This webinar focuses on the release of a designed-for-NGSS learning sequence built by CA teachers and scientists developed to support students in making observations of the poorest air quality in their own backyards and find out that the worst air quality is inequitable within urban areas. Students use data to determine the causes and solutions for the poor air quality and design solutions based on Governor Brown’s Initiative to convert California to 100% Renewable Energy for electricity by 2045. Students include data from COVID-19 reductions in human activity and emissions to support the claim that humans are causing poor air quality which is impacting the environment, prompting the need for decreasing our carbon footprint.

The sequence has been updated for delivery through online or hybrid platforms to reflect the current (distance learning) teaching situations many of us face.

Participants will end the webinar with resources they can use in their own classrooms, some new tools and strategies that can be adapted for other lessons, and a stronger background in the science behind impacts of energy use.

Presenters:
Alfredo Martinez-Morales, Managing Director & Research Professor, Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy, University of California, Riverside
Melissa Marcucci, Physics Teacher, Ceres High School