GLCE: E.ES.07.42: Describe the origins of pollution in the
atmosphere, geosphere, and the hydrosphere, (car
exhaust, industrial emissions, acid rain, and natural
sources), and how pollution impacts habitats, climatic
change, threatens or endangers species.
By Lewis Vincenz
and
Matt Rosochacki
Objectives - Students will be able to :
•
Describe the origins of pollution
•
List the effects/health risks of pollution.
•
Give examples of human and natural pollutants
Materials:
•
Note cards
•
Air freshener/Aerosol Can
•
Bottle of vinegar
•
Pictures of pollution sources
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will spray a can of
air freshener into the air and ask if the students like the smell
or not. Then the teacher will open a bottle of Vinegar and ask
the students which they prefer.
Ask the students which odor is simulating a pollutant.
In this activity student’s will be broken up into groups
of 4-5 students each. Have students list all the sources
of pollutants they can think of. Have 2 groups list
human sources of pollutants and the remaining groups
list natural sources. This should take about five
minutes of their time.

Handout note cards to the class. Each note card has a
pollutant on the front and its definition on the back.
Have several pictures of sources of pollutants such as
cars, power plants, volcanoes, plants, etc. One by one
have all the students come up to the board and place
their notecard where it belongs. The student will read
the definition to the class before placing it on the
board. For example: a student has the card CO2. They
read the definition, place that card on the car. The
teacher will review each picture and correct any
mistakes if necessary.

In this part of the activity,
students will be shown a
picture of a city nearby with a
lot of air pollution. Teacher
will lead an open-ended
discussion about living in an
area of high air pollution.
Examples of possible
questions: how would you feel
living here? Health risks? How
would effect animal/plant
life? After this, the teacher can
explain some short or long
term effects of air pollution:
For example, a short term
effect can be irritation of the
eyes and a long term effect can
be lung cancer.


Assessment- students will be given a
worksheet to be done at home which covers the
objectives of the lesson.
(optional) The next day in class, when students
walk in, a warm up questions will be projected
on the board asking them to name three human
and natural sources of pollutants and what is
one long term and one short term related risk
of pollution.
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http://people.emich.edu/tkovacs
http://www.mse.utah.edu/files_pd
f/Lesson%20Plans%20for%20Teach
ers.pdf