More than Christmas spirit in the air

November 24th, 2008 at 12:55pm Jennie Pollock

I wrote last month about a grass-roots effort under way to make Rockford a “No Idle Zone.” It will formally launch in February. The goal: To minimize the amount of unnecessary “idling” by cars and buses, making our air cleaner.

In the meantime, students at two schools are working on science experiments to learn about pollution up, close and personal.

On Nov. 10, nine Washington Academy students across third, fourth and fifth grades conducted a first experiment with a year-old bus. They put a clean white sock on a tailpipe of the running bus for five minutes, and it turned noticably gray. They also put Vaseline-coated note cards inside the bus, which collected little black particles.

Kim Woodin, the teacher in charge, called the results “pretty drastic.” At a No Idle meeting last week, she shared the kids’ reactions. “You realize it’s made an impression when you hear them say, ‘Eww, look at that!’ I knew there were going to be bad results, but this just blew my mind.”

Today, Spectrum School students are testing exhaust from a SUV and a Prius, since the private school doesn’t have buses but it does have parents who pick up and drop off their precious cargo.

Washington plans to run another experiment next week with an older bus, and the Register Star plans to come back around with a story.

The two schools are running these experiments with the hopes that other schools will follow their lead after they share the lesson plan.

Entry Filed under: No idle, Green campaigns