1. Create a presentation focused on petrochemicals/chemicals affecting communities living in sacrifice zones.

2. Gather and use scientific information to present to a peer and public audience.

3. Apply chemistry to real-world contexts, specifically how chemicals in the environment disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

4. Describe how chemical pollutants impact human health and how they are regulated by the United States government.

5. Effectively present scientific information to a public audience using social media.

6. Describe how marginalized communities impacted by the petrochemical industry or other industries might be able to effect change.

7. Identify how chemists and other scientists can act as allies and assist marginalized communities effect change.

This activity is a quarter-long research project, followed by a presentation and a social media post, that can be used for any chemistry course. It begins in the first week of the quarter. I use it for three different types of chemistry courses at a two-year college, with class sizes that range from 24 to 26 students, but it could be adapted for use at any type of college (e.g., four-year university) or in high school chemistry. First, I use it in an introductory chemistry course (Chemistry in Society), which covers the chemical aspects of some environmental issues (e.g., acid rain, renewable and nonrenewable energy, waste water, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions), taken by any student at my college that needs to earn credits for a science course. Second, I use it in a non-STEM major introductory chemistry class taken by students pursuing careers in the health sciences (General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry). Finally, I use the activity in the third quarter (term) of a three-quarter-long General Chemistry series for students majoring in a STEM field. No prior knowledge of chemistry is needed for students to complete this activity. The activity takes a total of four to six hours of students work outside class, spread over seven different assignments, and a total of two hours of class time for student presentations. I also teach environmental science at a local high school and the activity could be adapted to that type of course as well. You need access to a documentary (The Sacrifice Zone: Life in an Industrial Wasteland), which is not freely available online and requires either your college to purchase viewing rights or students to pay $4 for individual viewings. I also use the Canvas online learning management system (LMS), but any LMS will work and this is not necessary, as instructors can instead print out handouts for distribution to students during class. I use butcher paper and crayons for a mind-mapping activity, but any large paper (such as Post-it easel pads or other flip-chart paper) or writing utensils with multiple color options (such as markers, colored pencils) will work.

Instructor Preparation: Check web links to the documentary and other web pages used for the activity; prepare assignments by uploading to an online location where students can download them (I use Canvas) or printing them out and bringing them to class; create an Instagram account to which your students can post anonymously.

Step 1. Introduction to Sacrifice Zones (1 hour). I implement this part of the activity during the first or second week of the quarter. Students watch a 32-minute-long documentary, The Sacrifice Zone: Life in an Industrial Wasteland, which tells the story of a community located along a one-mile stretch of Doremus Avenue, in the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey, known as "Chemical Corridor." The Corridor is located close to schools, apartments buildings, and a neighborhood where Portuguese, Brazilian, Central American, and African American residents live. It is one of the most toxic neighborhoods in the country. The documentary shows how Maria Lopez-Nuñez, a Honduran-American resident of the neighborhood, and a local environmental justice organization (the Ironbound Community Corporation) are leading an effort "to break the cycle of poor communities of color serving as dumping grounds for our consumer society" (quote from the documentary website). I ask students to think about and take notes on their responses to a series of questions while they are watching the documentary, and then they write their answers to the questions and submit them for this assignment. Questions ask them to share their thoughts and reactions to the documentary, and what they already know and would you like to know about the chemistry they saw in the documentary. There is also a large focus on civic engagement, with questions about what type of change that Maria Lopez-Nuñez and the Ironbound Community Corporation wanted to see happen; which powerful people or organizations ("levers of power") they attempted to influence; whether students feel they succeeded in their attempt and in what sense, and how science plays a role in understanding the issues facing this community and in addressing those issues through civic engagement. Students are also asked about how chemicals in the environment disproportionately affect people living in the Ironbound community and what climate injustices they face. Introduction to Sacrifice Zones.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun18 24)

Introduction to Sacrifice Zones.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun18 24)

