Environmental
Science – Second Semester Exam Study Guide
Chapter
15: Organic Fuels
1. fuel
2. organic fuel
3. fossil fuel
4. How is the
energy in coal turned into electricity?
5. coal
formation
6. petroleum
formation
7. Compare peat,
lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite in terms of:
carbon
content, hardness, heat given off, efficiency, smoke production
8. What are some
products produced from petroleum?
9. What is the
relationship between porous rock and petroleum?
10.
Explain why natural gas is pretty efficient to use in home appliances.
11.
What environmental damage is caused directly by the exploration for and
obtaining of fossil fuels?
12.
What political forces affect the supply of fossil fuels?
13.
How does the burning of fossil fuels endanger the environment?
(two answers)
14.
Biomass fuels are fuels formed from the products of living things.
They include methane, wood,
garbage, alcohol, and others. What are the advantages of using biomass fuels?
15.
Compare room and pillar mining with longwall mining.
methods? efficiency?
cost? ...
1. Study the diagram of a nuclear reactor, and explain how it
works. Be prepared to label its
parts
2. What are the benefits and risks associated with nuclear power
plants?
3. Concerning Chernobyl: Where
is it? What happened?
When? What is the situation
there now?
4. Concerning Three Mile Island:
Where is it? What happened?
When? What is the situation
there now?
5. What is the history of the nuclear plant at Clinton,
Illinois?
6. How widespread is nuclear energy in the United States and
around the world?
7. Why does France embrace nuclear energy?
1. What are the
advantages and disadvantages of using solar energy?
2. What is the
difference between passive and active solar energy systems?
3. Describe a
design that would allow a house to get the most benefit from passive solar
energy.
4. What are the
main parts of an active solar energy system?
How do they work?
5. How is active
solar energy used to heat a room? to
heat water for household use?
6. How are large
solar arrays used to generate electricity?
7. What does a
photovoltaic cell do?
8. What factors
affect the energy output from a PV cell?
9. What is
hydroelectric energy, and how is it generated?
10.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of hydroelectric power?
11.
How do dams benefit human society?
12.
How do dams alter ecosystems?
13.
What is an aerogenerator?
14.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the wind to generate
electricity?
15.
What are the two most common designs of aerogenerators?
Which is more efficient?
16.
What is geothermal energy?
17.
How is electricity generated using geothermal energy?
18.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using geothermal energy?
1. How does a
fuel cell generate electricity? (include information about hydrogen, oxygen, and
electrons)
2. Why can a
fuel cell run a model car when the solar panel in the kit couldn’t start the
car?
3. Why did we
use the solar panel? Why wouldn’t
fuel cell cars have solar panels?
4. Why doesn’t
the model fuel cell lose its hydrogen when it isn’t connected to the car
engine?
5.
How would widespread use of fuel cells help the environment and our
health?
6. How would use
of fuel cells in cars save us money?
7. How would the
development and spread of fuel cells help our country politically?
8. What other
uses will fuel cells have besides powering our vehicles?
Biomass
Fuels
1. Name and give examples of the four categories of biomass
fuels. (two solids, liquid, gas)
2. What are the sources of the four categories of biomass fuels.
3. How would increasing the use of biomass fuels:
a.
help the Illinois economy
b.
improve soil and habitat
c.
lower air, land, and water pollution
4. We do use quite a bit of biomass already.
a.
Which biomass fuels are being used?
for what?
b.
What are the reasons why we aren’t using more biomass right now?
1. How have
garbage disposal methods changed over time?
Be specific.
2. Describe the
parts and construction of a sanitary landfill.
Why does it need: liners,
layers of soil, leachate collection pipes, methane vents?
3. What are
hazardous wastes?
4. Name the six
categories of hazardous wastes, explain how each one is dangerous, and list
examples of
each.
5. What
hazardous wastes do we have in our homes? How
can we get rid of them?
6. What is
desertification, and how is it related to farming techniques?
