- Joan Adderley, Year 9 Science

Context

Armadale Senior High study air quality as one of their core Year 9 Science activities. All year 9's do the course and classes rotate through the following five courses throughout the year:

• Ecology
• The Body
• AirWatch
• Chemical World
• Electricity and Energy.

Course Structure 

Armadale purchased the pollution monitoring equipment several years ago and have it permanently mounted on their school boundary adjacent to the South West Highway . They also have an automated weather station and take part in the Channel 7 Weather Watch segment.

Most classes spend around five - six weeks on AirWatch. The activities they do are:

• The Student Survey 1 (Section 2.1)
• Air Movement and Measuring Winds Aloft (Section 3.5, 3.6). Classes are split into two groups and the tethered balloon experiment is conducted by a Lab Technician on the school oval.
• Making and siting Particle collectors (Section 4.2)
• Sampling Particulates using the monitoring equipment (Section 4.4)
• Sampling NO2, and conducting the analyses (Section 5.2)
• Assessing visual air quality (Section 4.5) - students use a digital camera to do this
• Channel 7 reporting - done in small groups
• Social surveys

Assessment 

Assessment consists of a portfolio of work done in the unit. Students are also required to choose a topic of interest and conduct an in-depth investigation for assessment.