Georgia SS6G6.a

Social Studies6th GradeLatin America and Canada

The Standard

Explain the causes and effects of pollution and acid rain in Canada to include the Great Lakes.

Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Explain the impact of environmental issues in Canada.

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify major sources of water and air pollution, including factories, vehicles, sewage, and farm runoff. They explain how pollutants create acid rain and damage the Great Lakes, forests, wildlife, drinking water, and human health.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can connect a specific pollutant to its source and trace at least two effects on people or ecosystems. They can explain that pollution crosses borders through wind and connected waterways.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think acid rain is strong enough to burn skin or that it comes directly from clouds. They may also assume all Great Lakes pollution is acid rain or comes only from Canada.
How to Assess It: Give students four terms: factory emissions, sulfur dioxide, acid rain, and dying fish. Ask them to arrange the terms in a cause-and-effect chain and explain each link.

Lesson moves

Use cups, soil, and colored water to model how runoff carries farm and street pollutants into a connected lake system.
Ask students to write who should help clean the Great Lakes when pollution begins in one country and spreads to another.
Give groups source, pollutant, and effect cards to race in matching accurate cause-and-effect chains.
Examine a Great Lakes drinking water map and identify communities that could be affected by a pollution spill.

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