Step 2. Scaffolded Research Project and Presentation (4 hours). This step asks students to complete four assignments over several weeks of the quarter, which scaffold their research and eventual presentation of their research to the class. Students work in groups of three to five students each and they choose whom they want to work with. The first assignment, "Regulation of Chemicals in Sacrifice Zones," takes students about 60 to 90 minutes to complete; I assign it in the third week of the quarter. It familiarizes students with how most carcinogenic air pollutants affect communities living in sacrifice zones and how the major pollutants are not regulated by the U.S. Clean Air Act. (The Act does require the U.S. government to regulate six Criteria Air Pollutants, by law, but does not require regulation of hundreds of the hazardous air pollutants to which communities living in sacrifice zones are exposed.) For this assignment, students read Poisons in the Air, an article written by ProPublica, which is an investigative nonprofit newsroom that serves the public interest. The article explains how the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) allows polluters to turn neighborhoods into sacrifice zones where residents breathe carcinogens. I ask students to answer a series of questions about the article and submit their answers to Canvas. The questions highlight the specific chemicals emitted by industrial facilities into sacrifice zones, the total number and location of toxic "hotspots" (i.e., sacrifice zones) as well as the demographics of the people living there, and the metrics and processes used by the U.S. EPA to assess "lifetime cancer risk." Questions also address how the U.S. EPA regulates air pollutants (or not), and how communities living in sacrifice zones are affected (including specific effects on their health). This first assignment prepares students for researching a specific sacrifice zone for their project by familiarizing them with the chemicals, communities, and regulatory contexts present in these zones.

Regulation of Chemicals in Sacrifice Zones.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Jun18 24)

The second assignment that scaffolds students' research project is "Identifying a Sacrifice Zone," which takes students about 30 to 60 minutes to complete; I assign it in the fifth week of the quarter. Part 1 asks them to think about the U.S. EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program, and how accessible those chemical data are to U.S. citizens (especially those living in sacrifice zones), as well as how ProPublica has made the TRI more accessible with their interactive map, which they made using the EPA's TRI data (The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.). The map was created by ProPublica for this purpose. Importantly, the map also provides estimates of the cumulative "lifetime cancer risk" due to exposure to air pollutants from multiple facilities, rather than to the risk from each individual facility in isolation, which is how the U.S. EPA currently assesses cancer risk. I ask students to identify a toxic "hotspot" (i.e., sacrifice zone) using ProPublica's map and then to spend 5 to 10 minutes trying to find chemical data for that hotspot using the U.S. EPA's TRI website, and then reflect on the accessibility of the data on the TRI site compared to the ProPublica map.

Part 2 of the assignment asks each student group to choose an area or city or community from ProPublica's interactive map that they are interested in studying for the research project. For this part of this assignment, I ask students to find an area where petrochemical facilities contribute to air pollution and where the cancer risk is higher than the EPA's acceptable risk. I set up a Canvas discussion board where student groups post information about the area their group is interested in studying, why they are interested in this area, and what petrochemicals are emitted into the air and from what facilities. I ask students to read through posts that have already been made by other students and to avoid choosing an area in the U.S. that another group in the class has already chosen. This ensures that there is a breadth of different case studies that students present to each other at the end of the quarter.

Identifying a Sacrifice Zone.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Jun18 24)

The third assignment that scaffolds students' research projects is "Gathering Information About a Sacrifice Zone," which takes students about 30 to 60 minutes to complete, and I assign it in the seventh week of the quarter. For this assignment, students do research to answer questions about the sacrifice zone that their group chose to study (from the ProPublica map) and they cite each information source. Questions are asked about chemicals that are emitted from petrochemical facilities in the area, the cancer risk contributed by each facility, specific information about the chemicals emitted, and health risks associated with exposure to each chemical.

