7 | FRQ (Question 3) | Practice Sessions | AP Environmental Science

Summary

In this AP Environmental Science practice session, Tony Vel from Mission Texas walks through the process of answering a Free Response Question (FRQ) on the topic of crude oil. The session covers various components, including describing environmental impacts, identifying atmospheric pollutants, proposing and justifying solutions for reducing oil reliance, and completing math-related problems concerning gold extraction. Tony emphasizes the importance of approaching non-math questions first if you find them easier, understanding dimensional analysis, and always showing your work to earn full points.

Highlights

• Tony Vel kicks off with how oil extraction affects marine environments, primarily through oil spills. 🛢️
• He delves into identifying pollutants released from burning refined oil products, providing examples. 💨
• Tony proposes individual solutions to cut down on oil use, like biking or buying hybrid vehicles. 🚗
• He explains how to justify proposed solutions by connecting them to human health improvements. ❤️
• Tony provides detailed math work, showing how to calculate gold extraction and its economic value using dimensional analysis. 💰

Key Takeaways

• Understanding how crude oil extraction impacts marine ecosystems is crucial – spills can harm marine life and block sunlight. 🐠
• Identifying atmospheric pollutants like CO2 and sulfur oxides is a key aspect of environmental science. 🌍
• Simple lifestyle changes, like using bikes or electric vehicles, can reduce personal reliance on oil. 🚴‍♂️
• Justifying solutions with health and environmental benefits enhances understanding and exam scores. 💡
• Dimensional analysis is a powerful tool in solving APES math questions. 📐

Overview

In this installment of AP Environmental Science FRQ practice, Tony Vel helps students navigate through a complicated topic by breaking it down into manageable parts. He discusses the process of crude oil extraction, highlighting its profound impacts on marine ecosystems due to spills, and then walks through identifying common atmospheric pollutants released during combustion.

Tony encourages students to focus on the non-math portions of these exam questions first, as they tend to be easier and contribute to a significant portion of the score. He introduces various strategies an individual can adopt to reduce oil dependence, such as switching to more sustainable transportation options, all while reinforcing the idea of tying these solutions back to real-world benefits, like improved public health.

As the session progresses, Tony takes a deep dive into the math section of the FRQ, explaining the importance of showing work step-by-step. He walks through dimensional analysis, demonstrating its utility in solving problems concerning the extraction of gold and its valuation. With practical tips on handling these calculations, Tony aims to build confidence in students tackling math-heavy sections of the exam.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Overview The introduction and overview chapter is presented by Tony Vel from sa3 in Mission Texas, focusing on addressing AP environmental science questions. The session involves reading and analyzing the extraction, transportation, and refining of crude oil. Tony points out that these processes involve three major steps and discusses the potential environmental impacts on marine ecosystems related to the extraction or transportation of crude oil.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Question A: Environmental Impact of Crude Oil The chapter discusses the environmental impact of crude oil focusing specifically on the extraction and transportation phases. It explicitly excludes economic impacts and the impacts related to refining processes. The main emphasis is on understanding how these initial stages of crude oil handling affect the environment.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Question B: Atmospheric Pollutants The chapter "Question B: Atmospheric Pollutants" addresses the environmental impacts of oil spills, emphasizing their detrimental effects on marine life. It explains how spills can coat or suffocate marine organisms during extraction and transportation processes. Animals may be harmed or perish due to the ingestion of spilled oil, while oil slicks on water surfaces can obstruct sunlight, hindering photosynthesis. Additionally, the chapter notes that spilled oil can wash up on beaches, marshes, and estuaries, further impacting these ecosystems.
• 04:00 - 05:30: Question C: Reducing Reliance on Oil The chapter focuses on the analysis of the intersection of environmental and economic systems, specifically through the lens of a math-related query. It highlights the strategy of identifying non-mathematical components within math questions to better tackle problems that might seem intimidating due to their mathematical nature. These non-mathematical components qualitatively discuss environmental and economic systems. The chapter points out the importance of recognizing sections that discuss these systems, as they offer valuable points for understanding and answering such questions. Furthermore, the chapter briefly touches upon identifying atmospheric pollutants released during the combustion of refined oil products, underscoring the environmental impact of oil reliance.
• 05:30 - 07:00: Question D: Justifying Solutions In this chapter, the focus is on identifying atmospheric pollutants that result from combustion processes. The key takeaway is that recognizing and citing the correct chemicals is essential for scoring points in this section. The potential pollutants include carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx, NO, NO2, N2O), and sulfur oxides (SOx, SO2, SO3). The chapter emphasizes the importance of accurately noting these chemicals when discussing pollution from combustion.
• 07:00 - 09:30: Question E: Calculating Gold Extraction The chapter "Question E: Calculating Gold Extraction" provides a discussion on particulate matter, often referred to as PM, with subcategories like PM 10, PM 2.5, or PM 5 depending on the specifics one can recall. The narrative addresses a simple identifying component of the issue, which seems to be worth two points out of a total of ten. Subsequently, the chapter moves to letter C, where it challenges individuals to propose personal solutions for reducing reliance on something, though it does not specify what. This part of the chapter is noted as a proposal, indicating the need to formulate a potential solution or answer to a particular problem.
• 09:30 - 11:30: Question F: Value of Gold The chapter titled 'Question F: Value of Gold' discusses the individual's role in reducing reliance on oil. It highlights personal choices such as using alternative modes of transportation like biking, skateboarding, or walking instead of driving. Additionally, it suggests replacing gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles with hybrid or electric ones to further reduce dependence on oil.
• 11:30 - 13:30: Question G: Gold for Cell Phones This chapter explores the idea of alternative fuel vehicles as a means to conserve resources and reduce environmental impact. It suggests various options like bio-diesel, ethanol, hydrogen, and fuel-efficient vehicles. The focus is on choosing the best singular option as solutions are evaluated based on the first answer given. The chapter encourages thoughtful consideration and justification of the chosen solution.
• 13:30 - 20:00: Key Reminders and Conclusion The chapter "Key Reminders and Conclusion" revolves around revisiting previous questions, particularly focusing on providing justifications for the answers given in part C. It stresses the importance of reflecting back on the decisions made and the correctness of those answers. The discussion hinges on understanding the environmental impact of different choices such as riding a bike, using a hybrid vehicle, switching to biodiesel, or driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle. These actions are presented in an order that highlights their effectiveness in reducing particulate matter, NOx, VOCs, or SM.

