EEA RESOURCES
Teaching Environmental Problem-Solving

Why Teach Environmental Problem-Solving?

All people need clean air, water, and land so they can lead healthy lives. And everyone deserves protection from environmental and health hazards, as well as meaningful involvement in the decision-making process about environmental regulations, policy, and laws. Whether you identify as an environmental educator, classroom teacher, naturalist, professor, ranger, parent, or student, environmental problem-solving is relevant to your life. This interdisciplinary topic includes elements of social studies, government, math, and science. 

To help students develop the capacity to analyze environmental issues in the context of problem-solving, it may be useful to engage them in collecting and analyzing data, recognizing patterns, distinguishing between cause and effect, and 

National Science Teaching Association 
Statement on the importance of teaching science without bias

Causes and Effects of Environmental Impacts and Hazards to People

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National Geographic

Why are some communities more often exposed to devastating toxins than others? Criteria used for siting facilities such as waste dumps; lack of enforcement of environmental laws; and exclusion of some groups from decision-making processes are some of the factors described in this article by National Geographic. An email address must be entered to read the article.

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Essential Reading: 
 How Different Lived Experiences affected American Environmentalism 
Author:  Dorceta E. Taylor
Source: US Department of Agriculture 
Middle or high school

Lessons for Investigating Environmental Impacts

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Impacts of Pollution on Poor Communities
Topic: Investigating impacts of living near chemical releases and hazardous waste dumps
Source: Learning for Justice / Harvard LabXchange
Middle or high school

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Poverty and Natural Disasters: Exploring the Connection
​Topic: Exploring communities that are most likely to be affected by natural disasters
Source: Learning for Justice / Harvard LabXchange
Middle or high school

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Food Deserts: Causes, Consequences and Solutions
​​Topic: Examining the health impacts of having limited access to fresh food and produce
Source: Harvard LabXchange 
Middle or high school

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Project S.O.W: Gardening with Resilience in Mind 
Topic: Gardening with community, gratitude, curiosity, and resilience: how to increase food security
Source: Cornell University
Middle or high school
Curriculum: Seeds of Wonder

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Paying with their Health: the Plight of Workers
Topic: Exploring health and working conditions through a series of lessons and case studies
Source: Harvard LabXchange
Middle or high school

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Environmental Impacts of an Oil Spill and its Clean-Up  
Topic:  Analyzing disproportionate impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill on poor communities on the coast
Source:  Harvard LabXchange
Middle or high school

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Zip Codes and Pollution Burdens 
Topic: Investigating the correlation between specific places and exposure to pollution
​Source: Science Friday / Harvard LabXchange
Middle or high school

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University of Michigan case studies on environmental impacts and hazards
    o "Emelle, Alabama: Home of the World's Largest Hazardous Waste Landfill"
    o "Maquiladora Workers"
    o "Dearborn, Michigan and Industrial Air Pollution"
    o "The Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Depository and the Shoshone"

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EWG - Mapping PFAs: an Interactive Map

​Topic: Finding locations of chemicals that can contaminate drinking water
Source: Environmental Working Group
​High school

4 Case Studies of the Impacts of Pollution 
Click the images below to learn about each of these cases
 -  Guidance from Science Outside on How to Use Case Studies
 -  Guidance from U of Illinois on The Case Method

Air Pollution:  People of color are exposed to more air pollution, in part due to the proximity of low income neighborhoods to industrial areas. However, the phenomenon of greater exposure to pollutants holds for some races across all income levels, making race a more reliable indicator of pollution exposure than income. (New York Times article linked above)

Redlining and the Urban Heat Island Effect: Housing loan policies once limited where people of certain could live (a practice known as redlining) and still affects those neighborhoods through the legacy effects of urban heat islands caused - in part - by lack of shade trees. (New York Times article linked above)

Shingle Mountain: From coal ash to mine tailings to asphalt shingles, poor communities often become dump sites for toxic waste created elsewhere and hauled into their neighborhoods for disposal. Investigate how this happens.  (ProPublica article linked above)

Environmental Impacts: Most Americans realize that black and brown people suffer the most harmful effects of pollution, but they attribute it to poverty or personal choices. Few know that race is the most reliable predictor of environmental health burdens. (Scientific American article linked above)

Tools for Investigating Environmental Problems by Location 

1.  The Mapping Inequality Project: Redlining in New Deal America provides access to the actual maps and underwriting guidelines that were used by the federal government to limit where federally-backed mortgage loans could be used to buy houses, starting in the 1930s. The maps and loan guidelines excluded industrial areas and neighborhoods where "infiltration of inharmonious racial groups ... tend to lower the levels of land values and to lessen the desirability of residential areas." Although discriminatory lending guidelines are no longer in use, areas that were "redlined" decades ago still have more pavement, fewer trees, and hotter temperatures than other neighborhoods. These "urban heat islands" contribute to adverse health impacts for current residents. 

​2.  The Public Environmental Data Project provides a tool that can be used to overlay maps showing income, proximity to industrialized areas, location of hazardous waste disposal areas or chemical release sites, and other nearby sources of pollution. The maps can be used to identify patterns and inspire further research, but do not constitute an official risk assessment.
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3.  EPA's TRI Explorer offers a way to retrieve data from the EPA Toxics Release Inventory and sort it by facility, chemical, geographic area, or industry. This inventory was ordered by Congress to inform the public of their exposure to substances that cause environmental health problems.

​​4.  EPA's My Environment is a searchable database that enables users to find out about the quality of air, water, land, climate, energy and health associated with a particular location. Students can enter a zip code, city name, community, or park to learn about environmental quality in the vicinity.

5.  Community "Right-to-Know" Act:  Information about toxic chemical releases must be provided to the people who live nearby. Find out more by watching the video below.

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