Open Educational Resources
Document Type
Activity or Lab
Publication Date
Fall 9-2-2026
Abstract
This project integrates a historical environmental health report from the CUNY Digital History Archive into an online Introductory Chemistry course to connect core chemical concepts with real urban pollution issues. Students analyze perchloroethylene contamination in apartments above dry cleaners, apply concepts such as volatility, vapor pressure, and concentration units, and reflect on chemical principles underlying indoor air pollution.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Comments
This lesson plan was created as part of the 2026 Archives and Open Knowledge Faculty Fellowship, funded by the Cultivating Archives and Institutional Memory Project with the aim of integrating CUNY archival materials into classroom instruction and research. The Fellows served as teaching ambassadors for CUNY’s archival collections, spreading interest among other faculty and their students. Through guided work with CUNY history primary sources, students will gain knowledge in the use of historical records in their scholarship.