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Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment EPA Division Air Quality/Wood Smoke Teaching Unit For Primary School

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Page 1: Air Quality/Wood Smoke Teaching Unit For Primary School Notes - Primary... · 2016-07-05 · AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY Department of Primary Industries, Parks,

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

Air Quality/Wood Smoke Teaching Unit

For Primary School

Page 2: Air Quality/Wood Smoke Teaching Unit For Primary School Notes - Primary... · 2016-07-05 · AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY Department of Primary Industries, Parks,

AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

2

Burn Brighter this Winter

Air Quality/Wood Smoke Teaching Unit for Primary School

EPA Division, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

GPO Box 1751

Hobart 7001

Telephone: (03) 6165 4599

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.epa.tas.gov.au

Copyright: State of Tasmania 2016

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this document is provided in good faith. The Crown, its officers, employees and agents

do not accept liability however arising, including liability for negligence, for any loss resulting from the use of or

reliance upon the information in this resource and/or reliance on its availability at any time.

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for the purpose of study and training, subject to the inclusion

of acknowledgement of the source and to it not being used for commercial purposes or sale. Reproduction for other

purposes requires written permission of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment,

Tasmania.

Recommended citation: EPA Division (2016) Burn Brighter this Winter: Air Quality /Wood Smoke Teaching Unit, For

Primary School, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Hobart, Tasmania.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

3

Teaching Sessions FOR GRADES 1–6

Background Information for Teachers

Domestic wood smoke is known to cause significant adverse health impacts among

some members of the community. The EPA Division of DPIPWE runs a community

education program called Burn Brighter this Winter which seeks to teach wood heater

owners how to operate their wood heater so as to reduce wood smoke in the

atmosphere, thereby improving public health outcomes for the Tasmanian

community.

This engagement program is part of a broader program called the Domestic Smoke

Management Program (DSMP) which was developed to help support the Tasmanian

Air Quality Strategy (2006).

How wood smoke affects a person depends on the person’s health, age, as well as

the amount and time they are exposed to smoke. The Tasmanian Department of

Health and Human Services (DHHS) provides information on the potential health

impacts of wood smoke exposure. The Department also directs people to the EPA

Division real time data on air quality around the State.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

4

A study led by Dr Fay Johnston of the Menzies Research Institute (Johnson 2013)

found that smoke pollution increases both morbidity (sickness) and the death rate in

the community. In many towns and cities in Tasmania, levels of wood smoke are

higher than nationally agreed levels for many days of the year.

Research indicates that targeted education programs, backed up by appropriate

regulations, can be effective in changing the practices of wood heater users, leading

to a reduction of excessive emissions of smoke from poorly operated heaters (Ling

2004).

With this in mind, the Tasmanian Government community education program, Burn

Brighter this Winter, was introduced. It is now in its fifth year in 2016 and target areas

have, to date, been East Launceston, West Hobart, Hadspen, Geeveston, Meander,

Longford and in 2016, Glenorchy.

Staff from the EPA Division have complemented the Burn Brighter this Winter

program with school visits in target areas and developed a resource for primary

school teachers (below), addressing various aspects of the Australian Curriculum

(Science) as at 2016.

There are two activities in this package:

(1) a 45 minute guided lesson adaptable for Grades K-6; and

(2) a 70 minute drama activity for Grades 5-6.

How the package addresses areas of the curriculum (Science) is outlined in the table

that follows.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

5

Year Level Aspect of Wood Smoke Education Program Australian Curriculum Code – Science (as at 2016)

Foundation

The way that air moves and the way that weather affects what is in the air e.g. pollen, smoke, in turn, affects everyday life

