Air pollution

 Humans have certain characteristics like curiosity, exploring the unknown, developing tools of all kinds and lots of other properties that on the natural selection process came very fast on top of the species of our world by ruling everything on earth. But we seemed to have forgotten that this is the only planet that we have so far and only since a few decades we are becoming aware that we have also some self-destruction characteristics like greed for ever more and more Goods whether we need more or not we keep producing redundantly and cause lot of damage to our environment and indirectly to ourselves, like pollution of all kinds but the worst of all, the air pollution.

So the following WebQuest is about making aware the young learners about this hazard, getting information, become expert on the field and through a letter of complaint inform and make the other people aware of it in order to have more and more people that care and act against the industrial politics that poison our planet.  

The following steps will give more detailed information about this problem.

SO LET’S MAKE THE RESEARCH

You were just offered to write a Complaint Letter to your Minister, and you need to find the proper information that should be presented in the letter for the Ministry of Environment.  Your letter will be used as an encouragement to the Minister, to start implementing new laws and organizations in order to stop the air-pollution. In your task you need to do some researching, but there are steps and directions that are easy to follow.

The task is made to be worked on in groups. Each group will have 4 students with different roles and activities. Each student in the group needs to go through all the materials provided, but each one will have to take notes of one of the following: causes, effects, consequences and prevention of the air-pollution.  Therefore, the roles of the students will be divided as follows:

1. Causes - The first member of the group should take notes about the causes of the air-pollution during the research as he/she will be writing a paragraph about it.  For example , what are the common air-pollutants? And then explain them briefly in the paragraph.
2. Effects - The second member will have to create a paragraph about the effects of the air-pollution. What are the key effects of it? So, he/she needs to take notes regarding the effects of the air pollution.
3. Consequences - The third member in the group will need to compose a paragraph about the consequences of the air-pollution. Which pollutants are the most wide spread health threats? Notes about consequences are important.
4. Prevention - The fourth member will write a paragraph about means of preventing air-pollution. Which are the ways to reduce air-pollution? Notes about the prevention are necessary.

 All these paragraphs and information will help you with forming the Complaint Letter that you need to write at the end of the assignment. Following the directions and steps will be helpful and you won’t face any difficulties if you pay attention to the materials given to you.

First, you need to watch two videos about air-pollution. There are interesting and simple facts that will assist you with gathering information and writing the letter. There will be articles consisting of varieties of tips and steps on how to create the letter and its structure. Additionally, you will have more examples of Letters of Complaint so you can analyze it and see the structure of it. Look at the samples given to you and try to compare it with the given articles. When you are done with reading and listening and you think you have enough sources and information that are needed for the Letter of Complaint that means you are ready to start writing it.

Good luck! 

My Dears,

Now that you already know your roles, I need you to do the following to raise awareness about the air pollution!

Here are your tasks:

1. Watch the videos.

***It is very important to take notes of the key issues while watching the videos: causes, effects, consequences and prevention***

Video 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKyhfxxr7s

Video 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9YDMsehsMQ

2. Since your group members already have all the necessary notes from the videos about the air pollution, now it’s time to learn how to write a formal letter of complaint. In order to do so you need to look at how to lay out a letter, therefore ensure the following:

• Sender’s address                                 (your school’s address)
• Date                                                    (the date you send it)
• Recipient’s address                             (the address of the Ministry of Environment)
• Salutation                                            (formal greeting expressions – Dear Mr, Mrs, Miss)
•  Body                                                  (the content – your four paragraphs)
• Closing and Signature                         (formal closing (Best wishes), and your names)

Please read the tips on how to write complaint letters in the links below. The links also provide you with what to include in a complaint letter, a complaint letter template, example letters as well as an exercise.

http://www2.elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eiw/complaint_letter_constructor.htm#Instructions

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/write-a-complaint-letter#what-to-include-in-a-complaint-letter

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/media/words/assets/uk_sample_complaint_letter_unsatisfactory-workmanship.pdf

3.  Now I believe you want to take your turn to prevent the harmful air pollution, right?

 What you can do to help with this situation is write a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Environment. They are the people in charge of the environment. You are going to write a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Environment, including all the facts from notes you took at the beginning of this lesson. So, what you need to do is as follows:

• Write a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Environment
• Include all the facts you have taken notes for in this lesson
• Include your feelings and believes
• Include all the prevention ideas against air – pollution
• Please remind to check that your letter contains all the information needed

The rubric below shows how your work will be evaluated.

Congratulations! You have managed to finished your task successfully!

As we have undergone through the whole process from the introduction down to the conclusion and we see the whole work in a piece I can conclude by observing all the items and every little part of  the lesson that firstly it is alike to a symphony where every sentence plays a role and gives a contribution to our main aim of our work to spread the concerning of air pollution, its impact to our lives and educate the people around us in order of causing a chain reaction of trying to find ways in order to solve the problem of the air pollution. It’s about us and our quality of life so let’s find a solution now by not handing out the problem to our descendants, where it may be too late to recuperate the atmosphere. 

Great Job!

by A. Kalkova, D. Sylaj, Sh. E. Kasumi

This Webquest is aimed for 11-14 year old ESL students, who are 6th -8th graders of the elementary school, Pre-Intermediate level. The Webquest is designed to raise awareness about Air Pollution, to stimulate researching skills, enrich their vocabulary by defining, interpreting, drawing conclusions, analyzing and evaluating. The Webquest serves a great deal in development of their writing skills through a letter of complaint, which they are to address to the Ministry of Environment.