Engaging School Communities in Air Sensors
Presented by: Aubrey Burgess, Denver Department of Public Health and Environment & Yvonne Cappel-Vickery, Denver Department of Public Health & Environment
Summary: The City and County of Denver’s Love My Air program is creating a citywide air quality (AQ) monitoring network to provide real-time AQ data—utilizing low-cost cutting-edge air pollution sensor technology to make it useful for widescale deployment and replicability. Love My Air aims to empower school communities to reduce air pollution and limit exposure through behavior change, advocacy, and community engagement. By 2021, 40 Denver Public Schools (DPS) will have sensors and dashboards that relay hyper-local, real-time data. The data dashboards are visible via a large TV display inside each school and at DenverAQ.com. School communities (23 currently) use this data to learn AQ basics, how their behaviors impact local AQ, and how it impacts their health.
Love My Air Denver is exploring innovative opportunities to engage school communities. For example, AQ curricula are paired with hand-held sensors allowing students to conduct their own citizen science projects. The curriculum has been redesigned to include virtual labs and at-home activities for the new virtual school year. Students can put their knowledge to the test with community-wide science projects and friendly competitions. Love My Air Denver is also in the process of developing a phone app that would allow for interactive access to AQ forecasts and data, tips for reducing exposure, and other educational tools. Students also have the opportunity to engage in several art projects, including working with a local artist to paint their school’s sensor and designing customized anti-idling campaign signage.
Another core value of Love My Air Denver is to utilize community members at experts. Parents, teachers, nurses, principals, and students have been involved in the development process from designing the dashboards to developing curricula. The vision is to share best practices and lessons learned throughout this process to make this program replicable by other municipalities.
Denver Department of Public Health and Environment Presentation PDF