Atmospheric Pollution: The Smog Trap

This unit investigates the sources, types, and effects of air pollution. Students learn about the chemical reactions that create smog and acid rain, as well as the impact of air pollutants on human health. Atmospheric Pollution: The Smog Trap turns that idea into something you can manipulate directly and watch respond.

This unit investigates the sources, types, and effects of air pollution. Students learn about the chemical reactions that create smog and acid rain, as well as the impact of air pollutants on human health. It focuses on Primary vs. Secondary Pollutants, Photochemical Smog and Thermal Inversions, Indoor Air Pollutants (Radon, VOCs, Asbestos), Acid Deposition, Noise Pollution, Clean Air Act and Mitigation Strategies from the “Unit 7: Atmospheric Pollution” section.

The “Ground Ozone”, “Nitrogen Dioxide” sliders change the key inputs; you can drag elements directly on the canvas; the “Clear Atmosphere”, “Toggle Inversion Preset” buttons run actions or reset the demo. Every change updates the visualization in real time, so you can see exactly how each variable affects the outcome.

AP Environmental Science is a college-level, interdisciplinary course that explores the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world. Students ana… This demo is the interactive piece for the “Unit 7: Atmospheric Pollution” section. Open the full AP Environmental Science course wiki at https://www.getlykke.com/explore/public/ap-environmental-science-124e55a4-e4f5-4ce3-89ab-e0beebe215fe for notes, flashcards, quizzes and the other demos.

You'll build intuition for Primary vs. Secondary Pollutants, Photochemical Smog and Thermal Inversions, Indoor Air Pollutants (Radon, VOCs, Asbestos), Acid Deposition, Noise Pollution, Clean Air Act and Mitigation Strategies — and, crucially, see how they behave when you change the inputs, which is hard to get from a textbook or lecture on AP Environmental Science alone.