Memo+4

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has several classroom activities and resources for air quality education. The Air Quality Division of the ODEQ is responsible for monitoring air quality and then alerting the public, working to maintain and improve our air quality, informing and assisting both the public and industry, and responding to public concerns and complaints. Their efforts to educate about air pollution clearly fall under their goal to inform and assist the public in order to improve air quality.

 The resources given by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality are a comic, a crossword, a word search, a coloring book, a brochure on 10 ways to reduce air pollution and an AQI chart. Some of the activities focus on different goals but in general they all work towards facilitating a understanding of the causes, solution, and terms of air pollution. Specifically the comic does a very good job of showing the links between pollution, energy sources, and acid rain and even discusses acid rain and prevention techniques all in the context of the role of the government. Although the text is lengthy and the comic would most likely on be appropriate for those over the age of 10 it does provide a detailed overview of the main concepts in air pollution. The coloring book is much more appropriate for younger ages since the terms are easier and it does a good job of making the distinction between ground level ozone versus the ozone layer. The AQI chart is also highly informational since it gives a breakdown of the health risks for different pollutants based on the AQI level. In regards to Eco-Ed Literacy goals I think the current curriculum touches on the far off effects of our decisions, the role of science and government, and alternative ways to organize our society. I think some ways to strengthen this curriculum would be to make it more investigative in terms of what kind of solutions could be used. It could be useful to have to students design a city that they think would function in a way to help reduce air pollution. Another activity could be taking the students to an air pollution monitoring site or other government site like in the comic book to help give a concrete example of how the government is address air pollution in their area.