The way particles move in the air/wind

Students use their sense of smell to identify things

Students respond to questions about what it is like when the air is smoky

Students share observations and ideas about how air moves

ACSSU004 ACSSU005 ACSHE013 ACSIS014 ACSIS012

Year 1 Observe wood-smoke in winter

Scientists monitor the air to care for environment

Students use digital moisture meter for wood

ACSSU019 ACSHE022 ACSIS026

Year 2 Scientists monitor the air/care for environment

Students are asked to make predictions about events e.g. adding oxygen to a fire

Use digital moisture meter to assess wood moisture

ACSHE035 ACSIS037 ACSIS039

Year 3 Scientists learn about the connection between human health and wood smoke

Scientists monitor the air/care for environment

Use digital moisture meter to assess wood moisture

ACSHE050 ACSHE051 ACSIS055

Year 4 Scientists have worked out the connection between human health and wood smoke, so we can change our actions to have an impact on that

Students use digital moisture meter for wood

ACSHE062 ACSIS066

Year 5 Scientists use technology to assess smoke levels

Scientific knowledge is used to inform personal and community decisions

Students use drama/make posters to communicate ideas*

ACSHE081 ACSHE083 ACSIS093

Year 6 Scientists gather data, using evidence to explain the correlations between wood smoke and human health impacts

Scientific knowledge about the impacts of wood smoke on health are used to inform personal and community decisions

Students use a digital moisture meter to compare two samples of wood

Students use drama/make posters to communicate ideas*

ACSHE098 ACSHE100 ACSIS107 ACSIS110

* Indicates where the drama activity for Grades 5-6 has been pursued.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

6

Activity 1: Guided lesson adaptable for Grades 1–6

This lesson includes suggested teacher scripts with prompting questions (marked as “Q.”) and recommended answers (marked as “A.” in italics), and mini science experiments. You will need: a small glass, a large glass (large enough to fit the small glass inside it), a wine cork, water, a tray, 6 blindfolds, 5 smelly substances and 1 inert material hidden in a box (e.g. smelly vegemite jar or toast, cut onion, half an orange, gum leaves to be crushed, desiccated coconut, smelly sock and one item not smelly e.g. a piece of chalk), perfume in a squirt bottle, 1 piece of unseasoned wood, 1 piece of seasoned wood the same size as the unseasoned, a moisture meter or scales to weigh wood, a thick straw and a thin straw, a large bowl, a big jar (e.g. 2 litre), a flexible pipe, water. Suggested teacher script: Today we are going to talk about air, how it travels around us, and what happens when air gets polluted with smoke from home wood heaters. Q. What is air? Can you see it, taste it, smell it? A. (Usually not, sometimes) Can I have a volunteer to blow up a balloon, and tie a knot at the bottom? Q. What changes have occurred to the balloon? A. (Increase size, walls rigid, misty inside) Q. What has caused this? A. (Air from our lungs) Q. Describe the air. A. (It has no colour, it is lightweight) Q. Why are the walls misty? A. (Water from our breath) Suggested teacher script: Air is all around us isn’t it? But usually we cannot smell or taste it …but it does take up space. I will show you an experiment with a large glass, a small glass, a cork and some water. Method: On the tray, half fill the large glass with water, float the cork on top of the water, invert small glass on top of the water, push down.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

7

Suggested teacher script: Q. Can anyone see what has occurred? A. (The air pushes the water outside the small glass, so the air can push the water out of the way – the air takes up space) Now we might add something to the air, and see if we can detect what we add to the air. Method: Ask for 6 volunteers from the class. Provide them each with a blindfold. One at a time, blindfold each child then give each of them one item from the box to smell and identify, while blindfolded. Ensure the rest of the class keeps quiet. If you didn’t want to bring in a dirty sock, bring a clean one in but just pretend you are going to use it! Suggested teacher script: Q. Which ones were the easiest to smell? A. (Chalk is the least smelly) Q. How did the particles of ‘smell’ get to our noses? A. (Through the air) You can see that we can add things to the air. The small, invisible particles that make up the smell move in a process called ‘diffusion’. As they reach us, the smells are detected by special cells in our nose. It is like when we smell the sausages cooking when your next door neighbour has a barbeque! The particles are invisible, but moving. I have another diffusion experiment. Method: Ask for 5 more volunteers - stand them in a line, one behind the other, facing away from the class, with person #1 being furthest from the class and person #5 being closest. Tell the volunteers to put their hand up as soon as they smell something new. Do not tell them what they should smell. Then squirt perfume in the volunteers’ direction, about 2 metres away from the closest person (#5). Ask the class how the result came about. (Normally the closest person to the perfume smells it first, but not always!) Suggested teacher script: Q. Why did the furthest people in the line detect it last? A. (The molecules dissipated) Q. What if I had a fan going, and directed the perfumed air away, in the opposite direction to our volunteers – would these volunteers still smell it? A. (Probably not) Sometimes, we can smell things in the air which are natural, like pollen or dust, but sometimes things in the air are the result of human activity, and can be harmful. They might affect our health and comfort – they are known as POLLUTANTS.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

