Example 3: Annotated student work
Internal Assessment:
Environmental Systems & Societies
Research Question
To what extent has the corrosive nature of acid rain affected the buildings in Lahore?
Word count: 2003
Environmental systems and societies
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Table of Contents
Contents page not needed.
Introduction .................................................................................................................................3
Research Question .......................................................................................................................3
Hypothesis ...................................................................................................................................3
Procedure ....................................................................................................................................4
Graphical Presentation of results ................................................................................................5
Calculations .................................................................................................................................5
Discussion ....................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................8
Evaluation ....................................................................................................................................8
Solution ........................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................10
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Introduction
Acid rain is a serious problem in our environment. Acid rain is composed of both dry and wet
deposition from the environment which contains very high amounts of sulphuric and nitric
acids. These chemicals that cause acid rain can be caused because of both natural causes and
human activities. The natural sources that can cause high levels of nitric and sulphuric acids are
volcanic eruptions and decaying vegetations. However, these natural disasters do not occur
that often, so it can be said that the major cause for high amounts of sulphur dioxides and
nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere is combustion of fossil fuels. Acid rain can cause a lot of
damage. The direct effects of acid rain are on aquatic organisms, it can also create an indirect
toxic effect on fish by increased solubility of metals. Another effect of acid rain is its corrosive
effect on buildings.
The extent to which buildings are effected by acid rain will be assessed in this report. Since my
city is Lahore and most of the ancient or recent buildings are mostly made from Limestone,
Marble, Granite and Brick. Small sized rocks of these materials are used for construction of
Environmental issue is outlined. More discussion should be
given for the context of the research question.
The link to the chosen location is provided but the element
of acid rain impacts on the building materials for Lahore
could be more detailed.
buildings.
Research Question
To what extent has the corrosive nature of acid rain affected the buildings in Lahore?
A reasonable and focused research question
Hypothesis
Among the given construction materials; limestone, brick, granite and marble, limestone
will be the one to be the most effected by acid rain and will bear the most damage.
Variable Identification
Independent Variable;
Type of selected construction material; granite, brick, limestone and marble.
Dependent Variable:
The remaining weight of construction materials after being submerged in vinegar.
Controlled Variable:
•
Acidity of vinegar in which the construction materials are to be submerged.
•
Amount of vinegar used.
•
The duration of time experiment was conducted
•
The primary weight of construction material
No justification given for the choice of vinegar rather than
rain/acid rain.
Apparatus
•
Weighing scale (digital)
•
Piece of cloth
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Example 3: Annotated student work
•
Sand paper
•
Chisel
•
Hammer
•
Measuring cylinders
•
Containers/Beakers
Materials
•
200 grams of marble
•
200 grams of brick
•
200 grams of granite
•
200 grams of limestone
•
3200 ml of vinegar
Procedure
1. To perform the experiment, four most used materials in Pakistan's buildings; brick, granite,
marble and limestone were selected. All the pieces of construction material were cleaned
One data set per treatment so not enough data is
collected.
Gives some justification for building material choices.
and it was made sure that all of them were of equal weight, which is 200g. If one of the
piece was not the decided weight of 200g it was reduced to it through using a chisel and a
hammer or a sand paper. The weights were then recorded.
This mentions sampling strategy but misses parts. How
were they cleaned? Was the volume/shape the same?
The measuring cylinders are used to measure exactly 800ml of vinegar and poured into
four containers along with either one of the selected construction materials. The vinegar
is used to imitate the properties of acid rain because of its pH value. Normal run has a ph
value of 5.0 which is slightly acidic. However, after combining the nitrogen and sulphuric
oxides form automobiles etc. the pH value decreases and becomes about 4.0
Therefore, vinegar is perfect to imitate acid rain because of its low pH value.
No value for vinegar pH is given; the reason for using
vinegar is weak.
Everyday for the next five days, the pieces of the selected construction materials were
removed from the vinegar, cleaned and weighed using a digital weighing scale and the
results were recorded in the following table.
Environmental systems and societies
This is not clear enough to follow.
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Data table of construction material submerged in vinegar
The raw data is fine; the raw data is then graphed.
