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

Summary

In this engaging AP Environmental Science session led by Amy Fasler, students explore how to analyze an environmental problem while proposing solutions and performing calculations. Participants dive into Free Response Question (FRQ) number 3, addressing issues surrounding methane emissions from human activities like landfill decomposition and cattle farming. Throughout the session, emphasis is placed on understanding and calculating methane emissions, efficiency in food production, and the benefits of grain over beef. Key techniques such as writing conversion factors, dimensional analysis, and ensuring clear setups for calculations are highlighted to enhance understanding and accuracy in responses.

Highlights

• Amy Fasler guides students through FRQ number 3, focusing on mathematics and real-life environmental science applications 🧮.
• Explore the environmental impact of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—from beef cattle and landfills 🌿.
• Learn the efficiency benefits of crop production versus cattle farming through fun calculations 🐄➡️🌽.
• Delve into methods for solving calculation problems using conversion factors and dimensional analysis 🔍.
• Encouragement and strategies are provided to succeed in methodically tackling and mastering complex math questions 😊.

Key Takeaways

• Understand the environmental impact of methane emissions and ways to calculate them accurately 🌍.
• Embrace the power of dimensional analysis: line up those units and watch magic happen! 🧙‍♂️.
• Explore the second law of thermodynamics and witness why corn might just beat beef in the efficiency battle 🌽.
• Every 'calculate' question is a double-scorer: setup gets you halfway there, and the correct answer finishes it! 🏆.
• Remember, even incorrect initial calculations can still win points later if used correctly. Carry your mistakes with grace! 💪.

Overview

Amy Fasler, a dedicated AP Environmental Science educator, takes students through the challenging yet fascinating aspects of FRQ number 3. This session focuses on solving environmental science problems while integrating mathematics to deepen understanding. With a cheerful approach, Fasler encourages students to tackle methane emissions, a prevalent environmental concern due to human activities such as landfill operations and beef cattle raising.

One key learning aspect of the session is the efficiency comparison between beef farming and crop production. It's revealed that growing grains can be significantly more efficient than cattle farming, a concept jazzed up by exploring the second law of thermodynamics. Students learn to highlight efficiency in food production calculations and grasp why switching from beef to corn can potentially feed more people.

Throughout, Amy reiterates the importance of setup in calculation questions, emphasizing precise use of conversion factors. The session is packed with tips for calculating methane emissions, and teaching students how to express answers in different, meaningful ways, whether in scientific notation or through a practical lens. The underlying message is clear: slowing down, understanding each step, and correctly applying calculations ensure success.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Overview The chapter titled 'Introduction and Overview' covers an AP daily practice session for environmental science conducted by Amy Fasler, a teacher at Marshfield High School. The focus of this session is on FRQ number three, which involves analyzing an environmental problem and proposing a solution, incorporating calculations as part of the math question. The session begins with the first prompt to help students familiarize themselves with the topic, similar to the format of all FRQs in AP environmental science.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Analyzing Methane Release from Landfills This chapter discusses the environmental impact of methane release from landfills, which results from the decomposition of organic waste. It mentions the significant contribution of human activities to waste generation. It includes a specific focus on a math-related question that emphasizes the need to carefully address and analyze the problem to provide the best possible answer.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Calculation of Methane Emission from Beef Cattle The chapter discusses the environmental problem of methane emissions from beef cattle, highlighting methane as a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change or global warming. Various ways to describe the environmental impact of methane release are considered, emphasizing its effectiveness as a greenhouse gas.
• 06:00 - 09:40: Calculating Land Requirement for Beef Cattle Grazing The chapter discusses the impact of beef cattle grazing on methane emissions, contributing to climate change. The question in the chapter focuses on calculating the land requirement for beef cattle grazing. It mentions that in 2021, there were 31.2 million beef cattle, highlighting the scale of the issue. The chapter encourages readers to engage with the math involved in understanding how much land is needed for such large numbers of cattle.
• 09:40 - 15:00: Comparing Food Production of Corn vs. Beef The chapter 'Comparing Food Production of Corn vs. Beef' begins by discussing the number of beef cattle raised in the United States, which is quantified as 31.2 million. The topic then shifts to the environmental impact of cattle, specifically focusing on methane emissions. It specifies that the average cow releases 150 liters of methane per day, a point the reader is encouraged to note carefully. This setup frames the context for comparing beef production to corn, suggesting an evaluation of environmental impacts and production efficiency.
• 15:00 - 17:30: Key Takeaways and Conclusion The chapter focuses on the task of calculating the amount of methane released by beef cattle in the United States. It emphasizes the importance of setting up mathematical conversions properly, particularly using fractions represented with numerators and denominators rather than slanted lines. This approach is aimed at enhancing comprehension and ensuring accurate calculations.

