Air Quality
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Provided by: Ten Strands|Published on: July 18, 2025
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this Seeds to Solutions unit from Ten Strands and the San Mateo County Office of Education, students investigate air quality issues in California’s San Bernardino–Riverside area by exploring pollutant sources, climate change connections, and environmental justice impacts, culminating in a collaborative action plan.
- These 9 lessons guide students through modeling, data analysis, and local case studies to understand how geography, policy, and industry shape air quality, and to design equitable, community-based solutions.
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Civics, Health
Authors: Ten Strands, Seeds to Solutions
Region: California
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Students will love the use of the California poppy as a representation of how they can organize and keep track of their learning.
- This unit covers vital concepts, like race as a social construct, the value in the opinions of those directly affected by a problem, and the importance of community action.
Prerequisites
- Students should be familiar with the San Bernardino-Riverside area in California.
- Students should understand climate change, its impacts, and its causes.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Science or health teachers implementing this unit can collaborate with language arts teachers to implement and discuss the optional reading in Lesson 1, possibly incorporating this with a lesson on connotation and denotation.
- For Lesson 2, teachers may wish to send home a letter describing the air quality data collection and informing parents of the safety precautions their learners should take.
- Teachers can find the Climate Emotions Wheel introduced in Lesson 1, related activities, and additional translations of the resource here.
- Collaboration can also be made with geography teachers, who can teach students how to use map tools like GIS to support their work in Lesson 5.
This resource from Seeds to Solutions provides 9 lesson plans for students to explore what affects air quality in California’s San Bernardino-Riverside area. Students analyze real air quality data, investigate pollution sources, examine connections to climate change, and consider the social impacts on different communities. While lessons focus on interpreting existing data rather than generating new analyses, this resource would be a great addition to classroom discussions on environmental health and justice.
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About the Partner Provider
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Ten Strands
Ten Strands is a California–based nonprofit established in 2012. Their mission is to strengthen the partnerships, strategies, and systems that advance environmental literacy, ensuring all California TK–12 students thrive in sustainable, resilient schools and engage in meaningful environmental learning experiences, both in and beyond the classroom. They operate with a small, diverse, and nimble staff and strategic partners throughout the state. Ten Strands utilizes the largest and most diverse institution in California—the public school system—to impact 58 county offices of education, more than 1,000 school districts, approximately 10,000 individual schools, over 300,000 teachers, and 5.8 million children.
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
