News Flash

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 2001

MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL, WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES ANNOUNCE "EASY BREATHERS" PROJECT

Marshall students to produce video on transportation and air quality issues for national distribution to schools throughout the country

Project reaches beyond Milwaukee to involve students in Chicago, San Jose, and Houston, as well as students from other MPS high schools

Students at John Marshall High School will be helping others nationwide learn about air quality and transportation issues as they partner with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on a video/website project, "Easy Breathers." The project is aimed at improving air quality in Southeastern Wisconsin and across the nation, and the students at John Marshall High School are taking the lead in producing the video and developing the website.

The new partnership and program details were announced by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Darrell Bazzell and MPS Deputy Superintendent Jacqueline Patterson at a news conference at John Marshall High School Tuesday, April 3, 10:00 a.m. The event also was attended by several DNR officials and the students who are spearheading the project.

"Easy Breathers" will introduce teens to transportation and air quality issues like hybrid cars, ozone pollution, fuel cells and hydrogen fuels, low sulfur gasoline and diesel, transportation alternatives, and more. Students from Marshall High School's Eagle Wing Productions will begin shooting the video in May, and will travel to Chicago, Houston, and San Jose for filming and collaborating with students and teachers from high schools in those cities. Students from MPS' Rufus King and North Division will be involved as well.

The project is geared to teens ages 14 and up, the time when driving and transportation habits form. Project partners believe that involving students in developing the video and website will make them more relevant and beneficial to the target audience.

Marshall students also are assisting with the design and development of a website to correlate with the video. The website will serve teachers and students and will answer questions posed by the video, along with providing background information and curriculum resources, while encouraging teens to connect their personal choices with the impacts of those choices.

The video and website are scheduled for completion in fall 2001. The video will be distributed nationwide to urban and suburban high schools.

The "Easy Breathers" project was funded by grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Transportation and Air Quality, and the United States Department of Transportation.

For more information, contact James Crain, principal, or John Holmes, teacher and director of Eagle Wing Productions, Marshall High School, 393-2300; or Mittsy Voiles, air education and communications specialist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource, 608-264-9258, or Jenny Pelej, public information officer, Wisconsin DNR, 608-266-0920.

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