Weight of the selected construction materials submerged in vinegar
(grams )
Construction
material
Start
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Marble
200
171
154
139
125
110
Limestone
200
166
142
123
111
89
Brick
200
194
188
181
174
167.5
Granite
200
200
199
198
196
194.6
Calculations
Mean
Marble: (200+171+154+139+125+110)/6=149.8
This is a significant error for the data collected and the
research question.
Limestone:(200+166+142+123+111+89)/6=138.5
Brick:(200+194+188+181+174+167.5)/6=184.1
Granite:(200+200+199+198+196+194.6)/6=197.5
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Marble
σ = √[∑ (x-149.8) 2÷6]
σ = √∑ [ ((200-149.8) 2 + (171 - 149.8)2 + (154 - 149.8) 2 + (139 - 149.8) 2 + (125 149.8) 2 +(110 - 149.8)2) ÷ 6]
σ = 32.5
Limestone
σ = √[∑ (x - 138.5) 2÷6]
σ = √ [ (200-138.5) 2 + (166-138.5)2 + (142-138.5) 2 + (123-138.5) 2 + (111-138.5)
2
+ (89-138.5)2) ÷ 6 ]
σ = 39.9
Brick
σ = √[∑ (x-184.1) 2÷6]
σ = √ [ (200-184.1) 2 + (194-184.1)2 + (188-184.1) 2 + (181-184.1) 2 + (174-184.1) 2
+ (167.5-184.1)2)÷ 6]
σ = 12.2
Granite
σ = √ [∑ (x-197.5) 2÷ 6]
σ =√[ ((200-197.5) 2 + (200-197.5)2 + (199-197.5) 2 + (198-197.5) 2 + (196-197.5) 2
+ (194.6-197.5)2) ÷ 6]
σ = 2.21
Discussion
This is also the conclusion/analysis section.
With every passing day in the experiment, I noticed that the weight of every type of
construction material (under experiment conditions) was decreasing constantly. I then
deemed it important to calculate the mean and standard deviation to know which type of
construction material is most affected by acid rain.
Environmental systems and societies
This does not help answer the research question.
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Marble
This type of construction material came in mediocre level in terms of being affected by acid rain.
The weight of marble piece reduced by 29 grams on the very first day, this is significant. On the
second day, the weight of marble further dropped by 17 grams. The next day the weight loss of
the marble piece was recorded to be 15 grams. A the end of the 5 days the remaining weight of
the marble piece was 110 grams which was a reduction from 200 grams. so, a total of 90 grams
were lost from the marble piece at an average rate of 15 grams/day. The standard deviation is
Analysis
calculated to get an estimate of the intensity of the affect of acid rain on the selected
construction materials. Because the standard deviation measures how concentrated the data
are around a mean, the less concentrated the bigger the standard deviation. The value of
standard deviation of marble is calculated to be 32.5. Comparing it to the standard deviation of
other selected construction materials, this value is fairly high. This means that the value are less
concentrated and it can be concluded that acid rain will cause relatively more damage to
marble.
Limestone
This does not help the validity claims and is not a correct
statement.
Limestone is one of the most commonly used construction materials in Pakistan and hence
Lahore because of its availability. The first day its weight dropped by 34 grams, which was the
highest weight drops of the day. The next day its weight dropped by 24 grams more. The next
day the limestone piece loss weight by a further 19 grams. At the end of the five days, the weight
of limestone was 99 grams which is a staggering 111 grams less than our initial weight of 200
grams of limestone. The standard deviation of the weight of limestone is calculated to be 39.9
grams which, in true sense is a very low value indicating the data being spread shortly with a
small range of values. However, this interpretation is completely wrong if this value is looked at
from a comparative perspective. Out of all the construction materials selected, limestone has
the highest standard deviation value which means that its data is spread widely over a large
This is a not a good way to try to consider validity of the
data.
The student has carried forward the misunderstanding of
the mass loss and the incorrect calculation of the mean.
Then they try to use this information to consider validity.
number of values. In other words the weight of limestone is the most concentrated which
indicates that it has borne the most damage from the vinegar mixture out of all the selected
construction materials.
Brick
Brick is undoubtedly the most common construction material used in Pakistan. So it is important
that it is irresponsive to acid rain in terms of damage. In this experiment, on the first day, the
piece of brick only lost 6 grams of weight the next day the brick again lost only 6 grams of weight.