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Q. Can anyone think of a pollutant in the air, made by humans? A. (Car fumes, pollution from factories) You might say that wood smoke is a natural component of our air, but in the concentrations that it occurs in cities and some towns, it can cause health problems, especially in the very young, the elderly or people with heart and lung disease. Scientists have discovered a very strong link between the number of people admitted to the emergency department at hospitals and high levels of wood smoke from wood heaters, and there are many towns and cities in Tasmania, including Launceston, Hadspen, Longford, New Norfolk and Geeveston, which have very high levels of wood particulates. (There is a national standard for air particles, measured over a 24 hour period. Longford, for example, exceeded this standard 45 days in the winter of 2013, and Launceston 14 days). Does anyone in this class, or anyone you know, have asthma? How does it FEEL/what happens to your body/breathing? Do you know what triggers it? Some people’s asthma is triggered by things such as dust mites, but aggravated by wood smoke – and sometimes people have to go to hospital because of it. Some people can’t go outside on smoky days. Sometimes we are lucky enough not to be in the path of pollutants, because the wind disperses them, but often, being in the path of pollutants is unavoidable, due to weather conditions and even the topography of the land in our towns and cities. Does anyone live in a valley and the smoke hangs around all day? Obviously this would make it worse for some people. Scientists have figured out that some of the particles from wood heaters that aren’t used properly are worse than those from forest burn-offs. So although the forest burn-offs make a lot of smoke, they are only on a limited number of days per year, and wood smoke from home heaters is a different type of smoke, and can go on all winter – even from May to September. Q. Does anyone have a wood heater at home? Did you know that a well operated wood heater can produce a lot less smoke than one used not so well? A: (Yes) Method Show a picture of a smoky chimney vs. not smoky (e.g. see below)

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

9

Suggested teacher script: Q. Do you know how to use a wood heater so you get very little smoke? A: (See below – 4 steps to building a good fire) There are 4 steps to building a good fire that is not too smoky.

1) Use dry wood (Ask for a volunteer to compare a heavy wet wood sample

with dry sample of the same size)

Q. What do we extinguish a fire with – for example, when camping A. (Water) Q. Does anyone know what happens when we try to burn wet wood? A. (It is hard to burn, very smoky) Suggested teacher script: People should try to buy dry wood (seasoned) – freshly cut wood from a living tree is about half water. Wood should contain less than 20% water if it is to be burnt. Let’s do an experiment. Method: If you have a moisture meter e.g. from a hardware store, compare the moisture content of the dry/seasoned wood sample vs. the wet/unseasoned wood sample, using the moisture meter, (or you could use scales to weigh the two pieces of wood) – show the students the digital readouts (%water/weights) from both wood samples.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

10

Suggested teacher script: Q. How do we dry our wood? A. (Airy woodshed, gaps between logs, covered on top) 2) Build the fire well

Suggested teacher script: Q Does anyone know how to build a fire? A. (We need AIR and an ignition source, such as a box of matches, a lighter,

friction, or something already burning. We need leaves or paper, small sticks, bigger sticks, logs, air between logs, about 2 cm gap)

