1. Making decisions about air quality: defining the problem.

What air quality issues are in the current news? Students will have most likely heard about the ozone problem, especially in the Detroit area and parts of west Michigan. Others might suggest particle pollution (soot), global climate change, the ozone hole, and acid rain as current air quality issues. Explain that the class is going to act out a situation that illustrates the difficult process of making choices about how to address the ozone problem. Introduce the topic of decision-making to the class (see Background Information.)

Read the letter from the EPA Administrator to the Governor of Michigan. On an overhead or as a handout, show students where the ozone nonattainment areas are located (see Nonattainment Areas and 8-hour Ozone Nonattainment transparencies). What would be the health implications of living in one of these areas? What should be done in response to this information? If needed, review the basics of ground-level ozone (O3).

Suggest that a meeting in Lansing will be held informing people about the ozone nonattainment issue and inviting them to express their views about the problem. Brainstorm who should be at the meeting (the stakeholders), what the agenda for the meeting should be, and how the meeting should be conducted to make sure everyone is heard. Be sure to include an introduction to the problem, presentations by experts and stakeholders, a question-and-answer time, formulating the plan, and the next steps to address the problem.

2. Making decisions about air quality: identifying the stakeholders.

Divide the class into teams. Explain that each team will represent one of the major categories of stakeholders (“players”) in this drama. Teams can use the Role Card Examples that are based on an actual air quality forum or they can create their own stakeholder group.

Suggestions for stakeholder representation include:

• State environmental regulators (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)

• Federal environmental regulators (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

• Industries (parts manufacturer, automakers, chemical plants, office furniture manufacturer)

• Small business owners (gas station, dry cleaner)

• Health groups (Michigan Asthma Coalition, American Lung Association of Michigan)

• Business groups (Michigan Manufacturer’s Association, Chamber of Commerce)

• Environmental groups (Sierra Club, Michigan Environmental Council)

• Academia (professors, researchers)

• Power Plants (Detroit Edison, Consumers Energy)

• Regional transportation planning agencies (SEMCOG, Grand Valley Metro Council, West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission)

• Clean air coalitions (West Michigan Clean Air Coalition, Clean Air Coalition of Southeast Michigan)

• Politicians (State representative, U.S. representative, State senator, U.S. senator, local officials, planning commissioners)

• Citizens (rural, suburban, urban)

• Professionals (lawyers, consultants, engineers, physicians)

• Other categories if needed

3. Making decisions about air quality: gathering data.

What are the concerns related to nonattainment for ozone of this stakeholder group? Students can use the role cards as starting points for their research for their stakeholder group. Teams should use the What’s the Problem? student activity pages to define and analyze some action items addressing the ozone issue. Strategies for collecting information include searching the web, interviewing people, and looking at what other states are doing. The Measures to Meet Ozone Air Quality Standards student resource lists options for addressing the ozone problem.

4. Making decisions about air quality: planning a strategy.

What is your team’s strategy going into the stakeholder meeting? After students are familiarized with the ozone nonattainment issue and they have researched and developed some action steps, discuss the specifics of the meeting for stakeholders. Each team will have to choose one team member to be the presenter of the group’s point of view and plan. For the role-play activity, the actor from each team will describe the team’s stakeholder group and make a statement about that group’s suggestions for a plan of action as if the character were addressing decision-makers during a meeting. Those not selected as presenters may be called upon to be the decision-makers. The decision-makers have a broader responsibility to the community and should be prepared, if necessary, to make a choice between their own individual views and what is best for the community as a whole.

Hold the stakeholder meeting. Stakeholder representatives make their statements while a recorder lists suggestions on the board. Instruct the presenter from each team to describe the team’s point of view and their recommendations for a plan.

5. Making decisions about air quality: voting.

Using the input from the meeting, the decisionmakers will vote on the elements of the plan thatthey would like to implement. Each decisionmaker can vote for up to five suggestions. Summarize the results and discuss the implications of the choices. Optional: In another meeting, the stakeholders can react to the plan using the Evaluation of the Plan worksheet as a guide. Stress that their individual actions can make a difference and that regional solutions will be a big part of solving the ozone problem.

6. Tying it all together: taking action.

What can your school and individual students do to help reduce ozone levels? Direct students to the web sites of the West Michigan Clean Air Coalition and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, SEMCOG (see Additional Resources). Ozone Action tip cards and other educational materials from these organizations could be distributed to friends and families. Posters informing people of the problem could be made. To help, people could change their behaviors on Ozone Action Days. For example, they could car pool, limit lawn mowing, and reduce the use of non-essential solvents such as charcoal lighter fluid. Parents and students could wait until evening to fill cars with gasoline.

Conclude the lesson with a preview of what has happened with another pollutant, PM2.5 particle pollution. In December 2004, the Governor of Michigan received a letter from the U.S. EPA Administrator about the particle pollution nonattainment situation in southeast Michigan. Ten counties in Michigan were not attaining PM2.5 particle pollution standards. The map of the affected areas is found in the teacher resource, Particle Pollution Nonattainment Areas, 2010. Challenge the students to create a list of actions to take on days when particle pollution levels are expected to be high.