Mini Environmental Catalysis Module

Activities
■ Using a Heterogeneous Acid Catalysis
■ Using Photocatalysis to Degrade a Water Pollutant

Design Project
■ Designing a Catalytic System to Degrade a Pollutant

Through the following key select activities, students learn what a catalyst is, gain an idea of the scope of catalysis research today and become aware of the effect of catalysis on environmental protection. Advances in nanotechnology are also discussed as a solution to eliminate environmental pollutants. Students are challenged to design an original solution to an environmental problem of their choice.

MWM will give students an opportunity to understand the world around them in a way they have never experienced before. The modules promote an awareness of the roles science and technology play in society and guide students to take increased control of their work.

Module At-a-Glance

Activity 3: Using a Heterogeneous Acid Catalysis
Students use, recover, and reuse acid catalyst beads to catalyze the hydrolysis of methyl acetate to acetic acid and methanol. They monitor the reaction by testing the pH of the reaction mixture over time. Based on their observations, students infer that heterogeneous acid catalysts are safer and easier to reuse than homogeneous acid catalysts.

Activity 5: Using Photocatalysis to Degrade a Water Pollutant
Students explore the concept of an energy efficient catalysis—room temperature photocatalysis using UV light and titanium dioxide. Monitoring the reaction using color standards, they vary the catalyst concentration, UV light intensity, and pH to test each variable’s effect on the photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue dye, which simulates the water pollutant.

Design Project 1: Designing a Catalytic System to Degrade a Pollutant
Using what they learned about catalysis from the Activities, students design and test a functional catalytic system. To be considered successful, the prototype system must meet specific design and performance criteria.

Connecting to Your Curriculum

Materials World Modules are designed to be easily incorporated into any middle school science or high school science lab or lecture course. The chart below lists the subjects covered in the Activity and Design Project sections of this module.

Physics & Physical Science

Properties of Matter
Physical and Chemical Changes
Heat Energy
Light Energy
Energy Transformations

Geology & Earth Science

Metals
Use of Natural Resources
Environmental Pollution Issues

Language Arts

Writing a report
Public speaking

Chemistry

Structure and Properties of Matter
Conservation of Matter
Oxidation-Reduction Reactions
Catalysts
Activation Energy
Reaction Kinetics
Biochemical Reactions
Combustion
Thermodynamics

Technical Education

Designing
Building Prototypes
Communications

Biology and Life Science

Photosynthesis
Enzymes
Biochemistry

Mathematics

Measuring
Graphing (Making, Reading and Interpreting)
Computing
Averages
Rates

Standards Alignment

AAAS Benchmark Standards	Activities	NSES Standards	Activities	NCTM Standards	Activities
Grades 9-12	Designs	Grades 9-12	Designs	Grades 9-12	Designs
1. The Nature of Science		A. Science as Inquiry		Numbers & Operations
A. The Scientific world view		1. Ability to do scientific inquiry		Compute Fluently and Estimate
B. Scientific inquiry		2. Understanding scientific inquiry		Algebra
3. The Nature of Technology		B. Physical Science		Analyze Change in Various Contexts
A. Technology and science		1. Structure of atoms		Geometry
B. Design and systems		2. Structure and properties of matter		Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes
C. Issues in technology		3. Chemical reactions		Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling
4. The Physical Setting		4. Motions and forces		Measurement
D. Structure of matter		5. Conservation of energy		Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements.
E. Energy transformations		C. Lifes Sciences
G. Forces of nature		1. The cell
5. The Living Environment		5. Matter, energy, and organization in living systems
D. Interdependence of life		E. Science and Technology
E. Flow of matter and energy		1. Ability of technological design
8. The Designed World		2. Understanding science and technology
B. Materials and manufacturing
9. The Mathematical World
B. Symbolic relationships
C. Shapes
11. Common Themes
A. Systems
C. Constancy and change