TEACHING STRATEGIES: (Aligned to the Content Objectives)
To gather information on the LCA process, students will engage in three guided inquiries to that analyze the benefits and environmental impacts of REEs. Additional information will be communicated through direct instruction and guided note taking. In order to learn how to use the LCA students will engage in an Independent Research Activity that analyzes representative LCAs from various industries. To understand the chemistry used to recover resources from recycled materials, students will engage in a laboratory to recover alum from waste aluminum cans. Given the focus on engineering design, students will work collaboratively ( in pairs and in teams of four) to design engineering solutions that ameliorate the environmental impacts of products and product systems.
Prior Understandings
Prior to this unit, students will have studied the properties of the elements on the periodic table, their families, and trends in chemical and physical properties. They will have studied electronic configurations, the order in which the Aufbau Principle, Hund’s rule, and the Pauli Exclusion Principle determine how electrons fill sub orbitals, and exceptions to these rules. Of particular importance to this unit will be the Rare Earth Elements and how their electron configurations (of f and d orbitals) affect their magnetic, optical, and electrical properties. These latter topics will serve as the foundation of the unit’s exploration of the benefits and environmental consequences of our use of these elements.
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