Shared Air: Air Quality Curriculum for Middle and High Schools

Living Text Llc, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

0085552 Samson Environmental issues in the geosciences can be used to develop student abilities and understanding in the sciences and are germane to a number of the National Science Standards. It is the goal of the Shared Air project to connect students to their atmospheric environment, offer them experience in making models of how air is shared and modified by human actions, and introduce them to laws of nature through their understanding of how the atmospheric system works. The activities include: (1) Enhancement of an initial software and curriculum design with the addition of integrated collaborative and data analysis tools, (2) Implementation of curriculum and software package to an invited and volunteer base of classrooms in the Midwestern United States, and (3) Evaluation of its use as a project-based learning tool for middle and high-school students for exploration of the atmospheric environment, and (4) Presentation to traditional and Internet-based publishing communities to facilitate the self-sufficiency of the developed program in subsequent years. Students will use an enhanced software tool based on a model originally developed at the University of Michigan to determine where their air has been and to compare observations with other participants along the path of the air quality elsewhere as it traverses the country.