🏆 JSS 3🔬 Basic Science (BST)📅 First Term

Environmental Hazards: Pollution

Hello class! Today we will talk about pollution, a big problem that hurts our air, water and land. We will learn what causes it, how it affects us, and what we can do to keep our environment clean. Let us explore together!

💡 What is Pollution?

Pollution means unwanted or harmful substances being put into the environment. These substances are called pollutants. They can be solid waste, liquid waste or gases that make the air dirty.

🧠 Types of Pollution

There are three main types: 1. Air pollution – smoke from cars, factories and burning of waste. 2. Water pollution – rubbish, oil or chemicals dumped into rivers, lakes or the sea. 3. Land (soil) pollution – plastic bags, broken bottles and chemicals left on the ground.

🔍 How Pollution Affects Us

When the air is dirty, we may cough or have breathing problems. Polluted water can make us sick if we drink or swim in it. Soil pollution reduces the food we grow, so crops may not be healthy.

📌 What Can We Do?

We can help by: - Throwing rubbish in bins, not on the road. - Using bicycles or walking instead of a car for short trips. - Recycling plastic bottles and cans. - Planting trees to clean the air. - Reporting oil spills or illegal dumping to the authorities.

✏️ Worked examples

Example 1: Ada sees a river near her village covered with plastic bags. She wants to know how many bags she must pick up to clean a 10‑metre stretch if each bag is about 0.2 metres long.
Solution: Length of one bag = 0.2 m Number of bags needed = 10 m ÷ 0.2 m per bag = 50 bags. Ada should collect 50 plastic bags to clear the 10‑metre stretch.
Example 2: Tunde’s school canteen uses 20 litre bottles of soda each week. If each bottle costs N150, how much money is spent on soda in a month (4 weeks)?
Solution: Cost per week = 20 bottles × N150 = N3,000 Cost for 4 weeks = N3,000 × 4 = N12,000. The school spends N12,000 on soda each month.
Example 3: Musa wants to plant 5 trees each month for a year to help reduce air pollution. How many trees will he plant in total?
Solution: Trees per month = 5 Months in a year = 12 Total trees = 5 × 12 = 60 trees. Musa will plant 60 trees in a year.

⭐ Remember

  • Pollution is harmful waste that enters air, water or land.
  • Air, water and land pollution each affect health and food.
  • Simple actions like recycling and using bins reduce pollution.
  • Planting trees helps clean the air.
  • Report any illegal dumping to keep the community safe.

🙌 Try this

Go outside your house, count how many plastic bottles you see on the ground, and write down three ways you could stop that waste from ending up there.

🎬 Watch and learn

Learn about Pollution | Environment Defilement | Cartoon
learning junction · YouTube

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✨ Lesson written by AI from the Nigerian curriculum. Please tell us if you spot a mistake.