Activity #3 – State of the Air in US Cities
Activity Description and Objectives: this activity utilizes online resources to look at air pollution in detail for a particular
location.
Part 1: Assign your students as the Mayors of major US cities. They will use the State of the Air report to research the air
quality in their city.
Part 2: To further research air pollution in their city, your students will use EPA air pollution source data displayed in
Google Earth. From this information, students will identify major point sources of air pollution in their region.
Materials:
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Computer with Google Earth installed (in order to complete Part 2)
Internet access
Worksheet (included)
Websites Used in the Activity:
1. State of the Air website: http://www.stateoftheair.org/
2. EPA source pollution website: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/where.htm
3. Lesson 2 of the GO3 Curriculum describing how ozone is formed at ground level:
http://www.go3project.com/network2/index.php/pages/curriculum-downloads
4. Wikipedia
Instructions – Part 1
Select a major US city to study, or assign students to different cities. Appoint the students as Mayors of the cities. Their
job is to protect the health of the people living in their city, and they are in charge of figuring out how to do this. Many
US cities have an “F” from the EPA for ozone pollution. This means that the city exceeded their ozone standard of 75
parts per billion. Students will look up the report card for their city, as well as other information about the city’s air
quality.
1. Go to this website: http://www.stateoftheair.org/
2. On the left side under Report Card, enter your city or its zip code and click Check Your State.
3. First concentrate on the High Ozone Days section at the top. Note the grade your city has for ozone.
4. Click on View Orange, Red, and Purple Ozone Days. This will give a list of the number of days in 2011 of
high ozone concentration for your city.
5. Next click on Change Since 1996. This will graph the number of days your city exceeded the EPA standard
for ozone since 1996. See below for an example for Boulder, CO. The x-axis is the year (i.e., 96-97) and the
y-axis is the number of days the city exceeded the standard.
6. The students will use this information to fill out the worksheet.
7. Optional: have students, or groups of students, report the results for their city to the class.
Instructions – Part 2
Every large point source of air pollution in the US is tracked and reported by the EPA. At this site, you can download the
data in Google Earth files to analyze the sources in your state, or the entire US. YOU NEED GOOGLE EARTH INSTALLED
ON YOUR COMPUTER TO DO THIS.
1. Go to this EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/where.htm
2. First open a file for the entire US. Under Facility Emission Summaries, the files are separated by pollutant,
CO, NOx, PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and VOC. Choose a pollutant and click on the corresponding link. It will
prompt you to open a Google Earth file. Remember, the pollutants of interest to ozone formation are its
three ingredients, CO, NOx, and VOCs. See the screenshot of the website below.
3. You can click sources on and off in the left hand Places bar in Google Earth. If you don’t see anything show
up on Google Earth when you open the file, you will need to click the sources on in the Places bar.
4. The largest pollution sources will have a tall 3-D bar that you can see when you tip the earth. To tip the
earth, go to the upper right hand corner of Google Earth and click on the arrow above the eye. You can click
on the sources and get detailed information about how much of each pollutant they released in 2008. See
the screenshot below.
5. Finally, look more closely at the state your city is located in. Go to Create a File by State or Source Type and
enter in the information you are interested in. Then click on Create Google Earth File.
6. Optional: have students, or groups of students, report the results for their city to the class.
Worksheet
1. What grade did your city receive for ozone?
2. What year saw the most number of days exceeding the EPA’s ozone standard in your city? How many days did it
exceed the standard in this period?
a. Year:
b. Number of days:
3. What year saw the least number of days exceeding the EPA’s ozone standard in your city? How many days did it
exceed the standard in this period?
a. Year:
b. Number of days:
4. Was there any significant drop or increase in the number of days exceeding the ozone standard in a given year?
If so, when?
5. What is the general trend for ozone levels in your city since 1996? Has it gone up? Down?
6. From the information you gathered using the EPA’s source data on Google Earth, identify major
sources/facilities/industries that contribute to air pollution in your state. List the top three sources of air
pollution near your city and the amount of air pollution they emitted (don’t forget units!).
a. Source 1 name and industry:
i. CO:
ii. NOx:
iii. VOC:
b. Source 2 name and industry:
i. CO:
ii. NOx:
iii. VOC:
c. Source 3 name and industry:
i. CO:
ii. NOx:
iii. VOC:
7. What is the population of your city?
8. See if you can find anything on Wikipedia or other research that would explain your city’s ozone levels over
time. Pay particular attention to the economy section and to research industries in the area, as well as the
transportation section to see how your traffic might affect pollution. List anything you feel explains the
pollution situation and any increases or decreases in ozone. Use the back if you need to.
9. Can you find anything about your city’s history that could explain any big drops or increases you saw in ozone
pollution over the years?
10. What would you do as a Mayor to get your city into compliance with EPA rules and reduce ozone and other air
pollutants?