A lot of exciting things have happened at UCAIR since our April partners meeting. First, we are happy to announce that UCAIR officially has a new executive director, Kim Frost, and the 6th ShowUCAIR Annual Summit was held on May 12th. It was good to see some you in person. At the event we also had the UCAIR Awards, Person of the Year was DAQ’s own Bryce Bird. The Community Partner of the Year award went to Wasatch Front Regional Council and the Business of the Year was awarded to Rocky Mountain Power.
Introduction to New UCAIR Executive Director – Kim Frost, UCAIR
Hello and my name is Kim Frost. I’m really excited to be here. I became familiar with UCAIR when I was with the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), during UCAIR’s creation, so it’s exciting to reconnect in this new role within UCAIR. If anyone wants to connect or collaborate, please feel free to get in contact with me. I would love to hear from all of you.
K-12 Air Quality Curriculum – Dawn Monson, Breathe Utah
Breathe Utah has created professional, air quality, development kits offered to teachers. They provide credit points towards teacher’s licenses, substitute funding, and their curriculum must meet current science standards. The cost of training teachers in this area is about $1,000 per teacher. They way the lessons approach the science is by encouraging students to observe and then ask questions. Breathe educators provide interactive and demonstrative lessons. For example, when speaking about inversions there is an aquarium demonstration of inversion using food coloring and hot and cold water. These curriculums were thoughtfully developed using a pedagogy method with three concepts:
Core Ideas: Earth, science, etc.
Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns, cause and effect, etc.
Practices: Core science, engineering and education.
With those concepts in place, they designed the curriculum for each grade level. Each curriculum includes tailored lessons, PowerPoint presentations, 3D models, logos and agendas for lessons. These lessons were designed to cover different age groups, diverse cultural and economic backgrounds so that we are able to provide good education for everyone. Breathe Utah’s next training dates for educators will take place October 6th, 2021 and November 3rd, 2021.
Air Quality Update – Bryce Bird, Division of Air Quality
Last year was one of the best years ever for clean air. Higher than average clean days. In 2021 combined PM2.5 and Ozone levels are tracking at the higher end of the average right now, but we are still looking good. Traffic levels are trending the past 7 days at almost full volume (99%). Logan went from non-attainment status to attainment for PM2.5 last week.
Public Comment:
Guidance on the Preparation of Clean Air Act- Section 179B
Demonstrations for Nonattainment Areas Affected by International Transport of Emissions-Northern Wasatch Front, Changes are proposed for the following rules and plans. The official publication for announcing such changes is the Utah State Bulletin, published on the 1st and 15th of each month by the Division of Administrative Rules. The public is invited to comment on these via email to Liam Thrailkill or by standard mail to:
Public Comment
Division of Air Quality
PO Box 144820
Salt Lake City, UT 84114-4820
NEXT MEETING: June 11, 2021, 9:00-10:30 AM
