Lesson Internal Combustion Engine, Electric Vehicles & Air Quality Connections

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, students should be able to:

• Recall that particulate matter and ground-level ozone affect air quality.
• Recognize ground-level ozone and particulate matter pollution is formed from gas-powered vehicle emissions and not electric-powered vehicles since they do not have any emissions.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

Worksheets and Attachments

Pre-Req Knowledge

A basic understanding that clean air is essential for people’s and other living things’ survival, and that internal combustion engine-powered (ICE) vehicles burn fossil fuels for energy.

Introduction/Motivation

Today, we will use our sense of observation, which is how we look at things to understand them, to explore two types of cars—internal combustion engine, or ICE cars, and electric vehicles, also known as EVs.

We will first learn about how cars affect air quality, which is a way to measure how clean our air is. We will also learn about a type of transportation produced air pollutant, called particulate matter, or PM for short, which causes air pollution.

Then, we will see how PM affects the air around us. Next, we will look at how PM affects our health if we breathe in air with a lot of PM.

Finally, we will compare and contrast ICE and EVs to see if these vehicles affect the air we breathe and our health.

Lesson-Activity ideas: https://www.airnow.gov/all-publications/

Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers

A basic understanding of how gas-powered combustion engines work compared to how EV battery-powered motors work is helpful.

Gas-powered vehicles burn gasoline, a fossil fuel, for energy, which releases emissions from exhaust tailpipes in vehicles into the air. These emissions contain a variety of air pollutants, including particulate matter, also known as PM. PM poses significant human health risks, especially fine PM 2.5, which can enter the bloodstream and affect various body organs and cause disease. Coarse PM 10 when it accumulates in the atmosphere creates haze and limits visibility. PM pollution affects air quality, also known as AQ. AQ is a measure of how healthy the air is to breathe.

Ground-level ozone, or O₃, is formed when fossil fuels are burned, for example by vehicles and industries, and the emissions that are released into the air combine together in the presence of sunlight and warm temperatures to make ozone. Since sunlight is a key factor, ozone can be a particular problem during the summer months, and during daylight hours. However, ozone pollution can occur any time of the year if the conditions are right. Breathing ozone causes irritation and damage to the respiratory system. Sensitive groups, which include the young, elderly, active people, and those with respiratory diseases, such as asthma, are even more sensitive to breathing ozone.

EVs, which are powered by batteries, not the burning of fuels, do not release any emissions into the atmosphere. As such, EVs do not create or release any air pollution and are referred to as zero-emission vehicles.

Procedure:

1. As a think-pair-share activity, ask students the following pre-lesson assessment questions. Write each question in turn on the whiteboard or smartboard and write students’ responses as they share their thoughts:

• Do you think clean air is important?
• What makes the air dirty?
• Are there ways to keep the air clean or make dirty air clean?

2. Share that the focus for today’s lesson is on how vehicles (cars)affect how clean the air is, and if there are transportation solutions to help clean the air.
3. Explain to students that they are working in teams of two as environmental engineers to explore how vehicles affect how clean the air is to breathe, which we call air quality, by finding out about transportation-related air pollution. Also, they will compare two different types of cars—ICE (internal combustion engine) and EV (electric vehicle)— to find out if either one helps make our air cleaner and healthier to breathe.
4. Assign partners, and hand out the ICE, EV & AQ Connections Worksheet to each student.
5. Read the Essential Questions on the worksheet aloud to remind the “engineering teams’ what to think about as they observe and complete each step of the worksheet together.
6. In section 1 of the worksheet, show the video of cars in traffic to the class. Ask students to draw or write about what they observed. Have a brief class discussion on whether students think cars affect how clean the air is.
7. In section 2 of the worksheet, tell students let's find out about one type of air pollution called particulate matter, or PM for short. Show the class the particulate matter video. After watching the video, review key points about PM that are described in the worksheet. Have students work with their partners to observe images and answer the questions that are listed. Review student responses as a class, and ask for volunteers to explain and/or write their responses on the whiteboard or SmartBoard.
8. Continuing section 2, tell students let's find out about one type of air pollution called ozone. Show the class the ozone video. After watching the video, review key points about ozone that are described in the worksheet. Have students work with their partners to observe images and answer the questions that are listed. Review student responses as a class, and ask for volunteers to explain and/or write their responses on the whiteboard or SmartBoard.

