Course overview
The course introduces students to the chemistry of air, water, and soil, and how anthropogenic activities affect this chemistry on planet Earth. It focuses on the sources, reactions, transport, effects, and fates of chemical species in air, water, and soil environments, and the effects of technology thereon.
Participants in piloting
The course enrolled 35 students in the 3rd year of undergraduate studies, following a degree course in Environmental Protection Equipment and Technologies and Industrial Management. The course is mandatory in the formal curriculum of the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Ecology of the Technical University of Gabrovo.
Use of ALIEN services and tools
During the course of Environmental Chemistry, students were exposed to active and problem-based learning in the contexts of a team project where they were organized in 2 teams so as to model air pollution with chemical materials – gases with different origin – chimneys of production sites or reservoirs with chemical materials. The first team worked with hydrogen sulphide pollution, and the second one with ammonia pollution.
First, the teams modelled the respective pollution from a chimney and estimated the magnitude of the polluted zone by using ALOHA – a hazard modeling software program. Second, they modelled the respective pollution from a reservoir and estimating the magnitude of the polluted zone. Each team compared the two results. Then each team presented their analysis to the other team.
The active learning activities allowed students to better cooperate and work in a team so as to simulate various types of pollution by using relevant software which is used today in industrial chemical labs. In addition, they were able to improve their analytical and critical thinking, and communication skills.
