The Clean Air Campaign’s Executive Director Tedra Cheatham spent some time in Cobb County with Kemp Elementary students on April 18th, discussing eco-literacy and the link between humans and the environment.

The Kemp class, taught by Mary Jo Groeneveld, was part of the TAG (Talented and Gifted) program and comprised 4th and 5th graders. The class sought out Cheatham in preparation for their upcoming “Eco-literacy Day,” in which the students will give presentations on all angles of environmental consciousness, from water conservation to bird watching to, yes, air quality.

Top Row, from left to right: Ellie Brady, Joey Giunta, Tedra Cheatham, Hayden Soley / Bottom Row, from left to right: Emma Latham, Olivia Devore, Natalie Clark, Angela Henderson, David Kinsbrunner

Cheatham offered up expertise on leadership, reaching out to community, how best to communicate messages about the environment, and how The Clean Air Campaign tackles the challenge of asking people to change their behavior.

While environmentalism may seem like an unusual area of interest for elementary school-age kids, Cheatham was pleasantly surprised by the level of focus and interest the kids brought to the table.

“The thing that surprised me most about the kids was their thoughtfulness on how everything is connected,” says Cheatham. “They understood inherently how, for instance, herbicides sprayed here in our community can affect the air quality and plant and animal life in other areas. That comprehension of the interconnectivity between humans and the environment was really unexpected.”

Since The Clean Air Campaign’s Clean Air Schools programs focus so heavily on student leadership, it was encouraging to see a group of young people so invested in understanding their environmental impact. That’s an important first step toward effecting real change in their communities.

“What I would most like for them to take away is that every little thing we do adds up and contributes to making a difference,” said Cheatham.

Schools all over Georgia are educating kids about air quality and the environment! Do you have a similar story to tell? We want to hear it. Write us at Schools@cleanaircampaign.org.

Lesley Carter is the School Communications Program Manager for The Clean Air Campaign. She coordinates the Clean Air Schools team communications and oversees The Clean Air Campaign’s OnAir social media initiative, which invites Georgia teens to join the growing conversation about air quality and the environment.

Last week was very busy for the Education Department here at The Clean Air Campaign as we wrapped up our biannual Clean Commute Week. “Clean Commute Week” was coined by Evansdale Elementary, our 2011 PACE School of the Year award winner, and celebrates riding the bus, carpooling, no idling, walking and biking to school. This spring’s Clean Commute Week coincided with Safe Routes to School’s Georgia Walk to School Day. Many schools include participating in the Young Lungs at Work Art Competition during Clean Commute Week as submissions are due by March 31st.

Arcado Elementary School in Gwinnett County is one of the longest-running participating Clean Air Schools. For six years they have been able to partner with us thanks to a strong PTA and supportive administration. Last Wednesday, March 6, their students braved the snow to participate in Georgia Walk to School Day. Their dedication even got the Clean Air BAIR out of hibernation!

Rockdale County is the first school district to boast 100% participation from its schools. Shoal Creek Elementary celebrated Clean Commute Week by creating signs to encourage parents to turn off their engines while waiting to pick up their students. They also recorded a special segment for the school news to remind their peers to stress the No Idling message at home as well.

In the fall, New Manchester Elementary in Douglas County won a tree planting from The Clean Air Campaign for their new outdoor classroom by being one of the first schools to complete the Clean Air School requirements for the 2012-13 school year. We revisited them this spring and brought the county television station with us to interview teachers who carpool. The faculty at New Manchester Elementary is walking the walk!

There are plenty of opportunities for schools to partner with The Clean Air Campaign this spring on traffic solutions and air quality education on their campuses, but the deadline to enroll in this free program is March 15th! For more information on how your student’s school can participate, contact us at schools@cleanaircampaign.org.

Joey Giunta is the School Partnerships Manager for The Clean Air Campaign. Since 2008, over 560 schools have participated in the schools program. When he isn't visiting schools throughout the region, Joey commutes into town on MARTA and spends that free time reading a new book every other week. 

When I was very young, people didn’t really wear seatbelts on a regular basis. However, I clearly remember how, as I moved into upper elementary school, seatbelt safety became a regular topic of discussion at schools. It made such an impression on me that I became an avid seatbelt enforcer in my own home.

At eight years old, I launched a family car safety campaign. I strictly enforced seatbelt usage on family car trips, even though we rarely drove anywhere more than three miles from our house. I never told them that I’d privately titled myself Official Family Safety Officer, but I think they got the hint.

And while my friends may not have gone after the idea with the same level of gusto, I do know that many of them similarly evangelized the idea to their own families.

Seatbelt usage is now required in nearly every state—but in my world, it had become common practice long before it was officially legislated.

Now, how does this story relate to air quality? Let’s talk about Clean Air Schools.

