Learning objective

1. Which gases are found in the atmosphere (air)? 2. What exactly is air?

Date completed

Evidence

C1.1 Which chemicals make up air, and which ones are pollutants? How do I make sense of data about air pollution?

3. What percentages of the atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen and argon? 4. How can other gases be released in to the atmosphere and what effects do they have? 5. How was the Earths early atmosphere formed? 6. What role did the ocean play in the formation of the oceans? 7. How did the evolution of photosynthesising organisms affect the atmosphere? 8. What links carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels? 9. How has human activity changed the composition of the atmosphere? 10. What are the main pollutants released in to the atmosphere by human activity, and how do they directly and indirectly affect humans?

C1.2 What chemical reactions produce air pollutants? What happens to these pollutants in the atmosphere?
1. What elements is coal mainly made up of? 2. What compounds are petrol, diesel fuel and fuel oil mainly made up of and what name do we give to this family of compounds? 3. What chemical reactions occur when we burn fuels? 4. What happens during oxidation and reduction reactions? 5. Do fuels burn more rapidly in pure oxygen or in air? 6. Describe an industrial piece of equipment that obtains oxygen from the atmosphere to support combustion. 7. Compare and contrast the properties of reactants and products in a chemical reaction. 8. What happens to the arrangement of atoms in a chemical reaction? 10. What do we mean, in relation to chemical reactions, by the term conservation of mass? 11. What compound is formed if we burn a fuel containing sulfur? 12. What pollutants are released in to the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels in power stations?

13. Can we draw visual representations of CO2, CO, SO2, NO, NO2, and H2O?

14. Which NOx is produced when fuels combust in air and what consequently happens to this substance? 15. Where can the pollutants particulate carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide go once they have been released in to the atmosphere?

C1.3 What choices can we make personally, locally, nationally or globally to improve air quality?
1. How can we reduce the atmospheric pollution caused by power stations burning fossil fuels? 2. How does wet scrubbing remove sulfur dioxide from flue gases? 3. What is the only way of producing less carbon dioxide? 4. How can we reduce atmospheric pollution caused by exhaust emissions from motor vehicles? 5. What are the benefits and problems of using biofuels and electricity as alternatives to fossil fuels for motor vehicles?