Air Quality, Health, and Justice

Positives

• This lesson utilizes student choice, active listening, and active participation.
• Students are guided through a Fishbowl discussion which facilitates respectful listening and exchanging of opinions.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers should feel comfortable offering choice, allowing students independence and autonomy in their learning. This lesson encourages open conversation and monitoring regarding student held discussions.
• This resource is helpful for facilitating a Fishbowl discussion.
• Students will need access to the Teacher Slideshow in order to conduct their independent work.

Differentiation

• Students are able to work at their own pace and order for the playlist activity, but teachers can scaffold certain steps for students who need additional support.
• Teachers can create a sample guide for the independent playlist activity.
• Teachers can embed the necessary adjustments into the playlist and check boxes for students with special needs or considerations.
• Teachers can add a sixth check box that includes a chat with the teacher so that questions and checks for understanding can be incorporated.

This lesson illustrates how air quality is related to cardiorespiratory health and how environmental injustice exacerbates these issues in marginalized communities. A well-sourced list of resources is provided where students can learn about human respiration, environmental justice, air quality in New Jersey, and what is being done to address environmental injustice by both the state and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. Students are tasked with reviewing these sources and then sharing what they learned in a fishbowl discussion. This lesson is recommended for teaching.

Supporting Standards

• Environmental Literacy and Sustainability
  • Standard 3: Students assess how diversity influences health and resilience of natural and cultural systems.
    • ELS.EX3.B.h Evaluate the impacts on health and quality of natural systems resulting from resource use at the global level and propose solutions to increase system resiliency. Evaluate and compare the characteristics of two communities and analyze how the diversity, health, and resilience of natural systems impact the quality and health of cultural systems. Design and evaluate solutions that improve environmental quality or implement sustainable practices, including but not limited to areas lacking desired resources.
    • ELS.EX3.C.h Evaluate, from a variety of cultural perspectives, the concept of shared natural resources and what is needed to maintain its health and accessibility for all. Evaluate how groups have addressed issues of equity in environmental health and sustainability. Analyze the use and distribution of resources worldwide and the impact on populations, including historically marginalized populations. Analyze, compare, and critique the ethics of societal actions and impacts of ethnocentrism.