Let's create continuous conversations about climate change education: Spreading the Sediment of Science!

Hi, educators! Share your student reach in our short Impact Survey 📚 Survey Link

About Us

Donate

Planting Healthy Air

Provided by: The Nature Conservancy |Published on: April 27, 2021

Articles/Websites Grades 6-8, 9-12

Synopsis

This interactive resource includes a number of maps, images, linked reports, and text that present findings from the Nature Conservancy about the return on investment of planting urban trees to reduce summer temperatures and filter pollution from the air, including reports specific to New York City, Atlanta, Beijing, Denver, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, and Shanghai.
A variety of maps show which neighborhoods around the world can benefit most from tree planting to remove particulate matter from the air and/or improve air quality for the residents.

Related Teaching Resources

Subjects: Biology, Geography, Health

Authors: The Nature Conservancy

Region: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South and Central America, USA - Northeast, USA - West, USA - South, United States, Global, Oceania, New York, New York City, California, Georgia, Colorado

Languages: English

View Resource

Teaching Materials

Positives

The interactive world maps are engaging and easy to manipulate.
The scroll-down design of the story makes it easy for students to move through the information at their own pace.

Prerequisites

The map indicating the projected temperatures for 2040 shows the temperatures in Celsius, so students will need to know how to convert the values to Fahrenheit.
The links to the individual reports in the Cooling the Air section are broken.
Students should be familiar with terms such as transpiration, return on investment, and mitigation.

Differentiation & Implementation

Science, social studies, and geography classes can have students select cities to focus on in the interactive maps.
Environmental clubs or service clubs can use the map tools to identify nearby neighborhoods that would benefit from tree planting and work with officials to organize a tree planting event.
Other resources on this topic include Plant Trees, The Tree Cover and Temperature Disparity in US Urbanized Areas, Benefits of Urban Trees, and What Happens If We Cut Down All of a City's Trees?

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

About the Partner Provider

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. The Nature Conservancy has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world.