Gathering Information About a Sacrifice Zone.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun18 24)

The fourth and final assignment in this step is "Sacrifice Zone Presentation," which takes students about 60 to 90 minutes to make and about two hours of class time to hear all presentations (See Teaching Notes and Tips for ideas other than presentations that can reduce the amount of class time needed). Presentations occur during the last week of the quarter. For this assignment, students learn how to organize information into a professional PowerPoint presentation, tips for practicing their presentation beforehand, and then give the actual presentation to the class. The guidelines for the presentation ask them to show a screenshot from the ProPublica map that clearly shows where the sacrifice zone that they studied is located, provide the names of the facilities contributing to air pollution there, and which are petrochemical facilities (and how they know), the percent contribution of each facility to the "estimated excess cancer risk" for people and communities living in the area, information about each chemical pollutant, e.g., name and chemical formula, whether it is likely to form a molecule and/or ionic compound along with an explanation of each, how it is produced by each facility (where it comes from), and the types of cancers and other health risks associated with exposure to each chemical. During the presentation, I ask each student to present a few of the slides, so that each group member gets a chance to practice presentation skills. After students give their presentations, I ask each group to write a one-page document explaining to me what work each student did to prepare for the presentation and throughout the project. I ask them to consider several aspects of teamwork when they write the document (e.g., collaboration, complementary skills, coordination, shared mindset, leadership, organization) and I provide a short description of each of these). There are consequences for students' grades on the presentation if the documents from their group members indicate that they did not contribute to the group project. For example, if multiple student responses from a group indicate that one member did not contribute at all, then that student does not earn credit for the presentation.

Sacrifice Zone Presentation.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Jun18 24)

Team Work Documentation.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun18 24)

Step 3. Social Media Post and Reflection (30 to 60 minutes). Students complete this assignment outside class time. They share what they have learned from their research on sacrifice zones by writing a short (less than 50 word) description and posting it to a Two-Year College Climate Justice Instagram account that I created in collaboration with Heather Price, who leads a climate justice effort at Seattle Colleges. This is an account where students can post anonymously if they do not want to post on their own social media account(s) or if they are not a social media user. After posting, students wait a week and go back to their post to see if anyone "Liked" it or commented on it, or if it was re-posted.

Instagram Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 17kB Jun18 24)

Step 4: Project Reflection (30 minutes). For this assignment, students reflect on what they learned during the project and their overall experiences with the project. They identify chemistry concepts learned in the course that were most relevant to this project and explain how they applied to their work on the project. They reflect on what it was like to post this information to social media, and whether they felt like they were heard (and why or why not). There is a question about the stakeholders involved in sacrifice zones, with some stakeholder groups living locally and others further away. I provide students with a definition of stakeholders and then ask them to list as many stakeholders as they can and then identify who is included in the decision-making and who has been left out, which stakeholders they think are the most powerful and why, strategies that less powerful groups can use to influence decisions and make sure that their voices are heard, and how chemists and other scientists can act as allies and assist marginalized communities in effecting change.

Project Reflection Assignment.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 17kB Jun18 24)

"The Sacrifice Zone" documentary is very engaging for students. They were so interested in learning more after they watched it and then encountered the ProPublica map, they seemed to not want to leave the classroom that day. When students first learn about "Sacrifice Zones," many are shocked that areas like this exist in our country, which is one of the wealthiest in the world. This is especially true for students who were born and raised in the United States and have not traveled much outside the country or been made aware of similar injustices occurring outside the U.S.

When using this activity in my Chemistry in Society and General, Organic, and Biological (GOB) chemistry courses, I grade the technical aspect of the chemistry parts of the project differently, based on the level and type of chemistry covered in each course. When I use this activity in my General Chemistry course, for students majoring in a STEM field, my grading of the chemistry aspects of the project is more rigorous.