For the next two days, the brick kept on losing 7 grams of weight and at the end of the five days,
the weight of the brick was 167.5 grams which means that only 32.5 grams of weight were loss
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Example 3: Annotated student work
by the brick in those five days. The standard deviation of brick has a low value of 12.2 which
denotes that relative to marble and limestone brick has a lower chance of being damaged by
acid rain.
Granite
The standard deviation does not indicate the chance of
damage occurring due to acid rain.
Granite is another igneous rock which is commonly used i the construction. Granite is identified
as being one of the most durable rocks and construction materials. Through this experiment it
was seen that on the first day the weight of granite was exactly the same. The next day it had
lost a weight of as less as 1 gram. On the third day only 1 gram was lost again. On the fourth
day, 2 grams were lost and on the last day of the experiment 2.4 grams were lost. In the duration
of the experiment, only 5.4 grams were lost by granite.
The standard deviation of granite is also the lowest and has the value of 2.2 grams only. This
means that the weight of granite is the least concentrated around the its mean weight loss, the
values are not spread widely which means that granite is not affected much by acid rain.
Conclusion
This is mainly the discussion.
Lahore is known for the buildings and architecture in inhabits rooting all the way back to the
Mughal era. With the change in population, technological advancements and human activities,
pollution has given rise to acid rain which can cause harm to many living organisms as well as
buildings. Through this research I investigated the effect of acid rain on four of the frequently
used construction materials which are; marble, limestone brick and granite. Vinegar, due to its
A link back to the environmental issue but it is descriptive
only.
low pH value, was used to imitate acid rain. The experiment was performed was submerging
each of the pieces of construction materials (which had equal weights) in to equal quantity of
vinegar for five days. To decipher the effects the differences in the weight loss of the
construction materials were compared.
The hypothesis that limestone amongst all the selected construction materials would
suffer the most damage by the vinegar and hence the acid rain was proven to be true as
it lost 111 grams of weight out of the initial 200 grams, it had reduced to almost half the
initial weight.
A conclusion is reached from the data. The validity of the
data is not considered.
Evaluation
This experiment uses vinegar to imitate the properties of acid rain because of its low pH value,
however the amount of acid and hence the acidity of actual acid rain may differ causing the
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Example 3: Annotated student work
affect on the the selected construction materials to be different. Other factors like time also
influence the affect of acid rain on construction. This experiment was conducted for only five
days but actual rain can either take place for different duration of time depending on the
weather conditions and pollution levels of the area.
Evaluation basics identified.
My hypothesis that limestone will be most damaged by acid rain was proven to be
true,however, The effect of acid rain on limestone also depends how pure limestone was some
A few further considerations are considered.
naturally have less than 5% non-carbonate impurities which means they are stronger and more
resistant to acid rain damage and vice versa. Similarly, according to this experiment, granite is
identified to be the most strong construction material leading us to a conclusion that it should
be used for construction more often. However, other problems of granite such as flaking,
peeling and efflorescence(appearance of a whitish deposit layer caused by soluble salts or
moisture) etc. should also he considered.
Solution
As mentioned at the start of the report, there are various reasons why acid rain may take place.
these reasons can be either natural (i.e. volcanic eruptions) or manmade activities. Though it is
impossible to control the natural factors, we can control our activities that cause pollution and
give rise to acid rain.
One of the most important reasons for pollution is energy production because it creates huge
amounts of pollution so we should conserve as much energy as possible. This can be done
A solution is stated.
through simple gestures like turning off the lights, television and other electronic equipment
when they are not in use. We should also try to limit the use of air conditioners as much as
possible, and whilst using them the thermostat should be adjusted to higher values. Another
way to reduce pollution is to limit the use of personal cars by taking public transport such as
buses or trains. We should also try to walk small distances or use bicycles when possible.
Environmental systems and societies
A range of applications for the solution is mentioned
but no evaluation is done.
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Example 3: Annotated student work
Bibliography
•
"Granite: Characteristics, Uses And Problems." GSA Home. N.p., 13 July 2016. Web.
08 Jan. 2017.
<https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/111938>
•
"Limestone." Geology. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
<http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml>
•
"How Does Acid Precipitation Affect Marble and Limestone Buildings? [USGS]." How
Does Acid Precipitation Affect Marble and Limestone Buildings? [USGS]. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 Jan. 2017.
<https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/acidrain/5.html>
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