This article provides up-to-date information about how low-level ozone is formed, a short animation of ozone molecules damaging lungs, and details about populations at risk from ozone pollution.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This well-outlined article provides findings from recent scientific studies and highlights the health risks from ozone.
It also differentiates ozone pollution (i.e., smog) from the ozone layer, which is beneficial for all life on Earth.
Additional Prerequisites
This resource is easy to follow and self-explanatory.
Differentiation
This resource could provide cross-curricular connections to social studies, English, and history courses that address social injustice, particularly related to proximity to sources of pollution.
Biology classes could focus on the impacts of pollutants on cell systems and individual cells, such as if they affect the cell membrane, enzyme activity, or damage DNA.
Environmental science classes could discuss the effects of ozone pollution on other plant and animal communities and think about how that may affect entire ecosystems.
Scientist Notes
The resource gives insights on chemical properties of ozone and its formation.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
MS-LS1-5 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.9 Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 9-10 texts and topics.
