Students are presented with examples of the types of problems that environmental engineers solve, specifically focusing on water quality issues. Topics include the importance of clean water, the scarcity of fresh water, tap water contamination sources, and ways environmental engineers treat contaminated water.

This lesson prevents an overview of the sources, groups, and types of pollutants affecting the environment. In addition, learners will take an active part in being the “pollution solution” rather than the problem.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Wastewater treatment protects ecosystems from pollution, including dangerous heavy metal contaminants. Nitrogen and phosphorus can be removed from wastewater by denitrifying phosphorus removal sludge (DPRS). This artificial ecosystem contains many different microbes active in anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic processes. However, heavy metal pollution can stop DPRS from reaching its full potential. So researchers examined DPRS microbiomes in response to Cr(VI), Ni(II), and Cd(II) contamination. Using metaproteomics, they found that different microbial groups adopted different resistance mechanisms. Nitrospira improved its oxygen utilization, and Nitrosomonas produced more enzymes under heavy metal stress. Phosphorus-accumulating bacteria also produced polyphosphate, which could support community-wide detoxification, and showed a variety of other resistance responses, illuminating different microbial responses to pollutants and how diversity within a community keeps it healthy..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

The goal of this activity is to understand how techniques of persuasion (including background, supporting evidence, storytelling and the call to action) are used to develop an argument for or against a topic. Students develop an environmental case study for presentation and understand how a case study is used as an analysis tool.

Clean and purified drinking water is a basic human need and over ¾ of the Earth’s human population has the luxury of having it piped directly into their homes. Unfortunately, that leaves almost 2 billion people worldwide where access to clean water is questionable. This unit will help students understand the risks involved with drinking untreated water and engage them in an engineering project to produce a means of filtering water to make it less risky. The beginning of this unit is designed to first help students understand the risks of drinking dirty water by introducing them to the world of microbial pathogens. Students will learn about some of the most common bacteria, viruses, and protozoa that can be lurking in a potential drinking water source. Then students will learn the basics of water treatment and how water treatment has evolved over the past thousand years. Students will use this knowledge to finally construct and test a water filter of their own design.

The unit was written in partnership with Dr. Jordan Peccia, a professor of Environmental Engineering at Yale University. It is designed for elementary students as young as third grade, but the concept and strategies involved can easily be adapted to learners of any age.

Student teams model the Earth's greenhouse effect using modeling clay, ice chunks, water, aluminum pie tins and plastic wrap. They observe and record what happens in this closed environment and discuss the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth.

Students identify types and sources of indoor air pollutants in their school and home environments. They evaluate actions that can be taken to reduce and prevent poor indoor air quality. In an associated literacy activity, students develop a persuasive peer-to-peer case against smoking with the goal to understand how language usage can influence perception, attitudes and behavior.

Activities offer students the opportunity to learn about multiple facets of waterbodies and pollution, including aquatic life (indicator species), local concerns, and public outreach through research, teamwork, and role-playing exercises.

Waste disposal has been an ongoing problem since medieval times. Environmental engineers are employed to develop technologies to dispose of the enormous amount of trash produced in the United States. In this lesson, students will learn about the three methods of waste disposal in use by modern communities. They will also investigate how engineers design sanitary landfills to prevent leachate from polluting the underlining groundwater.

Students observe and discuss a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouse to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

Students observe demonstrations, and build and evaluate simple models to understand the greenhouse effect, the role of increased greenhouse gas concentration in global warming, and the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth. In an associated literacy activity, students learn how a bill becomes law and research global warming legislation.

This unit covers the processes of photosynthesis, extinction, biomimicry and bioremediation. In the first lesson on photosynthesis, students learn how engineers use the natural process of photosynthesis as an exemplary model of a complex yet efficient process for converting solar energy to chemical energy or distributing water throughout a system. In the next lesson on species extinction, students learn that it is happening at an alarming rate. Students discover that the destruction of habitat is the main reason many species are threatened and how engineers are trying to stop this habitat destruction. The third lesson introduces students to the idea of biomimicry or looking to nature for engineering ideas. And, in the fourth and final lesson, students learn about a specialty branch of engineering called bioremediation the use of living organisms to aid in the clean up of pollutant spills.

