CHEM 302

CHEM 302

Case Studies - 2017

Case Study Sessions: Friday’s 1:30 – 2:20 pm B370-243 (attendance mandatory)

Tentative Schedule

Student seminar presentations and discussion on a current environmental issue related to Atmospheric Chemistry.

Friday, Sept 29th The Mysterious Case of Atmospheric Pollutants in Far Away Places - Erik Krogh

Friday, Oct 6th Stratospheric dichloromethane could delay ozone recovery by decades - Sara Guzmann

Friday, Oct 13th During heat waves, urban trees can increase ground level ozone - Jeremy Kalicum

Friday, Oct 20th Drug sniffing car knows where your drugs are - Arden Hessels

Looking for methane leaks - Joseph Monaghan

Friday, Oct 27th Lifting the fog on Chinas unwieldy air pollution problem - Tiger Zhoa

Do diesel vehicles cause poor air quality? - Evan Hessels

Friday, Nov 3rd Hungry ghost festival behind air quality decline in Singapore - Daniel Osborne

Air pollution more deadly in Africa than malnutrition or dirty water - Heather Wilson

Friday, Nov 10th Indoor air in schools could add to children’s exposure to PCBs - Manti Burke

Radon in basement - Lukas Miner

Friday, Nov 17th Guest Speaker - Dr Julie Saxton (MetroVancouver Air Quality)

Friday, Nov, 24th Water nanostructures disinfect air - Alistair Burns

Aurora borealis - it's gas molecules you know - Misha Zvekic

Friday, Dec 1st Storing carbon dioxide underground by turning it into rock - Trevor Michalchuk

Carbon dioxide-to-methanol catalyst ignites ‘fuel from air’ debate - Gabriel Kleijn

Suggested Case Study Topics (unclaimed):

How cars could meet future emission standards

Selecting the right house plants could improve indoor air

Scientists partner with Google Earth Outreach to analyze methane leaks in US cities

Climate change poised to push up mercury in food chain

Sources and legislative control of PM 2.5 pollution

Air pollution health: knowledge gained from Umea, London and Beijing

Air pollution and traffic: Searching for the missing emissions

Air quality advisory issued for MetroVancouver and Fraser Valley

UK citizens are taking air pollution monitoring into their own hands

How to measure potentially damaging free radicals in cigarette smoke

Keeping cool in summer leads to increased air pollution

Radon gas policy challenge for Canada

Learning to love CO2

City air

Subway air pollution damages passenger health

Air pollution model predicts 6.6 million deaths by 2050

NASA show human impact on atmosphere with pollution maps

Canada to match US on curbing HFCs

UK citizens taking air pollution monitoring into their own hands

Air pollution deadlier than malnutrition or dirty water in Africa

Smog eating paint does more harm than good

Objectives of Case Study Seminars:

Provide an overview of a current environmental atmospheric topic
Review relevant chemistry, and reinforce core concepts and connections to course
Critically evaluate mainstream media representations of scientific topics
Comment on the economic, political and social context of the topic
Stimulate interest and class discussion

Responsibilities of discussion leader:

Arrange a preliminary meeting with me to discuss the topic, identify core concepts and collect background information
Circulate one non-technical lead article to the class one week prior to your presentation
Prepare a one page cover sheet listing sources you have used with proper reference citations
Give a 10 min presentation and lead a 10 min class discussion covering the topic, providing background, chemistry, core course concepts and introducing the socio-economic context

Possible sources of information: