In the Media
Sustainability and Climate change
- 2022: Building Teen Empowerment through a Clean Air Contest: Implications for Designing Educational Outreach
Drawing on semi-structured interviews with nine contestants and their parents/guardians (n=19), this study investigates 1.) teens' perceptions and experience with the contest and how its design and implementation contribute to their understanding of Utah's air pollution and motivations to adopt clean air actions; and 2.) what aspects of the contest trigger teen engagement with their parents/guardians about air pollution. Findings illuminate how contests may be designed to motivate adolescents to adopt more sustainable behaviors and become persuasive environmental change agents within their families.
Sustainability: The Journal of Record
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2018: The Inconvenient Youth Revisited: Teens, Parents, and Clean Air Conversations and Action
How influential are teens in prompting clean air actions among their parents? What factors improve effectiveness of teen communication? To answer these questions, the authors surveyed both teen participants and their parents in the 2018 iteration of an annual high school clean air poster contest. Seventy‐one percent of parents (N=114) reported that their teens talked to them about air pollution as a consequence of the poster contest, and teens who discussed specific actions for preserving air quality had the most influence on changing parent behaviors. Interestingly, only a few parents described their teens’ social influence as pestering or annoying. Rather, most parents reported that their teens simply initiated a reasoned conversation about local air pollution and solutions, and some even welcomed it! This article discusses the implications of these findings and future research directions about understanding how adolescents may become persuasive change agents through their proactive knowledge dissemination. -
2017: The Inconvenient Youth: Exploring How High School Teens Voluntarily Influence (Pester?) Others on Confronting Air Pollution via a Clean Air Poster Contest
This article provides an overview of the literature on children’s influence on others in marketing and social settings and a review of our past clean‐air poster contests that were piloted on smaller scales. Details about the launch and outcomes of the expanded 2017 Utah High School Clean Air Poster contest as the context for educating teens about air pollution and clean air actions are discussed, along with the results of a voluntary post‐contest survey of contestants’ self‐reported direct impacts and their social influence on others. We investigated both the contestants’ self‐reported direct personal behavioral impacts and their unprompted behavioral influence on others in what was termed the “Inconvenient Youth” effect because adults often feel uncomfortable having youth instruct them about pro‐social behaviors. Parents, in particular, feel obliged to comply in order to maintain their children’s respect. Approximately two‐thirds of surveyed contestants reported engaging others, primarily parents and siblings, about clean air actions. Only 43 percent believed, however, that they had actually changed others’ behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the study and future research directions to help guide others crafting their own school‐based environmental education initiatives.
Solutions Journal
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2016: ‘My mom idles less than your mom!’Empowering High School Teens to Tackle Air Pollution
In Brief, from the original contest: As part of a broader University-community engagement initiative addressing sustainability issues, professors at Utah State University joined forces with Logan City to help improve air quality via a high school clean air poster contest. Contest goals were to: 1) inform students about local air quality problems and driving behaviors that can lessen their personal impact (e.g., carpooling, refraining from idling, taking the bus); and 2) create educational outreach materials for their peers and broader community. Over 100 high school students were mentored in green messaging and graphic design by University students and faculty, resulting in over 75 poster entries. Many posters were creative, funny, and edgy, and tapped into teen pop culture, entertainment, and values. Finally, 14 winning posters were selected for community outreach, each receiving a prize from a local business, with the best overall poster receiving a grand prize from Logan City. Self-reported measures indicated that the contest increased student awareness about local air pollution, as well as increasing their willingness to change their behavior to protect air quality.
AccuWeather
AirQualityNews.com
bnn: The People's Network
Cache Valley Daily
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2024: Ridgeline high school student wins Clean Air Contest for a third consecutive time.
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2024: Clean Air Marketing Contest winners to be revealed at USU’s Community Art Day
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2015: Winners of Clean Air Poster Contest Announced at Logan High
Cottonwood Heights Journal
Deseret News
Environmental News Bits
ETV News
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2024: Carbon high school student wins first place in clean air contest
- 2023: 2 Carbon High Students Win Clean Air Contest
Fast Company
Forbes
GreenBiz
Herald Journal News
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2024: Utah clean air marketing contest announces winners, including winner from Ridgeline
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2018: A new outlook: Air quality poster contest changing attitudes
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2017: Air Quality Evangelists: Clean Air Poster Contest Grows in Fourth Year
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2016: Anti-Idling Posters to Adorn Logan Businesses this Summer
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2016: LEAF Praises Effective Anti-Idling Messages Through Poster Contest
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2016: Reaching New Drivers: Logan High Club Seeks to Develop Air Quality Solution
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2015: Logan High Students Design Educational Posters for Clean Air Poster Contest
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2015: Clean Air Poster Contest Winners Recognized at Logan High
Huntsman News
KUER 90.1
KUTV
Moab Times Independent
North American Association for Environmental Education Blog
Price Sun Advocate
Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake’s City Weekly
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2018: Inconvenient Youth
San Juan Record
Skyword
SmartBrief News
Sustainability Times
Sustainable America Blog
The City Journals: West Valley City’s Own Community Newspaper
The Guardian
The Preston Citizen
Treehugger
Utah Business: Green Business Award
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2021: Meet the 2021 Green Business honorees
The Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest was awarded Utah Business’ Green Business Award in 2021. You can watch the accompanying YouTube video.
Utah Clean Cities Idle Free Blog
Utah Department of Environmental Quality Blog
Utah Public Radio
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2024: USU Extension education highlight: USU Clean Air Contest
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2023: Extension Education Highlight: Utah Clean Air Marketing Contest
Utah State Today
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2024: Utah high school clean air marketing contest winners to be announced at community art day
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2020: Utah clean air poster contest winners to be announced at Community Art Day
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2019: Contest Shows Teens are Wise to Air Quality Issues and are Talking About It
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2019: Winners of UT High School Clean Air Poster announced on Community Art Day
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2018: Huntsman contest for teens highlighted at Governor’s idle free event
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2018: “Utah Air Quality” is the theme of NEHMA’s February 17 “Family Art Day”
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2017: “Utah Air Quality” is the theme of NEHMA’s “Family Art Day”
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2016: NEHMA Launches Family Art Days at the Cache Gardener’s Market