LEARN NC

Bringing current science into the classroom

By Michele Kloda

2 Superfund in science class

Four Web-based activities bring current environmental research into the classroom.

Information on Superfund and the Superfund Basic Research Program is easily integrated into middle and high school environmental/earth science, biology and chemistry curricula. For background, the EPA offers a comprehensive website about Superfund that includes information on Superfund issues, current cleanup methods and new sites.

Activity 1: Identifying superfund sites in your backyard

North Carolina has more than twenty-five Superfund sites scattered across the state. On the National Priority List (NPL) Sites in the United States, your students can find North Carolina on a map and then view the distribution of Superfund sites. When you click on a site, you get information about the site’s history, the cleanup methodology, and the site’s current status. Students have successfully used this site to:

  • determine the number and type of Superfund sites near their community
  • determine the cause of contamination at a particular site
  • research the contaminants and their environmental health risks
  • learn about the methods being utilized to clean the contamination
  • debate the pros and cons of certain clean up methods

Activity 2: Defining hazardous waste

This EPA activity introduces Superfund to students by having them determine what is meant by hazardous waste and compare proper and improper disposal methods.

Activity 3: What is an aquifer?

This hands-on activity, developed by the EPA, helps students understand “groundwater” and where it is found. There is an opportunity for students to “pollute” an “aquifer” and discuss the consequences. Students may also brainstorm ideas about how to clean up the contamination.

Activity 4: Examining a Hazardous Waste Site

This activity illustrates and explains how contamination of aquifers can occur using a model aquifer. Students explore the pump and treat method, an expensive and invasive method of cleanup used at Superfund sites. This activity provides a nice introduction to one of the research projects being conducted through the UNC-Chapel Hill Superfund Basic Research Program.

Dr. Casey Miller is a researcher with the UNC-Chapel Hill SBRP. He is studying how to remove contaminants from groundwater while leaving the groundwater in the aquifer. If scientists could remove chemicals without disturbing the groundwater, it would save a great deal of time and money. Dr. Miller is researching the properties of chemical contaminants known as DNAPLs, or dense-nonaqueous phase liquids, which have a greater density than water.

As an inquiry activity, pour a tablespoon of maple syrup into a plastic cup half-filled with tap water and give one cup to each pair of students. Explain to your students that the maple syrup represents a DNAPL in groundwater. Ask your students to design an experiment that would allow them to clean up the maple syrup without removing a majority of the water. Students at Orange High School in Hillsborough were presented with this problem and came up with the same idea that Dr. Miller is testing in his laboratory and at Superfund sites! He is testing the use of a non-toxic, high-density brine, which is injected into an aquifer and consequently displaces the DNAPL contaminant toward the groundwater’s surface. (This activity also provides students with a great review of density concepts).

As an extension, provide your students with a variety of safe household chemicals (table salt, vegetable oil, water etc), which they can then use to test their "brine hypotheses" on the maple syrup DNAPL.