Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Also available in:

Webmaster: Pinzani.it

Teaching Resources

Homepage > Teaching Resources > Teaching Resources Form

TEACHING RESOURCES INFORMATION

TITLE OF TEACHING RESOURCE
Air Defenders
IMAGE
NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Sara Burr, Lindsay Haas , Rhonda O’Leary, Joe Ancel, Charles Warzecha , Kathy Esposito, Carrie Morgan, Greg Swanson , Al Stenstrup, Joel Stone
NAME OF PRODUCER
Wisconsin Environmental Health Association
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Stuart Stotts, Inc
DATE OF PRODUCTION
2004
WEBSITE OF THE PRODUCT
TYPE OF PRODUCT
Web Site/Portal
LEVEL OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE
Basic, Medium
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
Cooperative learning
SUBJECT AREA
Health Science, Environmental Chemistry
TARGET GROUP LEVEL
Primary School, Lower Secondary School
LANGUAGE/S OF TEACHING RESOURCES
English
TUTORIAL SUPPORT
Yes
DESCRIPTION
Air Defenders is a community educational resource on open burning, air quality and respiratory health. It’s designed to help health officials and other community educators, as well as teachers, create fun and valuable hands-on classroom lessons for students.
Part of the resource is specifically designed to help both formal and non-formal educators incorporate the Air Defenders program into their curriculum. The section offers them following actions:
• View examples of the curriculum;
• Learn how to incorporate the kid’s web site into the curriculum;
• Sample the Air Defenders songs and download the lyrics;
• Order an own Air Defenders kit etc.
“Air Defenders: The Quest for Clean Air” is an interdisciplinary, multi-media educational program and web site for students 10 years of age and up. Students earn their Air Defender badge while pursuing their quest to clean the air and protect community health.
Air Defenders learn through activities in science, health education, and music lessons. These lessons develop critical thinking with a focus on finding solutions for home and farm waste disposal, exploring the physics and chemistry of waste incineration and open burning, and on the related issues of air quality and human respiratory health.
The Air Defenders Educator's Kit gives the resources necessary to add information about open burning, air quality and respiratory health to the teacher’s curriculum. The students go through rigorous training with hopes of someday becoming an Air Defender.
All materials for the Air Defenders Educator's Kit are housed in a folder that is loaded with the materials the teacher need to present information about open burning, air quality, and respiratory health to your students. The folder contains:
- Introduction to the Air Defenders brochure, which includes information about the contents of the kit case, technical requirements for accessing the materials, and system requirements for running the Air Defenders Interactive Educational Game.
- CDs.
-One CD contains music by and for Air Defenders along with supplemental music education materials (in PDF format).
-One CD contains the Air Defenders Interactive Educational Game and supplemental education materials (in PDF format).
- DVD featuring the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources short musical "Give Burn Barrels The Boot" and an informational video for adult audiences on open burning.
- Posters that not only look cool but offer valuable information about air pollution:
-One poster is promotional and features the Air Defenders characters in vibrant, kid-friendly colors.
-Another poster explains and illustrates how air pollution triggers asthma and offers lots of additional scientific information.
-The last poster illustrates and gives information about the chemicals released when open burning occurs and also offers loads of information.
- Music Teachers Guide (in PFD format) which gives you all of the Air Defenders sheet music, lyrics, and a guide to the tracks on the music CD.
- Teachers Activity Guide "Give Burn Barrels The Boot" (in PDF format). This guide is chock full of information and activities the educator could share with students.
Also included are PDF versions of pamphlets and brochures from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources about Wisconsin fire laws and regulations, frequently asked questions about open burning, information about burn barrels, health hazards of burning leaves and ozone educational materials with an Air Quality Index.
COMMENTS
The program and the website are developed by large group of authors, advised by experts in the area of environmental protection and Natural Resources, Health and Human Services. The materials are based on scientific platform and combining pedagogical approach with amusing games, music and other unusual instruments to create basic knowledge about air pollution and its influence on the human health.
The main target group are pupils and students with lower and medium degree of chemical knowledge, but the good point is that the process of ecological education starts in very early ages and is a prerequisite for further upgrading of knowledge later.

The content is closely related to the air pollution only although the process influences the other component of the environment as it causes global environmental effects.
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
Technical University Gabrovo

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome


Date: 2014.11.30

Posted by Mariusz Jarocki (Poland)

Message: Is the teaching resource described useful for you? Why?
The resource can be treated as a knowledge base about burning and air quality. The target of the information is not precise: health officials, teachers, also students, especially with lower and medium degree of chemical knowledge. I find the content very useful, reliable and comprehensive.

Which learning objectives can be reached by using the resource? Ecological education. The content is closely related to the air pollution only.

Do you think it can increase students’ interest toward chemistry? Why?
The resource is focused rather on ecological aspect of the chemistry, so possible motivation is rather indirect. However, the quality of gathered information can affect their interest of other chemical issues.

Do you think it can help students to understand better and faster? Why?
Because of the comprehensive nature of the material, it is very useful as a source of information, required to understand many very practical impacts caused by chemical phenomena in real life.

Do you think it proposes an innovative didactic approach? Why?
This is very good point to start the process of ecological education in very early ages and is a prerequisite for further upgrading of knowledge later.

Date: 2012.10.03

Posted by Elif Tuğçe KARACA (Turkey)

Message: This teaching resource is about open burning and air and health quality. The resource is made up of four main parts, seeking out the truth- identifying the problem-resolve the proble and the last one is the mission part.
At first it can be said that the topic is very important for both formal and non formal education,and it makes sense for children for both primary and secondary levels. The web page has a good design and the aim is giving the best information to the students, but there could be more manipulatives like videos or more images and ess wrintings, so the topic can attracts students attention more.
The aim of this resource is also makes students more conscious about the air pollution, recycling, natural surces and human health. I think this website can increase students interest toward chemistry beacuse it is very related to daily life and there are good and interesting examples on the web site. Students can use the web page easily, there are no complex design. This resource can be helpful for classroom activities, teachers can use in their teaching processes.

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.

.