Q. Does anyone know what would happen if we had a fire, then we put paper

on, and then giant logs? A. (It wouldn’t work – smoky) 3) Open the air vent for 20 minutes:

Suggested teacher script: After the fire is lit, when we want to put a new log on, have the air vent/little opening on HIGH for 20 minutes, so the wood burns very well before we shut it down ─ this will reduce the smoke by HALF! Q. Why? A. (Wood burns very well in contact with more air, not so well if we allow less

air in. Burning well will burn off some of the unhealthy gases and particles) 4) Have the flue cleaned

Suggested teacher script: Q. What is a flue? What is it for? A. (The pipe that comes from the heater, through the roof. The flue vents the

gases from a fire but it also allows fresh air to enter it, which aids in providing air to a fire)

Q. Why clean the inside of the flue? A. (To clean out sooty creosote, to allow air in and out of the heater). Sometimes a householder can elongate their flue and that means less smoke for neighbours. Suggested teacher script: I have another experiment! Method: Seek a volunteer – to suck air through a thick straw, then a thin straw. Ask the volunteer which straw was the easiest to breathe through. Suggested teacher script: So, the air needed for the fire cannot be drawn in to the heater through a thin pipe as easy as it can through a thick pipe. A heater will work well if the flue is not clogged with an inner layer of creosote.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

11

A wood heater will be smoky when we first light it, or when we put new wood on it, but not for more than 5 to 10 minutes. If we make a lot of smoke over a long period of time, then our neighbours may be affected. Method: Show the picture below.

Image courtesy of Department of Environmental Protection (WA) Suggested teacher script: What is happening in the picture? Does the lady look pleased that her washing will be affected by someone’s smoky wood heater? What is the dog doing? Q. Imagine if you opened your window for fresh air, and your neighbour had a smoky chimney. How would that feel? A. (Bad if it made you feel sick, it’s not fair)

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

12

Suggested teacher script: To get an idea of how wood smoke may affect us, let’s do a lung capacity test to get an idea of how much air we breathe every day. Method: you will need the large bowl, big jar e.g. a 2 litre filled with water, a flexible pipe, water. Nearly fill the bowl with water, invert the jar into bowl of water, trying not to spill much water from the jar. Feed the pipe through the water into upturned jar to above the water surface, take a breath, blow into pipe. Ask the children what they noticed. Conclude that the water displaced, now as air in the jar, is one lungful. Suggested teacher script: Q. How many breaths do we take per minute/per hour/per day? A. (Children could time themselves – the number of breaths per minute. Children

breathe about 18-30 breaths per minute, when playing – calculate per hour/day) So, if we are breathing polluted air, even though the pollution is tiny, we breathe a lot, so some of that could enter our lungs. Therefore if we run our wood heaters well, we might breathe less smoke particles. When you are inside, you might not notice the smoke from your own wood heater…go out and have a look sometime. If you see a persistently smoky chimney you can tell your parents and they might contact the local council or the EPA Division and they can provide helpful information to the person with the smoky chimney. The person might not need a new heater, they might just need to learn what you have learnt today, or get a taller flue so that neighbours aren’t smoked out! Generally, using a wood heater well can reduce the emission of particles into the air.

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AIR QUALITY/ WOOD SMOKE TEACHING UNIT - PRIMARY

Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

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Activity 2: Drama Activity “Big Smoke, Little Smoke -

Reducing our domestic smoke-print” Background: This is a drama activity for Grades 5-6 introducing the topic of the problem of domestic wood smoke in society. For this activity, a hall (or classroom with desks placed to the side of the room) is required. Two adults are required: for the purpose of this activity, they will be denoted as Adult 1 and Adult 2. Some props are required: poster paper and textas, dressing gown, slippers, toy cat, chair, magnifying glass, safari/park ranger outfit, a thick straw and a thin straw. Adult 1 script: Hi. Today we are going to do some drama, around the topic of smoke from household wood heaters. There are a couple of rules: when we do drama, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – we can laugh at funny things, but not at another person’s expense. And…everyone has the right to be heard…is that OK?(Yes) Adult 2 reads aloud “The Story of Lady Big Smoke”, (Adult 1 quickly dresses up in

slippers and dressing gown and acts this role, starting in the chair, with the toy cat,

then simultaneously acts the story)