7 | FRQ (Question 3) | Practice Sessions | AP Environmental Science Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 all right hi everyone I'm Tony Vel from sa3 in Mission Texas you're here to get advice on AP environmental science questions so let's go ahead and get to it so let's go ahead and do some reading here crude oil is extracted transported and refined for various uses by humans so here we're looking at extraction and transportation and refining so we know that there there are three steps here and looking at question a from here describe one environmental impact on marine ecosystems associated with extraction or transportation of crude
• 00:30 - 01:00 oil so again we're describing here so we're looking at One impact and it's going to be from that extraction and transportation not from the refining of this oil so using that we're looking for an environmental impact and that environmental impact needs to be again from extraction or Transportation so we're not looking at any economic impacts we're not looking at anything related to refining in those processes so looking at this this there's one of
• 01:00 - 01:30 these possible answers that I would use okay I would say that marine life is harmed or killed by being coated or suffocated from any spills that occur through the extraction and transportation process you could say that animals are harmed or killed by ingesting any spilled oil or you could say that oil slicks from spills can block sunlight from entering water and inhibiting photosynthesis further you could also mention that oil washes up on beaches and marshes and estuaries
• 01:30 - 02:00 damaging habitat now what I want to point out guys is that this is a math question but notice the first part is non math look for these if you're scared of the math portion of these questions look for these because these are going to be talking about environmental and economic systems and processes so look for those because there are points available here there's going to be a total of four points in these questions so again using that information identify an atmospheric pollutant released during a combustion of refined oral products so
• 02:00 - 02:30 we're identifying now it needs to be an atmospheric pollutant so for this one it needs to be coming from the combustion and all you have to do is basically write down a chemical right as long as you're writing down the right chemical you will get one point so the possible choices are CO2 carbon dioxide the nitrogen oxides nox no NO2 and 20 you could say the sulfur oxides which are the socks chemicals SO2 SO3 or you could
• 02:30 - 03:00 say particulate matter or PM and you can mention PM 10 2.5 or five depending on which one you remember or just simply particulate matter so very easy question it's a very simple identify so there's your first two points of the 10 then you see letter C propose a solution that an individual can use to reduce their Reliance this is one that you have we have not seen yet in this question but it's a proposal so we have to actually propose some kind of an answer to to a
• 03:00 - 03:30 problem that in this case an individual can do there may be a question in the future that may ask you about something that the government could do or something that a company could do but here they want to know what can an individual person do so here are the different things that a person can do to reduce the Reliance on oil you could say that they could ride a bike or a skateboard or walk instead of driving replace your gasoline or diesel powered car with a hybrid or electric vehicle to reduce that amount we could replace that
• 03:30 - 04:00 powered car that gasoline or diesel powered car with a biodiesel an ethanol or a hydrogen vehicle or you could say that they could brought just simply buy or drive a more fuele efficient vehicle and that's going to get you your one point remember just the first answer will be taken not a list of them so if you do write a list the first one will be read and not the rest so make sure you give your best answer first moving on to letter D now here's my favorite part of these questions you have to justify the solution so depending on
• 04:00 - 04:30 what you mentioned in the previous question you have to tell us why is that answer from part C the right answer okay so this is going to be one that requires you to look back and hopefully you got the previous answer correct so it's going to be kind of one of those jointed Point questions so that's many different possibilities so if you ride a bike use a hybrid right change to biodiesel or biod drive a more fuel efficient vehicle those choices are in order less particulate matters less particulate matter nox voc's or SM
• 04:30 - 05:00 chemicals you could say that that's going to lower asthma COPD or lung cancer and your risk of cardiovascular disease and even eye irritation from the air pollutants in there so you have to make sure you mention yes we're helping the environment but now we're talking about human health that's a big deal right so you see there the first four points were all non-math question points so make sure you get those points out of the way first whether at the end in the
• 05:00 - 05:30 middle or the beginning look for the non-map then we get to the map so here we have other natural resources such as gold and silver also extracted they can be used to make components for the electronics in human use one metric ton of gold ore contains 5 grams of gold so here letter e says a deposit is estimated to contain 260 million metric tons of gold or calculate the number of grams of gold that could be extracted from the deposit show your work so you
