This week is the EPA’s Air Quality Awareness Week. And it was a good choice of weeks to select as the ground-level ozone season has begun in Atlanta, and other cities, I am sure. I live in the Atlanta area, and yesterday and today, the pollution was very evident. Smoggy and getting warmer.

The quality of the air is a serious issue, and over the past 20 years, cities and towns across America have been subject to the Clean Air Act. The recent Supreme Court ruling faulted the EPA for its politically induced inaction on emissions. Now the EPA is required to enforce emissions, and this is a good thing for cleaner air in the future.

Project Ozone
If you are a teacher you might want to navigate to the Project Ozone website which is designed to provide teaching ideas on ozone. Here you will find a series of activities that you can do with your students, and links to websites that will expand their knowledge and understanding of ozone, what it is, and how to measure ground-level ozone. Project Ozone also deals with the upper atmospheric ozone, and ozone depletion.

You will learn how to monitor ozone in your home, school and community in Project Ozone by using a very simple, yet accurate monitoring system, the Ecobadge, which was developed by Gary Short of Vistanomics, Inc. I’ve used this monitoring system for over a decade with students and teachers from many schools, and have found it a powerful way to help students learn not only about air pollution, but how to conduct scientific research.

The Ecobadge: You insert a chemically sensitive card into the badge and after on hour or eight hours, you can determine the ozone level.

AirNow
Here is a link to an EPA site that enables you to determine the quality of air in cities around the country. This is the EPA Airnow site, and it is a valuable resource for helping us understand the extent of air pollution.

This is a map from the AirNow site, which describes the air quality for the USA. The site has details for most major cities in the USA.

Airquality Webcams
And finally, you must go the EPA Webcam site, and use the images to see the air quality at sites around the USA. It is worth the time. Here is a scene from Boston, at dusk.

Boston air at dusk.

I hope these resources will be of value to you and your students.