I plan the class presentations during the last week of the quarter, when there is no new chemistry lab or new content to cover, because the students are preparing for the final exam. Students are asked to prepare eight- to ten-minute-long presentations and I budget ten to fifteen minutes of class time for each presentation. This allows time for transitioning between presenting groups, as well as time for questions. The amount of time needed for in-class presentations varies from quarter-to-quarter, depending on the number of students who initially signed up for the class in a given quarter as well as how many remain in the class by the end of the quarter. It is important to pay attention to your class size when scheduling presentations so that you allow enough class time. If you don't have time to do presentations in your class, you could have students make posters that they can put up on walls around campus, or you could have them create a video presentation to post to a course-discussion board and then watch a few presentations made by other students. A poster might be a great option for an introductory chemistry course, where the presentation might prove to be too much.

I use group sizes of three to five, depending on how large the class is in a given quarter. Three to five students is the number of students who work at each lab bench and this makes it convenient because students can work on the project with the same people with whom they work on laboratory experiments for the course. I use this group size because the project starts early in the quarter and several students will drop the course by the end of the quarter. Having larger group sizes ensures that there are still enough students left in each group by the end of the quarter for the student teams/groups to remain intact so that students can complete their projects. I allow students to choose whom they work with because my students have very busy lives and, as a result, assigning students to groups can sometimes cause conflict due to scheduling challenges. Many students have families and work full-time, in addition to attending school. When students choose whom they work with, they are more likely to be able to coordinate their busy schedules with other busy students and find people they can work with outside class. I advise students to choose their lab partners for my chemistry courses with scheduling in mind too, as students also need to complete laboratory reports together outside class time.

To ensure that group work goes smoothly, as much as possible, you can have students complete a "Group Contract" at the start of the quarter. I do not do this at the start of the quarter, but it is something I am considering adding to this activity. An example is this document created by Sonya Remington Doucette (Bellevue College) for students to read and modify together, and sign, as part of an air pollution research group project in her General Chemistry course: Contract for Group Work.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 16kB Jun18 24). She creates this contract along with students, gathering their input and feedback from students on each item. In addition to what I already do near the end of the quarter (see "Team Work Documentation.docx" at the end of Step 2), I sometimes have students complete a teamwork self-reflection to help them think about how they worked together with others as a member of the team and also gain insight into how they think they worked on their team. Team Work Self-Reflection.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Jun18 24). 

1. Create a presentation focused on petrochemicals/chemicals affecting communities living in sacrifice zones.

I use students' presentations to assess this. I assess their presentations by making sure that students have followed guidelines A through H of the "Sacrifice Zone Presentation.docx" Word file. If they follow all the guidelines, they earn full credit. If they follow only some of them, they earn partial credit. Students earn a group grade on their presentations, but sometimes I reduce the grade for some students in a group based on feedback I get from the group in the "Team Work Documentation.docx" Word file. I also ask students to use 10 PowerPoint Tips for Preparing a Professional Presentation when they are preparing their presentations, but I only deduct points related to these tips if their PowerPoint presentation is very sub-standard because these are only "tips" and not definite guidelines that every group has to follow for every presentation.

2. Gather and use scientific information to present to a peer and public audience.

I use both their presentations and their social media post to assess this. I also use Question 2 in "Identifying a Sacrifice Zone.docx" Word file to assess this. To assess this, I look at the clarity of their PowerPoint slides and evaluate whether the students themselves understood the chemistry well enough to use their own words to communicate to a public audience. I am assessing whether students can communicate the technical aspects of chemistry to a public audience. If it is clear to me that students have made an effort to communicate chemistry in their own words or in other ways that make the technical aspects understandable for a public audience, then they earn full credit. If students have clearly copied technical chemistry language word-for-word from a textbook or other online source, they lose partial points in their presentation.

