Frequently Asked Questions
About the Easy Breathers project
- What is Easy Breathers?
- Why is it called Easy Breathers?
- Why did you create Easy Breathers?
- What is "Let Kids Lead?"
- What is Eagle Wing Productions?
- What is Media Makers?
- Where was Easy Breathers taped?
- How was Easy Breathers funded?
- What is the difference between a partner, a sponsor, and a contributor?
- How can I get a copy of the Easy Breathers video?
1. What is Easy Breathers?
There is a special section devoted to answering this question. To read it, click here.
2. Why is it called Easy Breathers?
Easy Breathers examines the chain reaction caused by making the wrong transportation decision. It starts with the bad decisions many of us make on a daily basis, such as driving when you can walk or driving a car that's out of tune. It demonstrates that these bad decisions lead to increased air pollution, which in turn increases the rate of asthma cases in humans, plus other negative health and environmental effects seen today. Easy Breathers provides reasonable choices that anybody can make, even on the limited budget of a high schooler, to reduce air pollution. It suggests that a person can voluntarily decide to walk or ride a bike to school, carpool, get a tune up, use cleaner fuels in automobiles, etc., and make a positive difference in the air they breathe. If all high schoolers - and everyone else! - heeds these reasonable, economical, and easy suggestions, or adopts innovative new transportation technologies (fuel cells, hybrid cars, etc.) as they come available, then their generation and all that follow will be breathing easy. Easy Breathers says that it's not that hard to clean up the air we breathe.
3. Why did you create Easy Breathers?
Pollution emissions from transportation are a major ingredient in global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, asthma, ground-level ozone (a.k.a., smog) formation and other problems. We're responsible for these emissions. The way we choose to get around today impacts our world tomorrow - the land, the water, and the AIR.
Did you know� ?
- Twenty million Americans have asthma. Five million are children, and the numbers are on the rise. Most of those people are African American or Hispanic.
- Gas-powered cars produce chemicals that, in hot, humid weather, react with others to form ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone is an asthma trigger and pollutant that harms even healthy lungs.
- Vehicle travel in the United States is doubling every 20 years.
- A vehicle powered by gasoline emits its own weight in greenhouse gases every year.
- Chemicals from leaking vehicle air conditioners deplete the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer, causing higher rates of skin cancer and cataracts.
The Easy Breathers concept began at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in 1998. A DNR team had just finished an air education CD-ROM kit, called "Where's the Air?" for elementary and middle school students and their teachers. Throughout the following year, high school teachers asked about air quality curriculum resources for their students. It made sense - high school students are entering their driving years and need to learn how to make smart transportation choices that don't make air pollution problems worse for them and later generations.
By making good transportation choices, you can have a significant positive impact on environmental problems. Good transportation choices include:
- Walking, busing, biking, or carpooling to school or work one or more times a week.
- Choosing a fuel-efficient vehicle (>27 mpg).
- Keeping your car in good running condition.
- Supporting new transportation technologies like alternative fuels, hybrid cars, electric cars, and fuel cells.
4. What is "Let Kids Lead?"
Letting kids lead is the project-based learning approach the DNR took to making Easy Breathers, guided by Eagle Wing Productions teachers Heather Sattler and John Holmes. It means that students from high schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Jose, California; and Houston, Texas, were given the opportunity to get real-life experience in front of and behind the cameras during filming. Professionals from the DNR and Media Makers, Inc., mentored the students as they acted, directed, and helped tape the scenes of the video. A couple of students even played a hand in web site development after the video taping was complete.