The Story of Lady Big Smoke Once there was a lady, not particularly tall, not particularly short, who lived in a house that was not particularly big, not particularly small. She lived by herself, with no partner and no children, just an easy-to-pat cat. And, this was just the way she liked it. Besides, she always had lots to do in the evenings after a long day at work … First she had to burn her day’s rubbish in her backyard in her incinerator – she didn’t believe in garbage collection, or saving it for a fortnightly trip to the rubbish tip. Secondly, she would chop (or chainsaw) some wood and wheelbarrow it into the house using her squeaky wheeled wheelbarrow. Then she would go inside. Her lovely house to herself, locked away from the world outside, she would move from room to room, opening all the doors inside the house, lighting her woodstove and her wood heater so that all the rooms were warm. Even in summer, she liked the comfort of having her wood stove and her wood heater going… Every night, she would struggle a bit to light her stove and her heater – the wood she had quickly thrown in in the morning had smouldered all day and not burnt well. But eventually she would battle with her wet wood and get things going. Sometimes she would get some glossy magazines (and even plastic!) to get the fire going. She thought her flue needed cleaning but she didn’t have anyone to help her clean it. She would cook a delicious roast beef in the kitchen, followed by a baked pudding. She would eat dinner in the warm lounge, (it even got a bit too hot sometimes), chuck

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Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

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a few more logs on the two fires and fall asleep in her chair with her pet cat on her lap. Her nights always happened this way, but little did she realize, she wasn’t alone. Next door, exactly the same thing was happening (well, almost – the neighbour had a dog, but you get the idea). Her seemingly small actions were being repeated by lots of others in her street, in her neighbourhood, in her city, in her state… Now, on one particular night, she was feeling a bit out of sorts, so she kept the television on for company. After eating the best roast beef ever and a chocolate self-saucing pudding, she snuggled down and caught the last few moments of her favourite dance show. She had always wanted to be a dancer. The newsreader cut through her thoughts and began to speak strangely of “smokeprints”…the last word she heard as she fell into a deep and heavy sleep. Adult 1 takes off costume. Adult 1 script: Q. Can anyone tell me what is air pollution? A. (Brainstorm, then define: sometimes, things are added to the air which are natural, but sometimes they are the result of human activity and can be harmful. They might affect our health and comfort – they are known as POLLUTANTS). Q. Can anyone think of a pollutant in the air made by humans? A. (Car fumes, pollution from factories) You might say that wood smoke is a natural component of our air, but in the concentrations that it occurs in cities and some towns, it can cause health problems, especially in the very young, the elderly or people with heart and lung disease. Does anyone here, or anyone you know, have asthma? Do you know what triggers it? Some people’s asthma is triggered by wood smoke – and sometimes people have to go to hospital because of it. Some people can’t go outside on a smoky day, or they even have to move house.

Q. Do you notice that if there is low cloud sometimes, the wood smoke problem is worse?

A. (Yes) Q. What might happen on a windy day? A. (On a windy day, the smoke is dispersed: it blows away)

Adult 2 script: Does anyone have a wood heater at home? Do you know how to use it so you get very little smoke? (Get the children to brainstorm) Here are some tips for producing minimal smoke from a wood heater:

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Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

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Adult 2 script:

1) Use dry wood –

People should try to buy/source dry wood, or let it dry for about a year (so it is seasoned) – freshly cut wood from a living tree is about half water, wood should contain less than 20% water if it is to be burnt. Q. What do we put a fire out with – say when camping A. (Water) Q. Does anyone know what happens when we try to burn wet wood? A. (Hard to burn, smoky) Q. How do we dry our wood? A. (Airy woodshed, gaps between logs, covered on top)

2) Burn on high for 20 minutes

When we use the wood heater, we should put the wood in and have the air vent/little opening on HIGH for 20 minutes, so the wood burns very well before we shut it down – this will reduce the smoke by HALF!

