Ion Tests

This lesson can be used as either revision or consolidation for the testing of ions section of the new GCSE.
It takes the form of several case studies into contamination of land, the idea being that students will use the information provided, as well as their knowledge of ion tests to work out what each area of land has been contaminated with.
For added literacy, students can produce a written report in the style of a chemical clean up company.

The lesson contains:
PowerPoint presentation linking lesson with the recent events in Texas following Hurricane Harvey. Contains a link to an NPR interview.
Six short statements from fictional people about the issues they are experiencing.
Information packs regarding potential contaminants.
'Test Request' forms where they have to explain why they want each test, and what they would expect to see were the test positive.
Ion test result sheets (these can be substituted with blank tables and student provided with 'samples' for them to perform their own tests).

Please be aware, only five of the six case studies will have tests that produce positive results. The sixth case study contamination would not produce a positive result for any of the tests, but by using those negative results, in conjunction with the information given, it would be possible to deduce the most likely contaminant. Some case studies will give positives for more than one ion as a result of a (potentially identifiable) salt being present, although the case study will not necessarily show evidence of both ion contaminants.