7. Describe
these soil-conserving farming methods and tell where each is useful:
strip-cropping,
contour farming, terracing, shelter belts
8. What are
biodegradable wastes?
9. Describe
these alternate methods of dealing with hazardous wastes:
waste
exchange, deep-well injection, secure chemical landfills, controlled
incineration,
chemical
and biological treatment plants.
10.
What were the three main objectives of the 1980 law that was nicknamed
Superfund?
11.
What type of Superfund sites are found commonly in Illinois?
12.
Concerning Yucca Mountain:
a.
Where is it?
b.
What does the government plan to do there?
Include material stored and design of the installation.
c.
What are the planned safety measures?
d.
What are the possible hazards?
e.
What is being done with the waste right now?
Chapter
24: Conservation and Recycling
1.
Americans have been wasteful over the years because we have lived by the
frontier ethic. What are its three
main points? (Remember that the
opposite point of view is called the “sustainable ethic”.
2.
Describe five ways I can reduce the amount of waste my family sends to
the landfill.
3.
Three IMPORTANT reasons to recycle as much material as possible are:
4.
Glass and metals can be recycled almost indefinitely, but paper can only
be recycled a few times. Why?
5.
Why is it important for us to buy products made of recycled material?
6.
What products contain:
a.
recycled plastic
b.
recycled paper
c.
recycled metal
d.
recycled glass
7.
What should be done with oil-based paints, herbicides, cleaning
chemicals, batteries, antifreeze, etc.?
8.
If we don’t recycle plastics, what problems do the plastics cause?
1. potable water
=
2. Compare the
amount of water used in households with the water used by agriculture and
industry.
3. Describe
these types of irrigation, tell where each is useful, and identify how wasteful
or efficient
each one is:
flood, furrow, overhead, subirrigation
4. surface water
5. soil water
6. ground water
7. aquifer
8. water table
9. overdraft
10.
Draw a diagram that illustrates each of the terms 4-9 above.
11.
What problems are caused by overdraft?
12.
Discuss the Ogallala Aquifer. Where
is it? What has been happening there?
What is the outlook for this
aquifer?
Why is the Ogallala such an
important aquifer? How does it
affect wildlife on the surface?
13.
What is desalination? When
or where is it used?
14.
Name and describe three methods of desalination.
15.
What is the purpose of water purification?
16.
In water purification, what is the role of:
screens, chlorine or ozone,
settling tanks, coagulants, filtering, aeration, fluoridation
17.
How are international politics involved in a nation’s water supply?
What disputes have been caused by
water rights in the United
States? Give some specific examples.
18.
How can large dams have negative effects on a country?
19.
Why is there controversy over the building of the Three Gorges Dam in
China? What is the status of the
dam at this time?
20.
How does increasing population affect water supply?
21.
How is a good water supply important to:
electric power plants, agriculture, industry (specific areas).
22.
Which states use the most water for irrigation?
What two types of irrigation are used most widely?
23.
List advantages of using subsurface drip irrigation.
1. macroinvertebrate
=
2. stream
discharge =
3. sample =
4. MBI =
5. Why do we use
macroinvertebrates as indicators of stream health?
6. What is the
purpose of conducting RiverWatch on the same locations every year?
7. Which
habitats are ideal for collecting macroinvertebrates?
8. What is a
riffle? a run?
a pool? an undercut?
a reach?
9. Where does
the RiverWatch data go? Why?
10.
Name several macroinvertebrates from our list.
11.
How are our two stream sites related to each other?
1. Explain what
problems are caused by each of these types of water pollutants.
What are the major sources of each of these
pollutants?
sediments excess
nutrients
heavy
metals
radioactivity
thermal
pollution toxic
chemicals
pathogens
2. Explain how a
municipal sewage treatment plant works.
3. What did the
Clean Water Act accomplish?
4. What
pollutants are still problems in surface water systems in Illinois?
5. What is the
biggest source of pollution in the state of Illinois?
6. Name some
heavy metals that can be toxic in our water.
7. How does acid
rain contribute to water pollution?