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

• 00:00 - 00:30 hi everyone welcome back to our AP daily practice session for environmental science my name is Amy fasler and I teach Apes at Marshfield High School in Marshfield Wisconsin in this session we're going to take a look at frq number three analyze and environmental problem and propose a solution all while doing calculations the math question let's start with the first prompt of the frq to familiarize ourself with the topic like all frqs and apes question three
• 00:30 - 01:00 the math question is worth 10 points human activities generate large amounts of solid waste including organic waste the decomposition of waste in landfills can lead to the release of methane in the atmosphere question a is asking us to describe that's my task verb list characteristics one that means I can only get one response so I like to take my time and put my best answer forward
• 01:00 - 01:30 and notice that they've specified it must be an environmental problem associated with release of methane into the atmosphere this is the analyze and environmental problem part of the frq and there's a couple of different ways that we could describe that environmental impact I could say that methane is a greenhouse gas that leads to climate change or global warming I could describe it as being effective at
• 01:30 - 02:00 heat trapping leading to climate change or global warming and again the other two sort of similar type responses that should have been a pretty easy point for most of us to earn now let's move along to the calculate or math part of the question notice that the question is stating that another anthropogenic activity that releases methane is Raising beef cattle and in 2021 there were 30 1.2 million
• 02:00 - 02:30 beef cattle raised in the United States so with your paper and pencil and calculator ready go ahead and write down that number that value with a unit 31.2 million beef cattle now let's take a look at the question the average cow releases 150 lers of methane per day I'd like you to write that down on your paper as a ratio 150 L of methane
• 02:30 - 03:00 per one day and write that ratio with the numerator and a denominator not just with a slanty line when we set up our conversions in a little bit it'll make a lot more sense to you notice that our task verb is calculate they've told me what they want me to calculate the amount of methane that was released by all the beef cattle raised in the United States so I'm going to have to convert from beef cattle to liters of methane
• 03:00 - 03:30 amount of methane go ahead and pause the video and give this one a shot remember show all your work let's see how you did one point is earned in this calculation for the setup so notice I converted from cows to methane per day and from days to the number of years so that I have the amount of methane released in one year although you wouldn't have to have the units on the setup to earn the point it
• 03:30 - 04:00 really helps you keep straight what you're doing in that conversion and you're less likely to flip that conversion factor around the final answer then is 1.7 * 10 12th liters of methane notice that I could write that out as the complete answer or I could round it off using scientific notation you always went around to one place to the right of the decimal just be careful that you're using your correct rounding rules so
• 04:00 - 04:30 that was our first calculation onepoint setup one point answer let's go to the second calculation they've given me a little bit more information another environmental concern with raising beef is that it's not as efficient as growing crops for food think the second law of Thermodynamics the 10% ecological efficiency rule here's my question and just like with the previous question as we're reading through it J down any
• 04:30 - 05:00 values or ratios or conversions that you see in the problem because then you're just going to string them together to set the problem up a typical beef cow oh remember from the previous question how many cows there were a typical beef cow needs 11.8 kilograms of food per day that's my ratio 11.8 kilogram per one day and each Hector of cattle pasture produces 20.2 6 kg of grass so one
• 05:00 - 05:30 hectare over 26.2 kg of grass again my task verb is calculate they're telling me exactly what they want me to know the number of hectars that it would need to support the beef cattle all the beef cattle in the US for one day remember that you had the number of beef cattle in your previous question the final unit that I want is hectors per day go ahead set the problem up showing
• 05:30 - 06:00 all your work and we'll see how you did let's take a look at how we earn a point for the setup we converted from cows to kilograms of food per day and kilograms of food to hectars and so cow units cancel food units cancel and I end up with hectors per day again I could have set this up without the units but it's just really easy to flip those conversion factors around I would always encourage you to to take the units and
• 06:00 - 06:30 set it up so that they cancel and here's what you should have come up with for your final answer and again I've shown three different ways that you could represent that final number as long as the number represents the correct value it could be in scientific notation it could be written out or you could express it as how many millions of hectar just as it was expressed in the question itself let's read through this last calculation together and as we
• 06:30 - 07:00 modeled in the previous ones you can jot down the values and conversion factors as we read the average American consumes 2,250 kilo calories of food per day so write that as a ratio kilo calories per one day next we see that beef cattle can produce 2.7 million kilo calories of food per hectar whereas corn can produce 30.4 million kilo calories of food per
• 07:00 - 07:30 hectare of land that comes back to the second law of Thermodynamics or the 10% ecological efficiency rule that we talked about we know it's more efficient to produce a grain rather than produce that grain first and then feed it to an animal the question is asking us kind of think about that and do a calculation about it so the task verb is calculate how many more Americans how many people could be fed if I had 50 hectares of
• 07:30 - 08:00 land and I used it to grow corn instead of raising beef cattle so I could do two different calculations I could calculate how many people I could feed if I had 150 hectares of land using beef and I could calculate how many people I could feed if I had 150 hectares of land raising corn but I'll give you a little bit of hint if you subtract those two values of kilo calories per Hector of land right away you only have to do the
• 08:00 - 08:30 calculation once let's go ahead and pause the video give you a chance to set this one up and solve it here's the correct setup notice how by subtracting the kilo calories of corn from the kilo calories of beef right from the start allowed me to only have to run through one calculation my hectare units cancel my kilo calories of food cancel and I'm left with the number of people I can
• 08:30 - 09:00 feed and the answer again can be expressed in any way that communicates the correct value 1.8 time 10 6 or 1.8 million more people could be fed by growing corn rather than producing beef cattle here's some key takeaways from frq number three analyzing an environmental problem and propose a solution doing calculations remember to underline key
• 09:00 - 09:30 vocabulary terms the questions will always have content for more than one unit put all the values needed to do the calculation from the text and write them out as ratios on your paper that makes the setup go a lot more quickly and easily every calculate task verb is worth two points one point for setup and one point for answer including units and showing how they cancel if you have a dimensional analysis problem helps to
• 09:30 - 10:00 ensure that you've set the problem up correctly and finally you can earn point for using an incorrect value correctly in a follow-up calculation none of the examples we looked at here in this frq really Illustrated or modeled that but if I were asked to calculate how much methane was produced per day and the next question asked me to calculate how much methane was produced per year as long as I took the amount of methane per
• 10:00 - 10:30 day even if it was an incorrect answer and multiplied it by 365 days a year I would still get credit for that thanks for joining me take a deep breath you guys are going to do great on the math question slow down and take your time and try to practice all the tips that we talked about today