Simple Device Allows Students to Measure Air Pollution
January 24, 1996
By Monica Friedlander
With the help of these gadgets, students, teachers, and scientists on two
continents are working together as part of the International Air Pollution
Project, run by the Lab's Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE),
to measure the amount of black carbon--or soot--in the atmosphere. By
participating in this program, the students and teachers hope to learn
first-hand about scientific research methodology, become familiar with the work
and cultures of people in other countries, and raise general consciousness
about worldwide environmental problems.
"It's very exciting to have an educational project that can utilize lab
technology throughout the world," says project coordinator Eileen Engel of
CSEE. "We're hoping this is just the beginning."
The project falls under the umbrella of a larger Berkeley Lab program entitled
Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) in Science. Sponsored by the Human
Genome Field Operations Office, the project is designed to highlight research
activities at the Lab while stimulating discussion about the consequences of
scientific research. Participants in the project consider questions such as how
to best use available resources and weigh the benefits and drawbacks of
scientific research and discovery.
Through the International Air Pollution Project, teachers guide students
through environmental observations about air pollution and integrate sample
collection and computer work into classroom activities. Students exchange the
results of their experiments over the Internet and through e-mail and faxes,
thereby making the data available for further research and educational
activities. While the project is only now beginning to be piloted in a few U.S.
classrooms, in Slovenia it is part of the official national curriculum.
The project grew out of an idea developed in 1989 by Berkeley Lab physicist
Tony Hansen and high-school teacher Dean Rockwell, a participant in the DOE
Teacher Research Associate Program. Hansen had developed an instrument for
measuring airborne carbon particles known as soot, which are a major
atmospheric pollutant. Soot particles are released into the air from the
burning of fuel in cars, homes and industry. Diesel engines are a major source
of this type of pollution, which can have serious health and environmental
consequences.
After working together, Rockwell and Hansen decided to devise a method for
measuring atmospheric soot based on the principles developed by Hansen, but
which could be used by students--that is, one that would be both inexpensive
and easy to use and understand.
"The important thing to show is that science is not hidden in a box," Hansen
says. "A lot of science today is mediated by a piece of apparatus that relies
on sophisticated technology that no one understands. It's really important to
convey to students that, deep down, science is not based on magic."
Hansen was particularly concerned about the alarming levels of air
pollution--particularly soot--in parts of eastern and central Europe. In some
of those countries, soot concentration can be more than 10 times higher than
that on a smoggy day in Los Angeles. Monitoring the pollution is the first step
towards alleviating the problem.
Hansen contacted Dr. Mirko Bizjak, a fellow scientist at the National Chemistry
Institute of Slovenia, who immediately bought into the idea of involving school
children in pollution monitoring experiments. Rockwell was subsequently invited
by the Slovenian national science academy to travel to their country and
demonstrate the ingenious air sampler to school teachers there. The idea caught
on and spread to Estonia as well. Today, 60 schools in Slovenia and 12 in
Estonia use classroom materials developed for all grade levels to receive and
analyze data on air pollution using the simple technique invented at Berkeley.
"In Estonia," Hansen says, "this is the only air pollution measurement in the
whole country."
CSEE would like to see the program expand both nationally and to other
countries, thereby fostering further cooperation between American and other
students around the world. To register or to find out more about the
International Air Pollution Project, contact Eileen Engel at edengel@lbl.gov, or visit the
project web site at http://csee.lbl.gov/elsi/index.html. For more information
on the measuring equipment, contact Tony Hansen at ADHansen@lbl.gov.
It is highly unlikely that many school children in the small newly-independent
countries of Central and Eastern Europe have heard much about Berkeley Lab. Yet
in schools throughout Slovenia, as well as in formerly-Soviet Estonia, students
are using a simple technique conceived here by a Berkeley Lab scientist and an
Illinois high school teacher to measure air pollution. The low-tech equipment,
which yields results comparable to those obtained by standard scientific
instruments, consists of a piece of tissue paper, a vacuum cleaner, two
disposable cups, a plastic bag, and a photographic print.
