COUNTYWIDE : Anti-Pollution Program Honored

A consortium of 13 public and private groups has been lauded for a school curriculum program it developed and distributed for most of Ventura County’s younger schoolchildren.

The Think Earth program received a Clean Air Award from the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar earlier this month in honor of the its partnership of private corporations and public agencies that developed the environmental education packages.

The program teaches children in kindergarten through third grade how to be responsible for the quality of air, water, land and other resources.

The packages were distributed last year to schools on a first-come, first-served basis, said Barbara Page, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, one of the consortium’s members.

Of the county’s 170 elementary schools, 126 schools signed up, Page said.

The package was also distributed to 1,800 schools elsewhere in Southern California, where 500,000 children learned how to minimize pollution.

The consortium paid $325,000 to develop the educational tool, which includes an animated video, a teacher’s guide, student exercises, full-color posters, illustrated story cards and tests, Page said.

The consortium also paid for the costs of distributing the materials to participating schools.

Next fall, a more sophisticated package will be used in grades four through six, and a bilingual version will be introduced later, Page said.