Q. Why? A. (Wood burns very well in contact with more air)

3) Build the fire well

When we build a fire in a wood heater we should scrunch up some newspaper then place small sticks on the newspaper. We should place bigger sticks on top of the small sticks. When the fire is going, we should place logs on top. We have to make sure there is plenty of air between the logs. Q. Does anyone know what would happen if we had a fire, we put paper on then

small sticks then giant logs? A. It wouldn’t work – smoky. Also, need to have air between logs, about 2cm

gap – burn brighter!)

4. Clean the flue It is important that the flue of the wood heater is clean so that the smoke can escape and air can come down and help the fire burn. Q. Does everyone know what a flue is? A. (It is the pipe that comes from the heater up to the outside of the house:

imagine it is how the wood heater breathes) Let’s do an experiment:

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EPA Division

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Method: Ask a student to suck air through a thick straw, then a thin straw – which is easiest to breathe through? Why? Now pretend the straw is a flue. Q. Why do we clean the flue? A. (The air needed for the fire cannot be drawn in to the stove through a thin hole

as easy as it can through a thick hole. Air is required for the proper combustion of the wood).

Adult 1 script: For the purpose of this activity, we have made up a term - ‘domestic smokeprint’ – the smoke from each household. Let’s think about what this might mean. We will consider Lady Big Smoke from our story (Brainstorm a list of actions that contributed to her ‘smokeprint’) Q. What does a domestic smokeprint SOUND like – from the Lady Big Smoke

Story? A. (Split the class into 5 groups and give each group a sound to make e.g.

chopping/chainsawing wood, wheeling the squeaky wheelbarrow in, struggling to light the stove, enjoying her dinner, being the TV presenter talking about Big Smoke) – each group develops this ‘soundbyte’ over 1 minute, then gets a chance, one group at a time, to act this out (20 seconds each)

Q. So, do we know what a Domestic Smokeprint looks and sounds like? A. (Considering what we have learnt above and by doing our soundscape –

children should say yes) I would like to introduce (Adult 2 in role as) Tracey the “Smokeprint Trackologist”. (Adult 2 puts on safari/park ranger outfit and uses magnifying glass to look around the floor and the room inquisitively, like an obsessive naturalist). Q. What do you think a smokeprint trackologist does? Why would she want to talk

to us? A. (To work out how the air becomes smoky) Adult 1 script: It looks like she needs help to understand how a large smokeprint comes about. I reckon she could find smoke, just by looking, but she needs to figure out how it comes about. We need to help her. I would like each group to develop a poster. I will give you the topic of the poster and on the LEFT HAND SIDE I would like you to draw what has been given as your topic – draw on the left hand side only. You have 5 minutes, as a group, to do this… The topics are: Group 1. Trying to light a fire using wet wood

Group 2. Blocking off air intake and not waiting 20 mins

Group 3. Building fire poorly

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Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment

EPA Division

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Group 4. Struggling with having a blocked flue

