The book Chemistry on a Budget contains inexpensive chemistry labs that are useful with easy to obtain materials.
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you -- Order Now. It’s a great resource!
*Some of you have already purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
In response to China's growing pollution problems as well as to combat global warming is the idea to plant trees on buildings, as demonstrated in this illustration:
“When Stefano Boeri imagines the future of urban China he sees green, and lots of it. Office blocks, homes and hotels decked from top to toe in a verdant blaze of shrubbery and plant life; a breath of fresh air for metropolises that are choking on a toxic diet of fumes and dust.
Last week, the Italian architect…unveiled plans for a … project in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.
The project “will be composed of two neighbouring towers coated with 23 species of tree and more than 2,500 cascading shrubs. …But Boeri now has even bolder plans for China: to create entire ‘forest cities’ in a country that has become synonymous with environmental degradation and smog. …
Boeri described his ‘vertical forest’ concept as the architectural equivalent of a skin graft, a targeted intervention designed to bring new life to a small corner of China’s polluted urban sprawl. His Milan-based practice claimed the buildings would suck 25 tons of carbon dioxide from Nanjing’s air each year and produce about 60 kg of oxygen every day.”
There are many benefits to having trees in our living environment, including combatting climate change by absorbing excess carbon dioxide (CO2) building up in our atmosphere which contributes to climate change.Trees clean the air by absorbing odors and pollutant gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and ozone) and filter particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark; Trees also provide oxygen, cool the streets and the city, conserve energy, and save water.
Trees also help prevent water pollution and soil erosion by slowing and reducing runoff. Trees break rainfall thus allowing the water to flow down the trunk and into the earth below the tree. This prevents stormwater from carrying pollutants to the ocean. When mulched, trees act like a sponge that filters this water naturally and uses it to recharge groundwater supplies.
“ [Some] initial skepticism focused on whether the planters were actually big enough to support the growth of such big trees, and whether making the extra concrete needed to build them produced more CO2 than the trees would ever absorb. But Boeri made a convincing case that his buildings were an ‘anti-sprawl device’. … The question of whether the buildings will ever look like the renderings remains a source of skepticism.”
This is a creative solution to pollution and global warming concerns. It will be interesting to see if the proposed design can produce results.
*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
Remember, buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.
Have a great weekend!