The Globe Air Quality Campaign
5th class are taking part in the Globe air quality campaign. The GLOBE Air Quality Campaign is a citizen science project to assess traffic-related air pollution at schools. The campaign measures nitrogen dioxide gas in the air, a principal pollutant associated with vehicle emissions. This is an educational project designed to raise awareness about air pollution and showcase the potential of citizen science to gather unique datasets and insights into our environment.
We installed 3 diffusion tubes around the school to measure NO2 levels around the school over the next 2 weeks.
5th class conducted a short traffic count near the school to gather extra information to support the interpretation of the results.
Pupils are also recording daily weather observations as the weather can also influence N02 levels. We look forward to finding out more about N02 levels near our school over the next few weeks!
The Results!
We were very excited about getting the results!
The NO2 levels on the Childers Rd were 19.97 which is in the upper end of the low to medium range. The NO2 levels on the Astro- turf were 14.49 which is also in the low to medium range. We were surprised that the NO2 levels on the Childers rd were not higher and thought that because the measurement period occurred during a covid lock down this may have impacted the result. We were also surprised that there wasn’t a bigger difference between the astro turf and the main road. Ms. O’Reilly pointed out that the prevailing wind direction may have also influenced the amount of NO2 on the astro turf.
We have enjoyed taking part in this project and learned a lot about air pollution and what we can do to reduce it.