WebQuest on Environmental Problems
Welcome to your tour of some of the information available to you from the EPA. The EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s a government agency whose job is to monitor and regulate the environment. Follow this link to the EPA’s website for high school students, then use the information there to answer the questions below. htt p://www.epa.gov/highschool/ As on the Galápagos field trip, use a different font for your answers. You are required to type answers everywhere you see a green star (*).
1. Scroll through the EPA High School Environmental Center (the page you’re on). a. What are the 7 major categories of information available on this site? *
2. Follow the Air link, then click on “The Atmosphere”. Scroll to “Climate Change”, and click on “Emissions Calculator”, click on start and go through and answer all question to the best of your ability. At the end print the summary and attach to your worksheet to hand in. Then answer the question below.
a. What are two greenhouse gases? *
3. Through a series of links from the EPA website, you can get to this site: leconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm . This site is a calculator for fuel emissions for different types of cars. Fill in the information requested for the car you use most often. If you don’t know the year for your car, just guess.
a. How many miles per gallon does your car get in the city? * On the highway? *
b. How many tons of greenhouse gases does your car emit per year? *
c. What’s your car’s EPA pollution score? *
d. Click on “Best and Worst MPGs” on the left of the page. What do you find here? *
4. Go back to the EPA High School Environmental Center, htt p://www.epa.gov/highschool/ . Click on “Your Neighborhood”, then scroll down to “Zip Code Search”. Click on “Search Your Community”. Make sure only “Envirofacts” is checked, and enter your zip code. Observe the results of your search. List two hazardous waste producers in your area. *
5. Go back one page, and reenter your zip code. This time, check “Enviromapper”. Zoom in to the nearest hazardous waste producer (green square) to your house by clicking on the map. To identify hazardous waste producer, click on the circle to the left of “Hazardous waste” (on left of screen), then click on “Identify” (on the right of the screen), then click on the green square you want to identify. What is the name of the nearest hazardous waste producer to your house? Figure out how to add schools to your map. *
6. Go back to the EPA High School Environmental Center, .gov/highschool/. Click on “Conservation”, then scroll down to “Endangered Species Program”. Use this site to find the names of 3 endangered mammals and 3 endangered amphibians in the United States. *
7. Go back to the EPA High School Environmental Center, .gov/highschool/. Follow links to find suggestions for things you can do to live responsibly with respect to the environment. You should NOT go to the same link as your neighbors. List 3 things you can do to minimize your impact on the environment. Be prepared to share these with the class tomorrow. *
8. Again, go back to the EPA High School Environmental Center, .gov/highschool/. Follow links that interest you from this page. Find something that interests you, and write about it here. Be prepared to describe this information to the class tomorrow. *