3. Apply chemistry to real-world contexts, specifically how chemicals in the environment disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

I use Questions 4, 7, 9, 11 and 12 in "Regulation of Chemicals in Sacrifice Zones.docx" Word file to assess this. For this assignment, students are asked to read or listen to the articlePoisons in the Air and answer these questions using information from the article. As long as a student's answer provides me with evidence that they have read the article, then they earn full credit. I do not give any credit for answers that are not relevant or based on information not given in the article, as the purpose of these questions is to make sure that students read the article so that they have an adequate background on chemicals in sacrifice zones and how they affect people living in them.

4. Describe how chemical pollutants impact human health and how they are regulated by the United States government.

I use Questions 9 and 12 for impacts on human health and Questions 6, 7, 8, and 10 for regulation to assess this. All questions are found in the "Regulation of Chemicals in Sacrifice Zones.docx" Word file. These questions are about the article Poisons in the Air and, as long as a student's answer provides me with evidence that they have read the article, then they earn full credit. I do not give any credit for answers that are not relevant or based on information not given in the article, as the purpose of these questions is to make sure that students read the article so that they have an adequate background on impacts of chemicals on human health and how they are (or are not) regulated by the United States government. I can also assess the health impacts part of this learning goal with Question 4 in "Gathering Information About a Sacrifice Zones.docx" Word file. For this question, I ask students about specific types of cancer caused by each chemical and other health risks, beyond cancer, from exposure to each chemical. I ask them to find a scientific article, publication, or website that describes the risk and cite it. As long as students find such a resource and use the information in it to answer this question, then they earn full credit for this question. I use Guideline G in the "Sacrifice Zone Presentation.docx" Word file too. For this guideline, I am assessing each student group's understanding in the same way as Question 4 in "Gathering Information About a Sacrifice Zone.docx" Word file. 

5. Effectively present scientific information to a public audience using social media.

I assess this by reading their social media posts to see if they explained the chemistry in ways that a public audience could understand.            I assess this in a similar way as Learning Goal 2 (above). I assess whether students can communicate the technical aspects of chemistry to a public audience in their social media post. If it is clear to me that students have made an effort to communicate chemistry in their own words or in other ways that make the technical aspects understandable for a public audience, then they earn full credit. If students have clearly copied technical chemistry language word-for-word from a textbook or other online source, they lose partial points in their presentation.

6. Describe how marginalized communities impacted by the petrochemical industry or other industries might be able to effect change.

I use Questions 5 through 7 in "Introduction to Sacrifice Zones.docx" Word file to assess this. These questions are about the documentary, The Sacrifice Zone: Life in an Industrial Wasteland. As long as a student's answer provides me with evidence that they have watched the documentary, then they earn full credit. I do not give any credit for answers that are not relevant or based on information not given in the documentary, as the purpose of these questions is to make sure that students watch it and have an adequate background on how the marginalized communities living in the Ironbound neighborhood were able to effect change. I also use Question 3(d) in the "Project Reflection Assignment.docx" Word file. Students have learned about this over the course of this research project, so answers to this question might come from things they remember from the documentary or they might include new ideas that they have learned along the way. There are a broad range of possibilities for answers to this question and I accept any answer that is reasonable, as long as students come up with at least one suggestion. 

7. Identify how chemists and other scientists can act as allies and assist marginalized communities effect change.

I use Question 10 in "Introduction to Sacrifice Zones.docx" Word file to assess this. This is my initial assessment of this learning goal and the purpose of this question is to identify what students know at the beginning of the quarter. I accept any answer that students give to this question at the beginning of the quarter.I also use Question 3(e) in the "Project Reflection Assignment.docx" Word file. Over the course of the project, students have learned a lot about how science provides evidence and information to support efforts at effecting change, so as long as they come up with at least one reasonable response, then they earn full credit for this question.

The Sacrifice Zone: Life in an Industrial Wasteland

U.S. Clean Air Act

Criteria Air Pollutants

Poisons in the Air (an article written by ProPublica)

Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program (United States Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. EPA)

The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S. (by ProPublica)

Two-Year College Climate Justice Instagram account