Teaching young children about air pollution helps them appreciate the Earth.
Teaching young children about the causes of air pollution is an effective strategy to help them learn early about taking care of the planet and themselves. Preschool-age children are capable of understanding that they need to breathe to live. They are also able to understand that when they breathe in dirty air, they are more likely to get sick. Teaching about the things in the world that make air dirty is a good place to start to help young children think about air pollution.
Air Pollution and Poison
Young children understand the concept that poisons are bad or dangerous and can hurt them or make them very sick. This awareness can be built upon to teach young children that air pollution is like poison. Breathing polluted, bad or dirty air is like drinking or eating a poison because it can hurt them and make them sick.
Air Pollution in Homes
Children spend quite a large part of their days inside their homes with parents or caregivers. Air pollution inside the home is often less than outdoors, but it still exists. Fumes that come from fresh paints and burning fuels, like wood and natural gas for heat and cooking, can pollute the air inside the home. The most dangerous and frequent form of air pollution inside the home is cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke is dangerous for the person smoking and others in the room who breathe in the cigarette smoke.
Smog
When fog and smoke mix together, it is called smog. Smog is made up of a lot of poisons in the air. The most dangerous form of pollutants in the air come from the exhaust of vehicles that run on gasoline. Smog can be seen in the air, and if breathed it can cause itchy eyes, wheezing and coughing. Smog is most common in large cities where there is lots of manufacturing. Children can be taught that when the sky in their town looks brownish yellow or smoky, it might be a bad air day and they should talk to their parents about playing indoors.
Car Exhaust Pollution
Young children are excited to learn about different kinds of transportation such as cars, trucks, buses, trains and airplanes. Cognitively, they are able to think about how a car and a bicycle are alike and different or what makes a riding toy move or go and what makes a car move. When a child understands these differences, she is developmentally ready to understand that cars, buses and airplanes burn gasoline to run and that when something burns, it makes smoke. The smoke that is made when driving any vehicle creates air pollution.
