PBL addressess two important ideas!

This PBL was designed to provide students with an example of how science can be useful outside of recognized fields of science, as students work as communications experts trying to explain s... See More

This PBL was designed to provide students with an example of how science can be useful outside of recognized fields of science, as students work as communications experts trying to explain science to the general public. In the process it also addresses one piece of evidence of current climate changes, how pollen has increased in recent decades and projections on how it might continue to increase. It asks students for authentic products and good reasoning. It is an interesting project that could be used in secondary or undergraduate biology (focusing on the pollen aspect), earth science (the climate aspect), or environmental science (how nature affects humans) courses.

From an allergy sufferer

About 20 years ago I moved from a small city to a much larger city about 50 miles down the road. Similar environment, but many more people and cars. I also discovered I had massive allergies... See More

About 20 years ago I moved from a small city to a much larger city about 50 miles down the road. Similar environment, but many more people and cars. I also discovered I had massive allergies to oak trees - but I had much larger trees in my old neighborhood, and had never had a problem. It took me a few years and a quite a few hypotheses to figure out what might be happening, but I think it might be related to the interstate highway less than a mile from my home, and the substantial amount of CO2 generated from massive numbers of trucks all day and night long. We can tell our students about the problem, or we can let them discover it on their own (with a little help). Data has shown that the pollen season is getting longer, and more species have peaks that overlap, causing increased overall pollen levels, or at least that's what the doc tells me. We can also look at data and discover that CO2 levels and temperatures have been moving up as well. Ideally, we would get data from our