I remember constantly hearing stories about acid rain when I was in school. It seems that you really don’t hear much about acid rain anymore. What is acid rain exactly? Is it still a problem? Has it been “absorbed” by other categories of pollution problems? What causes it? What can we do to help prevent it? Has the problem been solved?
This is a topic that can easily be used from preschool (a discussion of clean versus dirty water) through high school and beyond (what is the chemical composition of acid rain).
However, if the teaching is really authentic, then this needs to be more than just a discussion/study of acid rain, the causes and effects, etc. Authenticity means it is real and counts for each student. Is there something that is currently happening in your community that is causing acid rain? Is there something in your community causing pollution? How does this impact your students? What can they do to authentically make a difference?
If a discussion about acid rain becomes an authentic project about pollution and cleaning up a local baseball field so that softball can be played on it…that is authentic teaching and learning.