• 05:30 - 06:00 see how these two words are bolded that means that you're going to get two points from those words calculate and show and here we look at the numbers given to us just like we do with multiple choice we're given that one metric ton has five grams of gold okay so here we have 260 million metric tons of gold ore so they want to know how much can be extracted from this deposit so using that we have to have one point for the correct setup in this case I
• 06:00 - 06:30 would get used to using dimensional analysis I know you may not be used to it from chemistry or maybe you did and you've forgotten it but it's the easiest way to set this up and it is going to be the easiest way to get your points from it so here we have 260 million metric tons times the five gram you get per one metric ton you see here that the metric tons and the metric tons cancel and your answer is going to be 260 million * 5 G which going to give you an answer of 1.3
• 06:30 - 07:00 * 10 9 g of gold or if you had remember up all those zeros that's going to be 1.3 billion grams of gold okay so really challenging and the calculator is going to be helpful here but not necessarily required if you're good with scientific notation you should be able to get this one okay so hopefully that's going to be one that won't get you into too much trouble but a calculator is recommended okay and letter F assuming the price of
• 07:00 - 07:30 gold is $62.5 per gram calculate the value of the gold that could be recovered from 1,000 metric tons of gold ore in the deposit and then show your work so again we're still using that metric ton of five grams of gold per one ton of gold or and we have to show our work saying that that's how much we're getting per gram and there are th000 metric tons in this amount so the question is how do we calculate this well the setup is the big
• 07:30 - 08:00 key if you get the setup you get one point so here's how we set it up we take $625 per gram which was given to us times the 1,00 metric tons also given to us and then right there the next step will be to also multiply it by the 5 G per metric ton so using dimensional analysis let's see what cancels the grams cancel because they're on opposite ends One's On Top one's on bottom they cancel the metric tons cancel as well
• 08:00 - 08:30 because they're one on top one on bottom so your answer is going to be in money in dollars right and then it's a matter of multiplying by the tops dividing by the bottoms always so in this case it's 6256 * 1,00 * 5 giving us an answer hopefully of 32,800 and again the calculator is recommended to get this one correct and if can do the setup it makes it so much
• 08:30 - 09:00 easier because the grader will be able to give you one point for the setup and one point for the correct answer okay going on to letter G here again we're using that one metricon of gold ore and we're saying that a cell phone has 0.034 grams of gold calculate how many metric tons of gold ore would need to be mined to extract enough gold for 100,000 cell phones and we have to show our work so again setup is important
• 09:00 - 09:30 here we're given the numbers of 0.034 G for one cell phone and we remember the main number up top is that one metric ton gives us five grams and that's going to give us in this case we want to know how much a thousand cell phone is so here what's going to cancel well first we start with the grams and the GRS they're on opposite ends so they cancel now it's a unit here because we're using it as part of this cell phones also cancels out so here we know
• 09:30 - 10:00 one cell phone and a thousand cell phones cancel so now we have the setup and we would get that point and then the simple thing is multiply by the tops divide by the bottoms so once you do that you should get an answer of 680 metric tons and again that calculator is recommended I always recommend a scientific calculator graphing calculator is not necessary but it would be helpful as well okay so that was a
• 10:00 - 10:30 lot of math now some key reminders here the questions can be done in any order so you can start with the non-math questions so if you were more comfortable with the first few minutes of the video and answering those process and justification questions answer those first that was four points from this question and you can get those and those are going to be the easiest part so whether you're answering that first or last depends on how you feel as long as you answer it everything and there's always non-math so look for it that is
• 10:30 - 11:00 the stuff you want that's the stuff that's going to help you and it's going to be easy to answer for you if you're more comfortable with it and of course the math points of this frq make up six out of the available 10 so if you can get some of those points that's going to help the average for these tends to be anywhere between three to five or six points so getting the non-math and then getting some of the math questions should get you to where you need to be one point is always available for
• 11:00 - 11:30 showing your work it doesn't matter how simple the math is if it's 5 * 5 if it's 2 plus 2 always show your work one point is available for that and one point is available for the correct answer and if you're comfortable with it try using dimensional analysis it's going to be helpful it will be the easiest way to do the setup and it'll make the greater be able to get through yours as easy as possible and get you as many points as you've earned and then of course don't forget the units and every step keeps
• 11:30 - 12:00 you organized increases your chance at all your points so my best recommendation is always put the units in every step whether you're chicken scratching everywhere or whether you are using dimensional analysis it's going to be the best method for you to get this done all right so thank you for joining me I hope these videos and practice questions have been helpful and remember you've got this