after inhaling the toxins during their flight. Even in small quantities, pilots and flight attendants have suffered long-term neurological symptoms, including tremors, that appear to be the result of long-term exposure to aircraft engine oil contaminants. “
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/01/how-airplane-cabin-air-can-get-you-sick.aspx
A starting idea of the year is the definition of Element, Compound and Mixture. Here is the extension of concerns related to air mixtures in airplanes – you may want to develop at Homework assignment from topics in this article.
Here are several past blog posts that you will find useful for the Beginning of the School Year:
07/06/2014 Decorating Your Classroom
07/13/2014 Chemistry Laboratory Safety
07/20/2014 Classroom Grading Programs
07/27/2014 Classroom Ideas –Daily Announcements
and Teacher Websites
08/03/2014 Lab Report Help
08/10/2014 Lab – Reaction in a Bag
03/25/2015 Your School Library
08/27/2015 Outlines for Student Notes
09/17/2015 Multiple Versions of Quizzes and Tests
11/27/2015 Your School Library II
08/28/2016 The First Days of School
01/12/2018 Grading Rubrics for Lab Reports
08/17/2018 Chemistry Using Virtual Reality
For the 2018/2019 school year, buy a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget – it is a great resource! You can examine the labs and decide what you want to use during the school year.
*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
Have a great weekend!