Schools in my day used a bottom-up approach to encourage the practice of wearing seatbelts regularly—and it worked. And for today’s kids, the issue at hand is air quality, particularly when it comes to cars idling. At The Clean Air Campaign, we’re similarly inspiring young people to spread the word and take action against issues that affect their health and safety.

Clean Air Schools programs can help lay the groundwork for kids to take a stand with their own families on idling. And resources like our Breathe Easy student leadership toolkit, our Get There Green student planning initiative, and our OnAir teen social media initiative can put the influence in their hands, motivating them to effect lasting change.

Surely this task is doable. Surely No Idling can become standard practice nationwide. It just needs to start occurring to more of us on a regular basis. The Clean Air Campaign wants to spark that fire.

If you’re interested in learning about how Clean Air Campaign programs can fit into your child’s school, visit cleanaircampaign.org/schools, or get in touch with us at Schools@cleanaircampaign.org.

Lesley Carter is the School Communications Program Manager for The Clean Air Campaign. She coordinates the Clean Air Schools team communications and oversees The Clean Air Campaign’s OnAir social media initiative, which invites Georgia teens to join the growing conversation about air quality and the environment.

So it’s back-to-school time, which means that Clean Air Schools programs are gearing up to bring the pursuit of less traffic and cleaner air to the younger set. Since children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, the effort to improve air quality within school zones is an important one. But what does clean commuting look like in a school setting?

Actually, The Clean Air Campaign’s school programs are pretty similar to our employer and commuter tools. Where workplace commuters are encouraged to carpool, take public transit, and enforce No Idling, school commuters have Pool to School, Ride the Bus! for Clean Air, and…well, No Idling.

Last year, more than 300 Georgia schools participated in Clean Air Schools programs—giving an estimated 600,000 students, parents and teachers the chance to breathe better, cleaner air at school. And this year, we’re looking to promote student involvement and leadership, both in the existing programs and through a couple newer initiatives designed with younger leaders in mind.

One of those newer tools is Breathe Easy, a series of toolkits that guide elementary and middle school students through leading a No Idling, Pool to School or Ride the Bus program in their schools. Similarly, our high school Get There Green program charges student groups with developing a sustainable transportation plan that addresses the congestion and air quality issues in their school community. And the new online platform OnAir (blogonair.org), launched last spring, encourages teens to take individual action by allowing them to rack up “AirCreds,” points for air-friendly actions.

School programs offer the chance to help kids form clean-air habits early, habits we hope will stick with them throughout their lives. If you’d like to learn more, visit cleanaircampaign.org/schools or send us an e-mail at Schools@cleanaircampaign.org.

Note: Registration is now open for all Clean Air Schools programs, available for pre-K through 12th grade. Join us today!

Fourth and fifth grade students at High Meadows School were beginning a unit of study on conflict. They were challenged to identify a conflict on campus that was related to our natural resources.  There were certainly litter problems, recycling efforts that could be improved, but this had to be a conflict, which by definition must have two opposing viewpoints. Not many people could argue that littering is a good thing, nor that recycling is a bad thing…so they had to dig deeper.

Several students observed that cars seemed to idle their engines during carpool and everyone knows that idling cars cause air pollution. If everyone knows and they do it anyway, then perhaps the conflict is embedded in differing perspectives. 

Hmmm...deeper digging would be necessary. 

Ok, so students reasoned if people know idling causes pollution, but they do it anyway, perhaps there is something they value more than clean air in that moment. What could that be? Upon further investigation students learned parents had small children in the car during carpool, and with blazing hot temperatures still around in September, it simply wasn’t safe or comfortable to sit in a car without air conditioning. So now we have a conflict! Some people understood that an idling car caused air pollution, and turned off their cars showing their value of clean air. Others not only didn’t fully understand the impact idling had on clean air and the health of kids outside the car, but also perhaps valued the health of their small children inside the car.

Through the use of empathy and compassion, students realized people on both sides of the conflict had valid and reasonable points. This led to students also ruling out the possibility of having a good guy/bad guy situation on either side of the conflict and called into action the need for critical thinking and problem solving.

Through classroom discussion students discovered they weren’t clear on what was fact and fiction regarding the impact of idling cars on the quality of air. Students sought out a clean air expert from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and invited him to educate them on the science behind car idling. 

They discovered many beliefs they held were not based in science, including arguments on both sides of the conflict. They felt empowered and compelled to share their findings with our larger school community. By now they fully understood that a negative and shaming message would do nothing but alienate the audience they wished to convince.  They had to find a way to empower the parents with information and provide solutions.

After taking a survey to learn how many cars were idling, students decided an educational campaign during Clean Commute Week in October could be the path to success. 

