Global Ozone (GO3) Project and AQTreks: Use of evolving technologies by students and citizen scientists to monitor air pollutants

Abstract

Over the past decade, new and emerging technologies in air pollution instrumentation have made it possible to involve students and citizen scientists in air pollution monitoring. Similarly, advances in data communication and transmission have made it increasingly easy to share and graphically display data. Two educational programs, the Global Ozone (GO3) Project and AQTreks, have used these advances to get air pollution monitors into the hands of thousands of students around the world and to automate data sharing. The pilot project for AQTreks, GO3 Treks, is also discussed. These educational projects began in 2009 with the GO3 Project, a stationary ground-level ozone monitoring project. In the GO3 Project, students and teachers at more than 100 schools from around the world installed ozone and weather monitoring stations at their schools with automatic uploading of their data every 15 min, resulting in more than 12 million ozone measurements along with associated weather data. Over the years, new technologies became available for students to expand their measurements from stationary to mobile platforms. Since 2016, the AQTreks educational program has been developed concurrently with the Personal Air Monitor (PAM), a mobile sensor suite paired with a smartphone app. Complementing the technology are online curricula and other resources for students and citizens to learn about air pollution and climate change. In these projects, a focus on data quality and the careful selection of monitoring technologies have resulted in scientific use of the student-collected data, including their incorporation in several research campaigns that have furthered understanding of ground-level ozone formation. This approach has demonstrated the utility of these types of educational programs both in terms of furthering scientific research and educating the next generation about air quality issues. Keywords: Citizen science, Community science, K-12 education, Air pollution, Miniaturized instruments, Sensors, Atmospheric chemistry, Mobile monitoring, Stationary monitoring