Group 5. Using rubbish to start the fire, affecting the neighbours

Adult 1 script: I want you to devise a ‘freeze frame’ using the topic of your poster (you can show your poster at the same time) to show the trackologist a range of human activities that contribute to Big Smoke. You have 3 minutes to develop this (20 second) freeze frame. Everyone should be engaged in this role – use your bodies if you have to. Use the same groups as we had for the sound-scape. Present the freeze frames to the class, one at a time (Adult 2, in role, could tap people on the shoulder in each group and get them to help her, using words, understand each freeze frame). You can use your poster to aid your presentation. Adult 1 script: So, Tracey understands that to track wood smoke, one must pay attention to the actions of humans as they go about their everyday lives. If there is a Big Smoke, maybe there is a Little Smoke? I would like you to take your poster and draw on the RIGHT HAND SIDE of your poster: change it into a positive – how to make Little Smoke. Correct each title to make a positive title, opposite to the negative title on the left e.g. starting a fire using dry wood. Adult 2 script (dressed as Tracey) says: Now I know how to track a Big Smoker – and I know a lady with an easy-to-pat cat, and she needs help with her smokeprint. (Adult 2 takes off Tracey outfit) Adult 1 gets back into character and puts on the clothes to be Lady Big Smoke, hugging her cat Adult 1 wakes up from her chair. Adult 1 script: Oh! I had a terrible dream—the world was full of smoke—and there was somebody calling me Big Smok...Oh! (to children) Can you help me – I think you could help me interpret that dream… Adult 2 script: Big Smoke needs help to understand that she can reduce her smokeprint by changing her everyday actions. She needs help to become a “Little Smoke” Can you help by devising action frames? In your same groups, I would like you to create action frames (dramas) of an everyday action as an opposite to the action you presented to Tracey, like you have drawn on your poster...I’ll give you a hint; show Big Smoke how she can become Little Smoke (If she doesn’t understand what you are doing, she might tap you on the shoulder) – You have 2 minutes to devise the 20 second action frames, then present it to the class. Is that clear – any questions? Adult 1 (as Big Smoke) observes everyone’s actions.

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Adult 1 script: Oh! I know how to be a Little Smoke now! Thankyou! (Adult 1 removes costume) Adult 2 script: It is one month later and the Smokeprint Trackologist has sent the students an email. Adult 2 reads the email from the trackologist to the students. Email from the Smokeprint Trackologist… Dear Children, You are truly remarkable! Thank you for helping Big Smoke to see that her smokeprint was big and what she could do to reduce it. Good news! Big Smoke is no longer calling herself Big Smoke. She goes by the name Little Smoke and is reducing the amount of wood smoke she produces by making different choices in her everyday life. Well done for helping her! But this is only the beginning of your work. What will you do to reduce your smokeprint? Are you a Big Smoke or a Little Smoke? Regards, Smokeprint Trackologist Either Adult: hosts Reflective Discussion: (15 mins):

Did you have fun with our story today?

Do you think people like Lady Big Smoke really exist?

Can you imagine living next door to this person?

How did it feel to help her?

Why do people act in this way, and make smoke?

Can you think about one thing you will do to help your parents

understand what you have learnt today?

Is it OK to continue our everyday actions, knowing that they may impact

others – like, people who live next door?

What new things did you learn/what will you take away?

Does anyone have any questions?

Running Sheet (number designated is # of minutes for each activity) intro (1), story (3), air pollution (5), using heater well (8), sound byte (5), introduce tracey(1), poster (8), develop action frames(3), present frames (5), more poster development (8), talk (1), develop action frames (2), present action frames (3), read email (1), reflect (15) Total time = approx. 69 minutes

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Acknowledgements This activity was adapted from a drama activity on carbon footprint devised by the Pullenvale Environment Centre, presented at the World Environmental Education Congress, Brisbane 2011. References Johnson, F.H. (2013) Evaluation of interventions to reduce air pollution from biomass smoke on mortality in Launceston: retrospective analysis of daily mortality 1994-2007 (accessed May 2016). BMJ 2013: 346:e8446. Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8446 Ling (2004) Targeted Education of Woodheater Users in Launceston, Article in Environmental Health: The Journal of the Australian Institute of Environmental Health, Vol. 4 No.4 2004, pp 59-63. Resources Anderton and Robertson (2000) “Who Cares About Our Air? A Workbook on Air Pollution For Primary Schools” Department of Environmental Protection, Western Australia ISBN 0 7307 66217 Air Quality in Tasmania – An Educational Resource http://air.tweezy.net/ Burn Brighter this Winter DVD – available by visiting www.epa.tas.gov.au

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