Category: Investigations

Chapter 1 { Losing Biodiversity Contents } Biodiversity is the sum total of life forms that exist today and the habitats that support them. This diversity of organisms, or species, includes bacteria and viruses, as well as dandelions, mushrooms, and mosquitoes. The endangered habitats that support life range from tide pools and deserts to peat bogs […]

LOSING BIODIVERSITY is about the endangerment and extinction of entire species of plants and animals throughout the world due to human actions, beginning with the case study of the buffalo. See Overview. Contents Chapters Investigations Stay Current 1. Seeking Biodiversity 1.1 Biodiversity Assessment Chapter 1 2. The Trail Back from Near Extinction 2.1 Estimate Number of […]

{ Ozone Contents } { All GSS Books } This activity was fashioned after that described at http://www.caosclub.org/freelessons/hbody3.html How can a gas at such low concentrations create problems for living things? Try an experiment that will allow you to measure how many molecules you inhale with each breath. The volume of air you breathe is called […]

Chapter 11 { Ozone Contents } There is another health problem resulting from changing levels of ozone in the atmosphere, but this involves increasing concentrations of ozone near the ground. Due to its highly reactive nature, breathing ozone is quite harmful. It affects your health and the environment. I. Effects of Tropospheric Ozone On Health […]

Chapter 8 { Ozone Contents } Accurate measurements of stratospheric ozone identified the ozone problem in the mid-1980s.  Accurate measurements are still needed to learn more about the complicated atmospheric chemistry involved and to monitor how the ozone layer responds as CFCs are phased out. The longest continuous record of ozone measurements extends almost 80 […]

Chapter 6 { Ozone Contents } Joe Farman shook his head. “Oh, no! Again—the same problem.”  He had checked and rechecked the instrument, a spectrophotometer, which can accurately and precisely measure the intensity of a particular wavelength or color of light. Last year, back in England, the instrument had been completely rebuilt. It was now […]

Chapter 3 { Ozone Contents } When the Earth was unprotected by the ozone layer, the full strength of the Sun’s ultraviolet energy prevented living things from existing outside of the protection of water.  After the ozone layer formed, life was able to evolve on land. Although the ozone absorbed most of the Sun’s ultraviolet […]

Chapter 2 { Ozone Contents } In order to understand the mystery of why ozone over the South Pole was being destroyed, it is necessary to learn more about ozone and other chemicals that affect it. This will be the subject of Chapters 2, 3, and 4. We’ll return to the mystery in Chapter 5. […]

OZONE is a success story about how people around the globe are cooperating to solve a serious environmental problem. See Overview. Contents Chapter Titles Investigations Stay Current 1. Strange Happenings Chapter 1 2. Ozone in Nature 2.1 Sun’s Spectrum Chapter 2 3. The Danger of UV to Living Things 3.1 Melanoma Increasing3.2 Sunscreens3.3 Sunglasses3.4 Effect […]

Chapter 13 { Life and Climate Contents } In Life and Climate we have seen how Earth’s changing climate and evolving life forms have influenced each other over the past 4.6 billion years of our planet’s history. In the first part of this chapter we briefly review highlights of this fascinating story. In the last […]