Activities

WEB-Quest

The Sulphur Cycle

by: Andrea Heiseler (Chemistry Teacher - Cologne/Bonn, Germany)

Expected time for the work with this WEB-Quest in self-contained learning: about 4 weeks in parallel to normal classes.

smoke from a chimney; source: freefoto.com

Introduction

As you have already read in the Research Article, SO₂ is a gas which does not only change our climate but is also responsible for acid rain and a burden for human health. With the help of the following WebQuest you shall get an overview of the sulphur cycle and come to know more about the origin and impacts of SO₂formation.

Tasks and Objectives

Use this WebQuest in order to study the sulphur cycle. Your work will not be limited to the Internet. Experiments and experiment protocols are also required.
Not all parts of the sulphur cycle will have the same weight. In some cases basic knowledge is sufficient, in some cases you will deepen your studies of certain compounds and the respective theory. In some cases you will recognize that the sulphur cycle cannot be regarded as isolated from other chemical compounds. We have tried to focus on the most fundamental interactions.

Procedure

Please follow the order of tasks for the processing of topics which is given in the part "sources".
For the ESPERE pages, a forum is available (which can be used in the English and German branch). You can use it to answer your questions among each other or upon request also ask questions in the English language to the project tutor Elmar Uherek. If you don't understand something (either in the ACCENT school magazine or on the ESPERE pages) you may make respective comments and suggest improvements.

=> to the English Forum - e-mail of Elmar Uherek:

In order to access the topics and tasks, please do the following:

Please read first which topic and which worksheets you should edit (information in "sources")
Please click the link (or type it into the address field of your browser) and you access the website of the main topic (for example: Climate in Cities).
On the left you can see now by the level marked in bold if you are in the basic level or in the advanced level (more). Below the units will be shown (for example: air pollution, urban climate, acid rain). Please choose the respective unit.
Each unit has again texts and worksheets (What is it?, Impacts, Areas in danger, Worksheet 1, ...) Click on the title in the bar on the left in order to access the material you will work with. So you can go from one task to the next.

Sources

If you click here in the online version on the links below, they will open in a new window and this page remains open all the time.

I) Sulphur

Get an overview of the topic by studying the following pages:

In this ACCENT magazine:
Context 1: Formation of acids
Context 2: The sulphur cycle

II) Climate in Cities

Please treat from this topic:
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/3op.html

Basics, Unit 1: Air pollution (full unit except worksheet 2)
Basics, Unit 3: Acid rain (full unit)
More, Unit 3: Acid rain (full unit except worksheet 2)

III) Clouds and Particles

Please treat from this topic
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/25l.html

Basics, Unit 2: Particles (full unit)

IV) Oceans:

Please treat from this topic
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/1v8.html

Basics, Unit 3: Gases from Phytoplankton (full unit)

ACCENT magazine Nr. 5 - Research article "Sulphur gases"

Presentation

Worksheets (besides multiple choice tests), experimental protocols, summaries and work progress reports should be written by hand.

Develop a work progress report (max. 5 pages). Please write down when, about what and how you informed yourself. This includes information if you worked at home, at school, alone or in pairs. Write which material you used, if it was easy to understand or not (think also why!). Make notes which additional Internet pages, books or other materials you used and list these resources at the end of your folder under "additionally used sources" with the respective date.

Apart from the work progress report your folder shall include the filled worksheets, the answers to the questions on the worksheets, the experimental protocols, eventually photos, summaries you prepared, important terms, etc.
Structure the material in a reasonable way and add a table of contents at the beginning. The folder should not include more than 40 pages.

The topics treated are relevant for your written tests.You should be able to assign the topics to the respective part of the sulphur cycle.

Criteria for evaluation

The folder is evaluated according to the following criteria:

Completeness: Have all tasks been treated and listed in the folder? Did you add a table of contents? Is there a literature list?
Structure and clarity: Is the folder well structured? Are summaries and protocols written in a proper and understandable way?
Content: Is it obvious from your folder that you substantially dealt with the contents of the texts? Are there remarks and discussions concerning the topic? Are the contents factually correct?

Structure of the ESPERE pages:

The following scheme shows how to navigate in the four layer structure of the Climate Encyclopaedia in topics - levels - units and texts / worksheets.
You may also read the page "How to use?"