Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Big Idea: Civic Engagement
Overview
This case study describes how one community-based organization is engaging high school students in ongoing study and action learning toward the goal of improving air quality. In Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley, more than 25 schools are located within 500 feet of the Los Angeles basin’s notoriously clogged freeways, exposing students to high levels of air pollution. The Asian and Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance (APIOPA) began working with some of these schools to educate and empower students to work toward changes in the air quality on and around their school campuses. The case study illustrates how:
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Students benefited from learning experiences that connected to their everyday lives and communities
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Short-term learning experiences can cultivate relationships that could lead to extended engagement
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Programs benefited from collaboration with a broad network of partners working toward common goals
Background
The mission of APIOPA is to empower Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Los Angeles County to improve their health by addressing social, cultural, environmental, and political factors that contribute to growing rates of obesity among these residents. To address these issues, APIOPA began working with the senior honor society at Mark Keppel High School (MKHS), and is now working with the school’s youth advocacy club. APIOPA supports club members in this predominantly Asian and Latino school as they work to improve air quality on and around their school campus. APIOPA has built on this work in 10 other schools by engaging more than 150 students in one-to-two-day air quality monitoring workshops.
Approach
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One-to-two-day, hands-on air quality monitoring workshops, and
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Ongoing, customized engagement with school clubs, teachers, and classes that engages students in further investigation and action, and in exploration of environmental justice issues.
APIOPA is also working with a long-time teacher to refine its classroom curriculum and is developing a train-the-trainer program to expand its reach. The program was developed following NAAEE’s Guidelines for Excellence. Key aspects of the program include:
Connection to students’ everyday lives. Students mapped their favorite places to spend time at school and in the neighborhood; they also mapped where they thought the healthiest and unhealthiest air was on campus. Students read local news articles about air pollution and research about its health effects, and discussed how pollution affects schools and residents in low-income communities. APIOPA staff helped students reflect on how individual and societal consumption can contribute to air pollution.
Hands-on investigation in an expanded learning environment. After learning about particulate pollution in their community, students used portable sensors to measure indoor and outdoor air quality in their school, on the campus, and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Student teams uploaded this information to the interactive mapping website, and used the site to help them interpret their findings.
Learner-centered instruction. Students used their understanding of the community to identify where residents might be most exposed to air pollution. APIOPA has also encouraged students to ask questions, hypothesize, and think about creative solutions to address air pollution. For example,
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Students from Mark Keppel High School compared air quality in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains and at their school, discovering that particulate pollution around campus—even inside the school building—was much greater.
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Students in a northern California high school hypothesized that particulate pollution would be worst in front of the school, which faced a major road. However, using the portable sensors, students discovered that pollution was worst behind the school where buses idled while parked.
Skill-building and personal and civic responsibility. Students in APIOPA’s workshops developed and practiced skills for analyzing and investigating environmental issues. These have included informing local elected officials about air quality issues, making videos to raise awareness at their schools, and working with school administrators to take action on improving campus air quality.
Connection to educational standards. The Kids Making Sense curriculum is linked to national science standards, making it easy to integrate the workshop and extend engagement into established curricula. APIOPA is consulting with educators to help make curriculum changes and teacher workshops compelling and relevant to teachers.
A broad network of collaborators. APIOPA worked with a variety of partners to develop and implement its approach to engaging students in hands-on learning about air quality and the link to health issues.
Evaluation Plan
To evaluate its programs, APIOPA is adopting a multi-part evaluation plan.
For short-term workshops, formal evaluation has consisted largely of pre- and post-workshop participant surveys. APIOPA tested the survey in an early workshop, making revisions to both the workshop curriculum and the survey itself based on responses. Based on experiences working with communities, educators, and young people in these workshops, APIOPA is including plans for longer-term involvement with a small number of schools.
With its longer-term engagement with school groups, APIOPA is evaluating its work over the course of the school year. They are conducting pre- and post-tests with students, with post-tests administered several months after completion of programming to help determine longer-term impacts of the program. APIOPA is also conducting focus groups with teachers, school officials, parents, students, and local elected officials to investigate these key stakeholders’ perspectives on the youth-led air pollution work.
Outcomes
In evaluating the impacts of its one-and-two-day workshops, APIOPA has observed changes for workshop participants in several areas. Student surveys have revealed a 23 percent increase in knowledge about air pollution and related health effects. At the end of the workshops, more than half of students felt concerned about air pollution (up 17 percent from before the workshops); about a third were inclined to take action (up 14 percent); and about a third felt that they and their peers could make a significant difference (up seven percent). Student survey responses also showed that the workshops had helped them make the connection between air pollution and health. Some students noted that they appreciated learning about ways young people could get involved with organizations that advocate for conservation, health, and equity. Many students indicated a desire for doing similar activities in their communities, learning more about what could be done to reduce air pollution at home and school, and knowing how they could help.
In evaluating the impacts of its longer-term, customized engagement with schools, APIOPA staff and participating educators have observed that these programs have increased student awareness of air quality issues on campus, and students helped make connections with other places through the online mapping process. Further, involvement in international partnerships has helped students understand air pollution as a global issue. Overall, APIOPA has found that building relationships with schools is a valuable way of connecting to communities.
Lessons Learned
Through their work with Los Angeles area students on air quality issues, APIOPA has learned to:
Connect investigations with a local context. Background about health, policy, and the local context helped students make connections between the data they collected and their lives and communities.
Do your research and ask for help. Prior relationships with local professors studying air quality helped staff develop rich, localized resources for students.
Be prepared to answer: “What’s next?” Expanding awareness and knowledge about environmental and social-equity issues raises questions about how students can share what they have learned and get involved in solutions.
Get involved in partnerships. Support from partners with technical and program development advice, peer-to-peer learning, and international exposure has been very beneficial to APIOPA. The local and international recognition emerging from these partnerships has provided validation for staff and students alike, and may be one of the most important outcomes of this work, making otherwise unlikely outcomes possible.
Use frustrations to drive further learning and new strategies. Activities like tree planting, advocating for campus air filtration, and receiving grant funding can involve navigating school bureaucracies, local regulations, and other power structures. These can be frustrating, but also present real-world opportunities to learn and adapt.
Use short-term workshops to catalyze longer-term engagement. Short workshops may be all that schools and teachers can commit to, at least at first. Look for ways to extend this engagement to reinforce learning, expand investigations, and help students address their desire to be involved in solutions. APIOPA used what it learned in its early work to shape future efforts, which include experimenting with a multi-year engagement with a student club, facilitating summer environmental camps, and developing teacher workshops.