Next step was to synthesize the information they had learned from the CDC into attention-catching posters while keeping the message positive. Although challenging, the students prevailed and for three days during Clean Commute Week they walked the carpool line with their original and convincing signs. They also handed out no idling stickers and answered any questions parents had about idling. The students were thrilled when the Clean Air Campaign BAIR came to assist their efforts! 

This entire process resulted in the students using empathy and compassion to convince 99% of our carpooling parents to turn their cars off! Students also decided on a follow-up campaign that will take place the week before Earth Day in April to remind our parents of their commitment to Clean Air!

Michelle Aldenderfer-Griffin is an Environmental Education Teacher/Coordinator at High Meadows School in Roswell

Big Shanty Intermediate School's "Green Team" was proud to promote Clean Commute Week last October! To raise awareness about the dangers of idling, my fifth grade class rallied the school by creating “No Idling” signs, which were placed at the entrance of the school with scarecrows we created. We were able to obtain quite a few signs thanks to the support of Kessler’s Team Sports in Woodstock. The signs included “did you know” facts about idling, that we were able to obtain off of The Clean Air Campaign’s website.

One of the activities that students really enjoyed was reading facts about the benefits of clean commuting during morning announcements. We also invited BAIR, The Clean Air Campaign mascot to our school to walk the campus during afternoon announcements. The students just loved their time with BAIR.

One of the highlights of the week was a school-wide competition to see which class made the “greenest commute” choice during the week. We surveyed each class on the Friday before Clean Commute Week to find out of how each child gets to school. We then promoted greener ways of commuting like riding their bikes, taking the bus and carpooling. At the end of the week we collected the survey again and found that several students made greener commute choices. Not only did we do a part to reduce pollution, we also received great feedback from parents, staff, and students about how successful they felt the week went!

Last but not least, we had a student from our BSEN (in-school) news channel interview Joey Giunta, a Clean Air Campaign representative, about the benefits of “No Idling” and making greener commute choices.  We also interviewed our School Nurse, Bev Jones, RN, who informed us of the asthma epidemic in our school and community.

We feel that Big Shanty is benefitting greatly from promoting The Clean Air Campaign and Clean Commute Week is a great platform for us to do so.

Jamee Douglas is a fifth grade teacher at Big Shanty Intermediate School in Kennesaw, GA.

Today we are proud to announce the winners of The Clean Air Campaign’s first annual “Young Lungs at Work” art competition.  More than 200 comic strips were submitted by elementary students across Georgia.  We were so impressed by how well students expressed the issues surrounding air quality and traffic and how their individual actions make a difference.  2011 “Young Lungs at Work” entries show kids as educators, as decision makers, and as problem solvers.  Blue skies ahead!

Special thanks to all competitors and congratulations to our winners!  Click on the images to view the full cartoons.

1st Place: Ride the Bus!

Helen Nguyen, Age 9 ½
Rebecca Minor Elementary – Gwinnett County Schools

2nd Place: Of Course! That’s How We Share the Air

RaeAnna Starosciak, Age 11
Liberty Elementary School – Cherokee County Schools

3rd Place:  Going “Green” Instead of Spending “Green”

Neda Mafreshi, Age 11
Addison Elementary – Cobb County Schools

3rd Place:  Three Trips in One

Chirayu Salgarkar, Age 8
Simonton Elementary – Gwinnett County Schools

Honorable Mention:  Young Lungs At Work

Bradley Christy, Age 11
Addison Elementary – Cobb County Schools

Honorable Mention:  Mommy and Me Walking to Publix

Jackson Madden, Age 4
KinderCare – Dunwoody, GA

Several years ago a representative from The Clean Air Campaign came to one of our school nurse meetings to speak about their program.  We were very impressed and I enrolled our school in the Clean Air Schools program. Fast forward years later and we are still a very active in our attempt to raise awareness about the importance of clean air.

 
During this school year, our teachers formed what we call a Green Team. I sent out an email asking them for help with many of our Clean Air Campaign activities and they more than obliged. One of the highlights came in late February when we held a Clean Air Week which included students holding up “No Idling signs” in the carpool lane to remind parents that an idling car can release as much pollution as a moving car.

 
During the week, we also asked our students and teachers to wear yellow shirts as a reminder to ride the bus. Some of our students also read daily facts each morning on our announcements that included pertinent information about ways to help the environment. Perhaps the kids’ favorite part of the week however, was when we distributed stickers as a reminder to “stick to riding the bus”.

 
As we celebrate Air Quality Awareness this week there are a few simple things that parents can do to make a huge difference in the air their children breathe. Two of the easiest are to monitor the Air Quality Index (AQI) each day as well as sign up to receive Smog Alerts to know when concentrations of either ground-level ozone or particle pollution are forecasted to reach unhealthy levels. Clean air is becoming something to treasure. Stay healthy and happy!

Celeste Frey, RN is a school nurse at Cumming Elementary