Air Quality Lesson: No Idling Campaign
Lesson Plan
1 hour 30 minutesGrades3, 4, 5Earth and Space Sciences, Civics
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Written by Emiliano Amaro, Lindsey Pockl
About this lesson
In this final lesson in the air quality unit, students learn about vehicle idling, gather and interpret data, and take action at their school.
Inquire: Students learn about car idling and its harmful impacts on human health.
Investigate: Students study idling vehicles at their school by making observations, creating graphs, and interpreting data.
Inspire: Students take action by creating an awareness poster, bumper sticker, or launching a No Idling Campaign at their school!
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Suggestions
- The Investigate section is designed to take several class periods and can be used to review, practice, or teach specific graphs.
- This lesson provides students with a concrete action plan to reduce emissions and improve health at their school.
- This lesson plan is listed as 90 minutes. This lesson may take less or more time depending on many factors, including the best time to observe vehicles at or near your school.
- This lesson plan could create terrific climate and health conversations at home for many students and their families.
Prerequisites
- This is lesson 5 of 5 in our 3rd-5th grade Air Quality unit.
- If students are adamant about launching a full-fledged No Idling Campaign at their school, this lesson could become a class project that takes weeks, months, or even the entire school year. Teachers may want to help students outline the campaign with clear due dates and tasks that are grade-appropriate.
- If your students choose to launch a full campaign, make sure to support them in their interactions with different stakeholders at school, like teachers, administration, families, and bus drivers. Make sure to let the students take the lead.
- Make sure to remind students that walking and biking are zero-carbon options. Perhaps the best outcome of this lesson is not fewer idling cars, but fewer overall cars.
Differentiation
- Students are given three choices in the Inspire phase of this lesson: design a poster, create a bumper sticker, or launch a No Idling Campaign. Some students may want to pursue the schoolwide campaign while others may not. Perhaps you can form a smaller group of students to take this on if not all the students are interested.
- It may be difficult for students to arrive early or depart late from school, depending on family circumstances. Alternative options include some groups collecting data for the whole class to use or teacher video-taping a school drop-off for students to watch and collect data.
From the scientist review
This lesson introduces students to car idling. Then students research about it and design a program to include posters, bumper stickers, and school campaigns to raise awareness about car idling and its impact on air quality and the environment. All materials embedded in the lesson are thoroughly sourced. Accordingly, this lesson is recommended for classroom use.
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About the teacher writers
Emiliano Amaro
3-5 ELD and ELA Teacher
Emiliano Amaro holds a Bachelor's degree in Society and Environment from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Education from the UCLA Teacher Education Program. He has been teaching since 2020 and has six years of experience in elementary education, middle school English, and middle school mathematics. Emiliano holds a California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and specializes in social and environmental justice through interdisciplinary teaching and environmental education.
Lindsey Pockl
Lindsey worked with SubjectToClimate to develop accompanying materials for lesson plans for grades 3-12.
