- Greg Quinn, Year 8

Context 

Mercy College run their “Air Pollution Integrated Learning Task” with all Year 8 classes in Term 2. The school operates a Middle School and the task is used to meet outcomes in

• Society and Environment (Place and Space, Investigation Communication and Participation, and Active Citizenship)
• Science (Life and Living, Communicating Scientifically)
• English (Writing Conventions)
• Mathematics (Chance and Data) and
• Health and Physical Education (Knowledge and Understandings)

Course Structure 

The course is structured around six assessment tasks, they are:

Task One - Place and Space
A definition of air pollution, an overview of common pollutants, and suggestions on how levels of pollution can be reduced.

Task Two - Life and Living, Communicating Scientifically
A look at plant cell structure and function and how pollutants impact on the processes of photosynthesis and respiration.

Task Three - Communicating Scientifically
Constructing a 3-D model of the respiratory system, with a brief report outlining what has been learnt in construction of the model.

Task Four - Investigation Communication and Participation, and Chance and Data
A car survey of Mirrabooka Ave is conducted with numbers of different types of vehicles and their number of occupants noted. Students graph their data and are asked to interpret their results and form conclusions. They are asked to suggest how the number of single-occupant vehicles can be reduced.

Task Five - Health: Knowledge and Understandings
Students design a fact card on Asthma and how their college can be made asthma friendly. The card is aimed at 13 - 17 year-old students and to be displayed in each of the form rooms at the college.

Task Six - Active Citizenship, Writing Conventions, Knowledge and Understanding
Students write a business letter to the Mercy College community expressing concern about air quality and asthma, it encourages Mercy to become an 'Asthma-friendly' school. They also write a poem to raise awareness of the effects of Asthma and what can be done to prevent it.

Mercy have produced a 33-page booklet of activities which each student receives at the beginning of term. It explains the purpose of the Integrated Learning Task and is used as a work book for the term. Among Airwatch activities that are included are:

• Assessing Visual Air Quality (Section 4.5 in Secondary Manual)- the school has a high vantage point on the mezzanine floor of the gym.
• Testing particulates from staff car exhausts (Section 4.3 in Secondary Manual or 6.1 in Primary Manual) with coffee filter paper on collector sticks (each staff member receives a certificate telling them if their car is relatively clean or dirty), and
• 'Lights, Camera, Action' - a play on pollutants from the primary manual (Activity 3.3).

Other activities include:

• Using drinking straws of various lengths to simulate airway constriction and the effect on breathing associated with asthma.
• A role play on the introduction of a new 'cheap but dirty' car; students take on the roles of car company representatives and the heath/ environment lobby to argue the costs / benefits of the vehicle, and
• A 'Six Thinking Hats' activity on the proposition that “Everyone should spend a minimum number of hours on a bus per week”.

Many of the activities are performed as group jigsaw activities - due to the practicality of having 160 students doing the same thing at the same time (testing staff car exhausts for example).

Conclusion 

The Integrated Learning Task finishes with students reflecting on their attitudes to air quality and our lifestyles. Students finish with a parent conference where they discuss with a parent what they have done and the parent signs the conference slip. Mercy are interested in using the AirWatch pollution monitoring equipment to monitor for particulates and nitrogen dioxide.