No Idling Action Toolkit

Positives

• This lesson plan is incredibly thorough and contains everything needed to conduct a multi-week project on a climate change action issue like automobile idling.
• Students will feel a sense of agency in encouraging change as they assess an issue in their community, notify the public about it, and analyze the effectiveness of their awareness campaign.
• The student worksheets are presented in Google Doc form, so editing and modifying is possible.
• Students work in groups and have time for reflection in this project-based learning activity.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should feel comfortable creating visual displays through photography or movies.
• Students should be able to work in a self-directed manner as they complete group projects and presentations.
• The Green Shift link is broken.

Differentiation

• The background information and Student Information sheet center around data from Canada. Teachers may wish to provide local data.
• It may be helpful to have additional adult support to ensure safety for the two days students are in the parking lot recording idling data.
• Be sure to emphasize that there may not be a correct answer to the more reflective questions posed throughout the project, but the point is to answer them thoughtfully.
• Students may need assistance filling out their idling data sheets consistently between the two different survey collection dates, so go over each column and check for understanding before having students collect data.
• Consider asking an art or media teacher to assist students in creating their visual displays to communicate the issue of automobile idling to the community.
• Some students may struggle with a long, extended project if they are not engaged in the topic, so keep this in mind and check in on the groups' productivity as they are working independently.