Opportunities for Students to Contribute to Easy Breathers

Easy Breathers was produced by high school students in a project-based learning environment. The opportunity for students to continue to contribute to this project has been built into this Web site. Keep reading to learn more about how your students can get involved.

Please note: Easy Breathers is intended for high school students (ages 13 and up). Younger students will feel more at home in EEK! (Environmental Education for Kids!), http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/eek/, the DNR's online magazine for kids ages 9-13.

1. What do you think?
Just below the center graphic on the home page is a poll/survey, titled "What do you think?". Sometimes the questions ask students how much they spend on gas (petrol) for the car in a week; sometimes they ask things like "do you think your city has an air pollution problem?".

The answers to these poll questions give us a picture of students' car/bus/bike/transit use and knowledge of air pollution issues. This will help us measure the site's effectiveness over time at meeting our goals. Your students can help by answering the monthly survey question. Please note: Only one survey response per computer per hour is allowed by the server.

2. The Lab
In The Lab, students will find print-ready field projects, surveys, and studies they can do on their own or in groups.

Have your students collect data using...

• your own project, survey, or study, or
• one of the projects, surveys, or studies, provided on the site or
• have them create their own projects,

3. Speak UP!
Speak UP! is divided into four major sections: Open Mic, Words and Works, Project Spotlight, and Get Local.

Open Mic
The Open Mic is a discussion forum, divided into several topics. You might have skipped through this section on your way to the Teacher's Lounge - they're in the same bulletin board. Students can log on, create a profile, and then either answer the questions posed in the forums or create their own topics to expound upon. This is a way for your students to communicate their thoughts about these issues to other students around the world. This forum is also a good place for your students to continue in-class discussions that were truncated by the bell signaling that class was over.

In an effort to assure a safe online environment, the discussion forum is moderated, there is a built-in profanity filter, and all users must register before posting messages. Users who harass other forum guests or otherwise behave inappropriately will be promptly booted from the forum.

Words and Works
Here students can submit their poetry, prose, art, or photography for publication on the site. Some teachers have permitted their students to create or submit work for this section as part of an assignment. This is an opportunity for your students to have their work seen by people all over the world. Although Easy Breathers is unable to pay students for their submissions, students retain the copyright to their work.

Project Spotlight
Students are doing some amazing things these days - building electric vehicles, starting "no idle" campaigns to protect people's lungs from buses, trucks, and cars idling near buildings, and experimenting with all sorts of creative pollution prevention ideas. Are your students doing something really cool? Could they be inspired to give it a try? Let us know about it, and we'll feature the project in our Project Spotlight.

Get Local
This is a collection of short reports - Community Transportation Profiles. Provided with some guidelines and sample questions, students are requested to gather some basic information on transportation in their community (do people travel by bus? bike? rail? does your community have an air pollution problem? etc.) and write a report. The reports are posted for people around the world to read about transportation problems and solutions in many different communities.

In addition to getting students more involved in their own communities, the idea behind this section is to broaden students' knowledge about the types of problems that exist, and the many creative solutions communities have developed - or not, as the case may be. It's a cultural lesson, and also a means of expanding the students' problem-solving abilities.