PM 2.5 & Mortality

Positives

• This well-scaffolded activity allows learners to be curious and make visual observations throughout the first half of the exercise, then builds to interpreting a complex informational data map.
• Students have the opportunity to reflect on the data and activity at the end of the lesson, and this practice of reflection is an excellent way to synthesize the knowledge gained through scientific thinking.
• Many questions prompt students to state evidence for their answers and encourage them to be reflective as they complete the activity.

Additional Prerequisites

• Before completing this activity, be sure that students understand PM 2.5 is a measure of fine particulate matter that can infiltrate human lungs, causing health issues.
• To access the teacher answer key, you must request access with a school email address via a Google Doc linked on the NASA website.

Differentiation

• Before watching the video, ask students how they think air pollution affects peoples' health worldwide and where they think it might lead to the most deaths.
• Depending on how open-ended you would like the inquiry to appear, consider not showing the title slide in the slideshow before showing the images in the activity.
• Modified worksheets with sentence starters may be helpful for some students who have trouble with open-ended inquiry.
• Be sure students understand that the map legend on slide 8 (question 5) represents the change in death attributed to particle pollution between 2000-2019 before moving on to further interpret the map.
• This lesson is an excellent way to build student curiosity about the topic of particulate matter pollution, so exploring the issue further after completing this activity through a reading or video is recommended.