- Guy Evans

Context 

Guy Evans used AirWatch as the main focus for a term's work with a Year 11 Senior Science class. Guy set the class 6 tasks from the AirWatch manual to complete in groups by the end of the term. The students chose when (and often where) they could do the tasks.

Course Structure

Visual Air Quality (Section 4.5)

Visual Air Quality is assessed by going to a high vantage point and assessing how clearly you can see landmarks at known distances away. Students borrowed the school's camera and were required to produce a 360 degree panorama photo on 3 consecutive days from the same place. Where and when they did it was up to them. They were required to get a parent to help with transport.

Guy said that often this exercise produced some interesting observations as the VAQ often varied depending on the direction of the wind, and those groups that did the exercise on a Sunday often saw better VAQ, perhaps resulting from the impact of motor vehicles emissions on week days.

Particulate Monitoring (Section 4.4) - Students assessed particulate concentrations using the AirWatch pollution monitoring equipment. Measurements could be taken in the school grounds or at home. Generally low levels of particulates were found.

Nitrogen Dioxide Monitoring (Section 5.2)

Nitrogen Dioxide was measured using the AirWatch Equipment. Generally low levels of Nitrogen Dioxide were detected, although the results were usually ‘more interesting' than for particulates.

Traffic Counts (Section 5.5)

Students conducted traffic counts along the Freeway, noting types of vehicles and occupancy levels.

Weather interpretation (Section 3.2)

The automated weather station was used to understand some of the factors that affect our weather. Students were required to use the stations graphs to look at what factors influenced temperature on a certain day for example, what impact did change of wind direction, or rainfall have on temperature? What is the relationship between barometer and temperature, or temperature and relative humidity?

Conclusion 

Students were required to produce a detailed report at end of term. Guy was very happy with the efforts of many students, some produced quality 40-page reports, others waited till the last minute to complete their investigations, while others output was minimal.

Guy no longer teaches Senior Science at Greenwood , although the course has been continued by the present teacher. Guy intended to use AirWatch with his Year 8 class in the following next year focussing on the question: “How does the quality of the air at the school compare to that at the Freeway?” Greenwood has their own equipment and will borrow a second set to allow students to easily do sampling at two sites.

Greenwood has their school's weather station linked to their web site, check it out at www.greenwood.wa.edu.au .