5. What is Eagle Wing Productions?
Eagle Wing Productions (EWP) is a video production course at John Marshall High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by former Marshall teacher, John Holmes, in 1990, EWP is a course that gives students the opportunity to work on video productions for community-based clients. Before providing the talent and crew for Easy Breathers, EWP students appeared in videos for S.C. Johnson and for the Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council. Two years prior to Easy Breathers production, Heather Sattler joined forces with Holmes as co-directors of EWP. An English/Drama teacher, Sattler developed and taught an "Introduction to Eagle Wing Productions" course where students produced socially responsible videos for the community. She also developed course called "Acting for the Stage and the Camera." Through this course, Sattler prepared talent to appear in videos like Easy Breathers. Meanwhile, Holmes prepared students for the taping and editing of community productions. Heather and John managed the Easy Breathers production together. Their partnership at John Marshall High School completed EWP. Their perfect balance of talents was a very welcome addition to the Easy Breathers project.
6. What is Media Makers?
Media Makers, Inc., located in Milwaukee, WI, is the multimedia firm that was contracted to direct, film, and serve as mentors to the students for the Easy Breathers project. Media Makers is owned by Lois Maurer and Susan Borri. They were contracted by the DNR based on the quality of their previous work, their experience, as well as their willingness and proven ability to work effectively with students. Media Makers and their sub-contracted videographer, Julius Fomotor, proved wonderful mentors to the students. All of the actors gained valuable experience in front of the camera. Aspiring directors were handed the reigns at times, and filming students were often handed very expensive cameras to express their artistic license during taping.
7. Where was Easy Breathers taped?
Although it was produced by a Wisconsin agency, Easy Breathers received national funding and will be distributed nationally and, potentially, globally. Therefore, the video content had to represent the bigger picture of air quality issues and solutions than what could be found in Wisconsin. Time and money constraints ruled out global travel, but the students and the rest of the crew flew to San Jose, California, and Houston, Texas, for taping and interaction with partner schools in those states. During content development, the team also worked with teachers in Brazil and England, and did lots of research on global air quality issues.
On May 2, 2001, four students, the DNR team, and Media Makers traveled for a week of taping in San Jose, California. There we met up with the project's partner school, San Jose High Academy. We organized an electric vehicles fair at the school, rode the Light Rail Vehicle system (LRV), and toured the Corbin Motors plant where single passenger electric commuting cars are made. San Jose was chosen to represent a city that was combating its traffic congestion and pollution problems with new technologies and developments.
The next stop was Houston, Texas, the "smog capital of the United States." Taping began in Texas on May 22, 2001, with the help of our Houston partner school, Jones Vanguard High School (formerly called Jesse Jones High School). The city certainly lived up to its title. We spend three days gawking at the oil refineries, gaping at the thousand of new cars arriving daily in the Shipping Channel, and coughing our way through the clogged streets as we filmed the dirty and the despicable. Our partner students had a lot to say about Houston's terrible air quality and high rates of asthma.
Then we packed up to finish taping back home in Milwaukee. This took two weeks, plus a week of rehearsals. It was even hotter than the record-breaking temperatures we had experienced in California, and we taped all the scenes outside in a parking lot. The Milwaukee taping included cool special effects, and lots of neat props. On June 29, 2001, the Milwaukee taping was a wrap.
During taping in California, Texas, and Wisconsin, a complete production journal, including pictures, was posted on the Web site daily. Take a look!
8. How was Easy Breathers funded?
Easy Breathers had four major sources of funding:
- The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Air Communication and Education program
- The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Office of Transportation and Air Quality - Mobile Sources Outreach Assistance Grant Program
- The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) - Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant Program
- In-kind support from partners, sponsors, and contributors as listed in the Special Credits.
9. What is the difference between a partner, a sponsor, and a contributor?
When taking a look at the Easy Breathers list of credits, you'll see that there were a ton of partners, sponsors, and contributors involved in the project. Our partners worked as extended members of the project team, assisting with specific project components. Sponsors and contributors found merit in the project and contributed time, products, funding, or services to help with production. Easy Breathers could not have become a reality without the dedicated and generous support of all our partners, sponsors, and contributors.
10. How can I get a copy of the Easy Breathers video?
Free copies of the video were sent out to every high school in Wisconsin, and many high schools across the nation, in February 2002. If you are a high school teacher, check with your media director, principal, or librarian to see if your school received a copy. Or click here to order a copy.
