Keeping Air Clean

Keeping Air Clean Worksheet (Grade 6 Science, TEKS 6.11B)

Air is a resource everyone shares. This one-page sheet explains how burning fuels in cars, trucks, power plants, and factories pollutes the air, and how technology, efficiency, and conservation help. Real EPA data shows that U.S. emissions of six common pollutants dropped by 78% from 1970 to 2022 while the economy grew.

What's Inside

• A Big Question box: "How can we keep the air clean?"
• Three solution cards: technology, efficiency, and conservation
• A real data box on the Clean Air Act and EPA air trends
• Activity 1: Students sort six actions as C, E, or T
• Activity 2: Three circle-the-word sentences using the real data
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red

How Teachers Use It

Use it as practice for TEKS 6.11B. The sheet takes about 10 to 15 minutes, needs no prior knowledge beyond the 6.11A sheets, and prints clearly in black and white.

This worksheet is part of the Reading in Science series for grade 6. It supports TEKS 6.11B: explain how conservation, increased efficiency, and technology can help manage air, water, soil, and energy resources. It is one of eight connected TEKS 6.11B sheets that build on the 6.11A resource sheets. Every case study uses the same four questions: resource, human activity, impact, and solution. The unit big idea is that human activities can change how quickly resources are used, replaced, or depleted, and conservation, efficiency, and technology can help manage them.

Why It Works

Each sheet opens with a Big Question, teaches the key terms in plain words with simple black-and-white doodles, and then asks students to use only what the page taught. The same four-question chain repeats across the unit, so students build one way of thinking about any resource problem, and the visual answer key lets teachers check work fast.