9. In section 3 of the worksheet, ask students to identify different Health impacts from breathing PM air pollution. Again with their engineered partner, have students match each phrase with its corresponding image. Discuss as a class students’ responses and what they notice about the effects of breathing PM air pollution are on people's health.
10. In section 4 of the worksheet, tell students that now that they understand more about PM air pollution and its effect on our health, they are going to explore how two different types of cars—gas-powered cars and electric vehicles, also known as EVs—Impact the level of air pollution and our help. Show the video on gas-powered vehicles. Next, show the video on EVs. Ask student teams to discuss how both types of cars are similar by drawing and writing their responses. Then a student teams to discuss how both types of cars are different and draw and write their responses.
11. Finally, have a class discussion on the following summative assessment questions:

• Is clean air important? Explain.
• Do gas-powered or electric cars make our air dirtier?
• Do gas-powered or electric cars make our air cleaner?

Associated Activities

• Air Quality and Weather Connections - Students will explore the pattern between air pollution levels and weather conditions in this activity. Students work together to learn about the color-coded Air Quality Index (AQI) chart that describes levels of air pollution for two main transportation-sourced air pollutants—particulate matter (PM) and ozone—and action to take on high pollution days.

Lesson Closure

Excellent class! Together we built expertise exploring two different types of cars—ICE cars and electric vehicles, and how each type affects our air and health. Now imagine in the future you are driving your first car, which type of car would you like to drive and why?

Vocabulary/Definitions

air pollution: A mixture of solid particles and gases in the air from human-made sources such as car exhaust (emissions), chemicals from factories, and natural sources such as dust, pollen and mold.

air quality: A measure of how clean or dirty the air is.

Electric vehicle (EV): A vehicle with a motor that runs on rechargeable battery power and does not release any exhaust or air pollutants into the air (zero emissions).

emissions: Something that is released or given off (e.g., car exhaust).

ground-level ozone: Air pollution that is formed from vehicle and industry exhaust (emissions) in the presence of sunlight and heat.

Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle: A vehicle with an engine that runs by burning gas (fossil fuel) and releases exhaust (emissions) that contains air pollutants into the air.

particulate matter: Also known as PM and is a mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets in the air that are emitted into the air from sources such as forest fires, power plants, industries, and automobiles.

pollutant: A chemical or biological substance that harms water, air, or land quality.

Assessment

Pre-Lesson Assessment

Discussion Questions: Ask the students and discuss as a class:

• Do you think clean air is important? What makes the air dirty? Are there ways to make dirty air clean? Tell students they will find out more about how vehicles (cars) affect how clean the air is in the activity.

Lesson Embedded (Formative) Assessment

Guided Worksheet: Scaffold students’ learning by having them work in pairs as they complete the ICE, EV & AQ Connections Worksheet with a partner, as directed in the Procedure section.

Post-Lesson (Summative) Assessment

Class Reflection: Ask students to share one thing they learned or still wonder about regarding the relationship between ICE cars, EVs, air pollution, and health.

Making Sense: Have students reflect on the science concepts they explored and/or the science and engineering skills they used, plus questions or ideas they have by completing a modified Making Sense Assessment.

Lesson Extension Activities

AirNow.gov Air Quality Flag Program: https://www.airnow.gov/air-quality-flag-program/

Additional Multimedia Support

See AirNow.gov “For Students” section ages 7-10: https://www.airnow.gov/education/students/

and “For Teachers” section: https://www.airnow.gov/education/teachers/

AirNow.gov “Ozone: Good Up High Bad Nearby” Interactive: https://www.airnow.gov/publications/air-quality-animations/ozone-good-up-high-bad-nearby/

Energy 101 Electric Vehicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M69GBL0IDzI

References

Other Related Information

What if invisible air pollution turned visible? video

What is Particulate Matter? video

Ozone and Air Pollution video

The Internal Combustion Engine video

How Plug-In Vehicles Work video

Copyright

Contributors

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

This curriculum was developed under National Science Foundation grant number 1941524. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This curriculum was developed with support from the AEROKATS and ROVER Education Network (AREN) (Henry/NNX16AB95A). AREN is a NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Activation (SciAct) Program.