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Indoor Air Quality Curriculum - Coggle Diagram
Indoor Air Quality Curriculum
TOPIC 1
LESSON 1
LESSON PLAN
In a latter lesson of how air enters an indoor space, come back to the balloon example to explain the concept of pressure differential, and how hot air tends to go up creating buoyancy
flow
LESSON 2
LESSON PLAN
COMMENTS:
In addition to explaining the concepts of steam and water vapor, I think it will be useful to introduce the concept of relative)humidity, especially since you talk a lot more about it in Lesson 9. I've always liked the concept of imagining air as an sponge. The hotter the air is, the more water it can hold. That's why hot air feels so "humid" and cold air in the winter feels so "dry"! At the end of the day the most important objective of explaining the contents of air is to understand how our behavior modifies its composition.
Prepare an answer to the anticipated question of
what is fog, how is it formed
?
LESSON 3
LESSON PLAN
Suggestion to include in Mira's Story:
Mira also wondered if the smoke coming out of the candle was similar to the smoke she has seen coming out of cars' tailpipes. If so, would closing windows and doors would be enough to stop these tiny specks from coming into her home?
Also, would the dust and unsettled dirt that sometimes travels in air have the same effects as smoke if inhaled? Are some of these specks visible and others remaine invisible (how so?)
TOPIC 2
LESSON 4
TEACHER SLIDES
On slide 7, the size description is wrong. Correct to:
Ranges from large (like dust) to very small (like soot).
On slide 8, teachers might want to say how on higher density there is larger chance of light hitting the particles and therefore making them easier to be seen.
LESSON 5
LESSON PLAN
When talking about particle generation, it might be useful tell students that processes where something is burned are the ones that result in the smallest particles, and therefore the most concerning for our health
If possible, I recommend to include some details about how HEPA filters work. Not sure how technical you want to get, but for small particles the sieving mechanism is not the main way of particle removal. This webpage is an awesome resource to explain the mechanisms media filters use, and it has two awesome diagrams:
https://bofainternational.com/us/how-hepa-filters-work/
Another principle for removing particles is electrostatic precipitation. This one would be cool to explain to students because you can do a simple demonstration:
Have you rubbed a balloon against your hair and made it stand up? Or use that static electricity to attract pieces of paper? Electrostatic filters use the same principle to catch particles.
I know the program is packed, but i think this would be a nice opportunity to introduce another science concept of electric charges and static forces. I mean, that is what Mira would do!
TOPIC 4
LESSON 10
Lesson Plan
It might be good to clarify that not all VOCs are created equal. The scent we smell when squeezing a lemon peel is a VOC (limonene), the scent of pine in the forest is a VOC (pinene). These compounds are not as bad as other very scented materials such as Benzene, Toluene, ethylbenzene, Xylene, with much more harmful consequences if exposed. The reason we care about the "harmless" VOCs is that, in the presence of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, they generate secondary particulate matter. Not sure how deep you want to go into this, but I feel at least including it in the teachers' guide (or briefly in Mira's story) it might help them to talk about it.
LESSON 11
Mira's story
On paragraph 3, I substituted CO2 by NO2, which is a pollutant associated with gas stoves. CO2 contribution might not be that much.
TOPIC 5
LESSON 13
Mira's story
Changes in family actions section
TOPIC 6
TOPIC 3
LESSON 7
Lesson plan
Some suggestions for the teacher-led demonstration:
If mech ventilation system present and if fan not available, can you find where the air is coming from (supply diffuser) and where is it going (exhaust)?
If there are no operable windows: open the door and use the crepe paper strips to assess whether air is coming from the hallway or its leaving the classroom into the hallway. This should spark a conversation of how we may be breathing a fraction of another's classroom air! And highlight the importance of providing enough ventilation.
MIRAS STORY
A sentence can be added on to describe stack ventilation (buoyancy) as another air movement mechanism inside a home.
The day Mira had pasta for dinner, she noticed how the pasta smell was stronger upstairs. She wondered if the hot air in the kitchen, being less dense, was lighter and therefore travel upwards to the second floor
LESSON 9
Lesson plan
On the class discussion, you may include these talking points for the teachers:
Since air behaves like a sponge, cooling the air is like squeezing the sponge. The sponge gets smaller and cannot hold the water anymore, that is why you see the droplets in the cold glass. When a surface like a wall or a window is cold, the water condenses and, if this happens on and on, it creates mildew or mold
. This is also the principle of how our air conditioning systems work. And it is why often we feel some places are extremely cold. Most likely, they have to get rid of a lot of water vapor in air by lowering air the supply temperature. Conversely, increasing air temperature is equivalent of letting the sponge go, increasing in volume and being able to hold more water.
If you want to talk more about the importance of humidity balance, there is a very simple diagram that shows how molds thrive above 60 percent, but also how viruses stay aloft more easily below 30 percent, so there is an optimum between 30-60%. I include an example of this diagram in Slide 7, but you can decide if including it instead in Lesson 13 slides, since the concept is featured in Mira's story.