Students use next-generation air quality monitors to measure gas-phase pollutants in the classroom. They apply the knowledge they gained during the associated lesson—an understanding of the connection between air pollutants and their possible sources. Student teams choose three potential pollutant sources and predict how the monitor’s sensors will respond. Then they evaluate whether or not their predictions were correct, and provide possible explanations for any inaccuracies. This activity serves as a simple introduction to the low-cost air quality monitoring technology that students use throughout the associated activities that follow. Three student handouts are provided.

Using this resource, create a standalone learning module, lesson, assignment, assessment or activity.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Global urbanization is driving a flood of plastic pollution, and we desperately need ways to break these plastics down. And plastic-eating insects may be able to help. Such insects leverage their gut microbes to degrade plastic polymers, but little is known about how insects acquired this ability. To learn more, researchers examined the mealworm gut microbiome’s response to different diets. The bonds in synthetic plastic polymers can resemble those in natural polymers. Polystyrene, for example, has bonds like lignin, a polymer found in all vascular plants. So, the researchers fed mealworms polystyrene or corn straw, which is high in lignin. Neither experimental diet had a negative effect on the mealworms’ survival compared to a normal cabbage diet. Both polymer-heavy diets led to similar gut microbial community structures, metabolic pathways, and enzymatic profiles..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students are introduced to the concept of light pollution by investigating the nature, sources and levels of light in their classroom environment. They learn about the adverse effects of artificial light and the resulting consequences on humans, animals and plants: sky glow, direct glare, light trespass, animal disorientation and energy waste. Student teams build light meters using light sensors mounted to LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT intelligent bricks and then record and graph the light intensity emitted in various classroom lighting situations. They are introduced to the engineering concepts of sensors, lux or light meter, and lumen and lux (lx) illuminance units. Through this activity, students also learn how to better use light and save energy as well as some of the technologies designed by engineers to reduce light pollution and energy waste.

Every German consumes an average of nearly 90 kg of meat every year. This is way too much and problematic in many ways. Industrialized production of meat is unsustainable in many ways, it affects: Land consumption, food security, climate change, animal rights, pollution and health.

But what exactly are the problems of industrial meat production? What are the global implications? And what can be done about?

Realization: edeos- digital education
http://www.edeos.org/en

Students observe and discuss a cup and pencil model of a cyclone to better understand the science behind how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Marine sponges and the microbial communities they host are critical to carbon and nutrient cycling in global reefs, and they often share unique, but poorly understood, symbiotic relationships. Lamellodysidea herbacea sponges, for example, obtain energy from photosynthetic Hormoscilla bacteria that live inside their bodies. These bacteria naturally produce compounds found in flame-retardant pollutants derived from consumer products. A new study describes how researchers are using metagenomics to understand how these creatures maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with sea sponges. Researchers obtained genetic material describing the relative abundance and metabolic capacities of 21 previously uncharacterized microbial populations associated with Lamellodysidea sponges. Analyses revealed genes coding for enzymes that break down halogenated aromatics, which could enable microbes to use pollutant-like compounds as carbon and energy sources..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Manufacturing and resources industries are critical drivers of economic progress, but they release large amounts of waste, threatening the health of surrounding ecosystems and nearby human communities. Inorganic pollutants like heavy metals and metalloids are especially problematic because they persist and bioaccumulate. However, specialized bacteria called methanotrophs can detoxify them using only methane as a carbon/energy source. Methanobactin peptides help these bacteria bind and reduce certain metal ions, such as copper. These bacteria can also reduce chromium, selenium, and mercury into less-toxic forms. Chromium is released from industries such as tanneries, but bacteria such as Methylococcus capsulatus can reduce this metal over a range of concentrations. Methanotrophs can also detoxify selenium, which is associated with mining, coal combustion, and electronic equipment production, and package it into useful nanoparticles..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.