Mr. Ruktanonchai,
Our group got 0.14 pounds of carbon dioxide through a series of formulas. These formulas came from a source we found reliable with our science teacher online. 0.14 is an average, but yes, one unwanted variable was that cars can change in the amount of emission depending on its type. It would be near impossible to take data on every single type of car there and find the average, and this is why we turned up with the average of car types, 0.14 pounds of carbon dioxide. This amount is also similar to a Honda Accord.
Thank you.

Mr. Stavisky,
People typically don’t turn off their cars because they are under the false idea that cars use more energy to turn on rather than to be left on. This project was to raise awareness about the harmful effects of carbon dioxide on the environment, we believe that by just informing people we are educating them and encouraging them to not idle. We cleared up false facts in our project such as the one about how turning a car on will use more gasoline than to leave it on for 10 seconds. The easiest solution to drop offs and pick ups at schools would be for parents to simply park in the parking lot or around the school and then have their kids walk to the school.
Thank you!

Actually my dad had already been turning off his car engine before we ran this experiment. Even when we were waiting at a stoplight for a long time, he would turn off his engine. Now that we have done our experiment and proven the effects, our parents have all become more aware of what they are doing and began turning off their engines in these situations.
In fact, there is also another benefit other than helping your environment. Over time, people have been taught to believe that restarting your car is hard on the engine and battery when it is really the opposite. When idling your car, it puts the engine in a state it wasn’t meant for, using the energy inefficiently. What we are saying is that turning off your engine when necessary not only benefits the environment but also your car. So why not?It’s a win win for everyone!

Thanks for the question Ms. Skog! The shortest time of idling was 10 seconds, and the longest time was 2 minutes and 33 seconds. Cars that idled longer usually had more kids to drop off, because it took more time to drop off each child. There also was many other factors that led to more idling, such as younger children in the cars that idled the longest. Young children sometimes needed their parent/guardian to help them out of the car.

We chose just to focus on school drop offs in this experiment, but there are always other places to implement this idea. The gas station, stop lights, and fast food drive-throughs are also simple, every day places where turning off your car can help. And just imagine, if turning off your engine at schools already had such a large effect, if we also did in other situations, the effect on the environment would be drastic!

I agree there are many locations where this idea could work. I still don’t understand how you plan on promoting this. Will you place signs that remind people to turn off their engines, or perhaps create an informative commercial?