| Lab Name |
Weather, Climate, Earth and Human Activity, Atmospheric Activity and Pollution: Air Quality Data Experiment.
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| Subject Area |
Science
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| Grade |
9-12
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| Topic |
- Weather and Climate
- Earth and Human Activity
- Atmospheric Activity and Pollution
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| Experiment Title |
Measuring air quality using a Gravity Laser PM2.5 Air Quality Sensor for Arduino to determine if particulate matter plays a role in the formation of surface ozone or heat islands.
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| Hardware |
Raspberry Pi, Arduino Uno, Gravity Shield and sensors (6 setups for 6 lab groups of 4 students each)
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| Software |
COSMOS toolkit framework, Chronograf and InfluxDB.
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| Number of Sessions to teach the topic |
3-5 sessions
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| Educational standards to be addressed |
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):
- ESS3.D: Global Climate Change
Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.
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| COSMOS concepts to be used for the lab |
- Present: wireless signals - transmitting data using a wireless signal.
- Future: scientific experimentation on a wireless testbed taking advantage of the capabilities of a testbed to collect lots of data over a longer period of time using environmental sensors attached to nodes.
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| K12 Educational Goals (How the educational goals are achieved through teaching using the experiment, how the topic is connected to the COSMOS concepts used) |
Heat islands can contribute to poor air quality, magnify the impacts of extreme heat events, and put people’s health at higher risk. Identifying hot spots within a city can help focus interventions where they are most needed during heat waves.
Students design, conduct, and evaluate an experiment on the relationship between air quality (as measured by PM concentration in the air) and the formation of heat islands.
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| Short Description and Walk-through of the experiment |
- Research historical temperature trends, ground level ozone and particulate matter (PM) in NYC.
- Review the experiment protocols and purpose.
- Examine Raspberry Pi/Arduino Uno/Gravity Sensor setup.
- Teams decide on the purpose of their study (a) PM and heat islands (b) PM and ground level ozone.
- Teams collect PM and air temperature data in selected area within .5 miles of our school building.
- Teams compare PM data to temperature to establish if there is an direct or inverse relationship to air temperature.
- Teams determine if the PM data meets or exceeds National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to gauge the impact air quality measurements are having on public health.
- Teams select the intervals for data collection.
- Teams devise a data collection schedule.
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| Testbed mapping of the experiment |
Environmental sensors - specifically for air and surface temperatures as well as PM - are installed on COSMOS Testbed nodes. Students log into the COSMOS testbed and sign up for a data collection window. Students analyze this data and compare it to data collected by the city and National Weather Service as well as the NY Department of Environmental Conservation. Students will evaluate their data to see if there is a correlation between high levels of PM and the formation of ground level ozone. Students will use the NYC Department of Health and NYC Department of Environmental Protection data to see if there is a correlation between heat islands emergency room visits (to demonstrate the impact on public health as a result of higher than normal levels of PM in the atmosphere).
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© 2018 COSMOS Project. Created by Patrick Callahan, Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics
Tamanna Shahid, Collegiate Institute for Math and Science.