STEM Participation through Community Air Quality Sensor Networks and Data Science during the Pandemic

The socioeconomic inequities due to climate change and environmental injustices are amplified in marginalized communities, especially through poor air quality. The air we breathe – a universal variable that connects us all – is a prime determinant of human health and mortality, and Long-term exposure to poor air quality, especially particulate matter (PM), is linked to many comorbidities that have been associated with poor health prognoses (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular, lung disease), which contribute to ~ 7 million deaths per year. This project will implement face-to-face/virtual community interventions to engage participants on utilizing high- and low-cost air quality sensor technologies and utilize data analytics to better understand how poor air quality contributes to adverse health impacts, especially COVID-19. 

The project team will work with urban academic institutions/residences in NYC and NJ to train them how to build and operate high- and low-cost air quality sensors for the collection of indoor air quality measurements of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and PM₁. The project team will work with community participants to train them how to construct data visualization products quantify the degree of contribution of air quality levels to adverse health impacts at the individual and county level well-established statistical approaches. This initiative will also engage community participants, such that they are able to quantify the degree to which the collected data correlates with each other by way of (again) well-established statistical approaches. The project team will train participants to utilize open-source tools to examine the physics of where air parcels come from to (and forecast where they are going). Lastly, the initiative will implement soft- and hard-skills training and STEM professional development (PD) workshops – all aimed at optimizing recruitment, retention, and successful matriculation in STEM disciplines and careers.

This initiative provides $1,500 each for 5 participating teachers for the summer workshop component of the program and $500 for research activities for each of the 10 high school student participants throughout the 2-year funding cycle of the program.