Examples of Feature Story Leads

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/climate-in-classrooms/

There’s much to explore about the challenges in teaching about the evolving relationship between people and their climate.  This subject was once pretty straightforward. After all, it was a relationship that was largely a one-way phenomenon. Climate changed. People adapted or moved.


http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/whats-a-science-teacher-to-do/

It used to be sex ed that got science teachers into challenging situations once in awhile. Evolution, too, of course. Increasingly, the “C” word, climate, is creating challenges for educators trying to explore the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide and the implications for climate as concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases rise.


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/the-class-isnt-always-greener-but-it-could-be/

School design, particularly public school design, is often lumped in with the design of other institutional structures like jails, civic centers and hospitals, to detrimental effect. My high school, for example, had the dubious distinction of having been designed by the architect responsible for San Quentin. (The convicts got the better building.) Schools fulfill a practical function, to be sure, but shouldn’t they be designed to inspire?


http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/10/17/elevated-indoor-carbon-dioxide-impairs-decision-making-performance/#hide

Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density.


http://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/4108562-co2-in-the-classroom

If you are a parent, do you think about the air quality in your child’s classroom? You should. Every classroom requires a constant flow of fresh, conditioned air to make it comfortable for students. In the past, this was not a problem. Pre-WWII school buildings “leaked” fresh air into the building around windows and through open doors.


http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345791/description/Elevated_carbon_dioxide_may_impair_reasoning

Carbon dioxide has been vilified for decades as a driver of global warming. A new study finds signs that CO2, exhaled in every breath, can exert an equally worrisome threat — impaired cognition — in nearly every energy-efficient classroom, meeting hall or office space.


http://vaeng.com/feature/new-device-monitors-schoolroom-air-for-carbon-dioxide-levels

With nearly 55 million students, teachers and school staff about to return to elementary and secondary school classrooms, scientists recently described a new hand-held sensor, practical enough for wide use, that could keep classroom air fresher and kids more alert for learning.