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Want to find how
safe is the air around you?? If you or your school do not have
access to Pawan-TARA air testing kit, do not despair, you can
still monitor air quality of your area by the simple activities
given below. Have fun!!
WHAT IS
IN THE AIR?
AIR PATROL
THE CELLO TAPE TEST
IS
THE RAIN ACIDIC?
WHAT IS
IN THE AIR?
Take old greeting cards.
On one white side
of each card, spread a thin layer of vaseline or petroleum
jelly.
Punch a hole at the end of some of the cards
so you can hang them up using a piece of string or use tape to
fasten others.
Find some places where you can leave the
cards undisturbed for a week. You might hang them from branches
or railings or tape them to windows. Tape one near school gate,
and one on class rooms walls.
At the end of the week, collect the cards.
Whatever has stuck to them is a record of the week's visible air
pollution in that place. Compare the sheets. How dirty is the
air in your neighborhood ?
Tell your friends living in different parts
of the town to also do the same. Compare after a week.
Which
part of the town has higher air pollution?
What can you do to
improve?
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AIR PATROL
What You will Need?
Eight natural rubber bands, two coat hangers,
A plastic bag, Magnifying glass
What To Do?
1. Bend each coat hanger into a rectangle.
2. Slide four rubber bands onto each coat
hanger, making sure they are stretched tight.
3. Hang one up outside in a shady place so it is
out of the sun. This is important.
4. Put the other hanger in a plastic bag and
seal it tightly. Keep it indoors in a drawer.
5. Wait for a week.
6. After a week, check out the rubber bands you
hung outside. Are they cracked and broken? Use a magnifying
glass to look them over carefully.
7. Compare the rubber bands you hung outside
with the ones you kept in the bag by stretching each group the
same distance. Do you notice any difference?
8. If the rubber bands from outdoors are still
in good shape, hang them back and keep them for a few more days.
See what happens to them over a longer period of time.
What You Will Discover
If you live in a place where the air is
clean, it will take a long time for rubber bands to show damage.
But if you live in an area where the air is very polluted, the
rubber bands will break in a few weeks. That's because, unseen
by you, air pollution has been eating away at them.
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THE CELLO TAPE TEST
What You will Need?
Transparent cello tape, white sheet of paper, pen
What To Do?
Collect leaves from different areas like
traffic junction, main road, outside school, inside school. You will find them covered with dust and
soot.
Do
not touch the surface of the leaves with your hand, but hold
them from the stalk. Remember which leaf came from which
location.
Take a piece of transparent cello / scotch
tape and stick firmly on the upper surface of a leaf and then
peel off gently.
Take a plain sheet of paper and stick tape on
this. Under this mark the location from where the leaf was
taken.
Repeat for all the leaves.
You Will Notice
The tape has a lot of small dust particles on
it.
Leaves / trees near places where there is
vehicular traffic will have more dust particles on them compared to
places away from roadsides. Thus trees on roadsides can play an
effective role in reducing air pollution.
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IS
THE RAIN ACIDIC?
What Will You Need?
A clean wide-mouthed bottle, pH paper strip or litmus paper and
colour chart
What to Do?
1. On a rainy day,
place the clean bottle outside in an open area or on your roof
so that rain water can fall directly into it.
2. When the rain stops, dip a strip of pH paper or litmus paper
into the collected rain water.
3. Compare the colour on the strip to the colour chart. Record
your results.
You Will Find
If the pH is between 6.5 to 8.5, the water is neutral. If
it is lower than 6.5, the rain water is acidic. If higher than
8.5, water is alkaline.
Do this activity for the first shower in the monsoon and for
subsequent showers. Compare the pH values. Is there any change?
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Back
to Air Watch Page
(Source: Activity Guide for Children's
Science Congress by NCSTC-Network, New Delhi)
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