part of Indoor air quality and Citizen Science
The SAMHE (Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education) project introduces a novel method to generate and analyze extensive datasets via collaborative citizen science methods. The SAMHE team worked closely with UK schools to co-design the SAMHE Web App, which is central to gathering contextual data to inform the air quality analysis and also enables teachers and students to see and interact with the air quality data from their classroom.
Children spend significant time at school, making the school environment a potentially important contributor to air quality exposure. School classrooms are typically more densely occupied than spaces such as office buildings.
The SAMHE project aims to:
To achieve this, the project aims to deploy 2000 low-cost indoor air quality monitors in UK school classrooms, enabling the generation of a dataset on classroom air quality at an unprecedented scale. Central to the project is the bespoke SAMHE Web App which enables teachers and students to see and interact with the air quality data from their classroom, use it in specially designed learning activities, learn about its significance, and enter important contextual information to enrich data analysis by researchers.
Children using digital tablets in the classroom.
Schools’ use of the SAMHE Web App is essential to achieving the project’s aims, so it was critical that the Web App was co-designed with schools, to maximize its acceptability and ensure that teachers and pupils engage with it.
This paper presents the Web App content, interface and SAMHE visuals, and the way that they were co-designed with 20+ schools and tested with 120+ schools. SAMHE has proved popular with schools, highlighting the potential for this novel initiative to provide a step-change in the way that indoor air quality datasets are gathered at a national and, potentially, international level while simultaneously enabling schools to better manage their indoor environment and empowering students and teachers to reduce their environmental health risks.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the SAMHE Co-design and Pioneer Schools who were crucial in developing this project: this work could not have been completed without them.
Project / A citizen science project monitoring indoor air, created with and for UK schools.
Journal article / The SAMHE Web App was co-designed with schools to ensure maximum acceptance and engagement by teachers and pupils, as this is critical to the project's success.
Media coverage / The children's news programme visited a school where pupils were investigating their classroom's air quality using the SAMHE monitor and Web App.
Feature / SEI York Centre Director Sarah West was interviewed for a recent briefing for the UK parliament.
