A Breath of Fresh Air

In 2018, smoke from the cataclysmic Northern California firestorm known as the Camp Fire turned the Bay Area air toxic, shuttering multiple businesses and schools, and inhibiting outdoor activities for millions of people. As a consequence, interest in air quality indicators surged among the student population in the areas affected, and brought awareness to the health dangers of heavy particulate matter (PM).

The Bay Area Quality Management District has proposed placing air monitors in the communities surrounding all Bay Area refineries. This proposal is set to go into effect in 2020. Currently, the Marathon Martinez Refinery does round-the-clock facility and fenceline monitoring of highly dangerous emissions such as Benzene, toluene, and hydrogen sulfide.

This lesson seeks to draw attention to local sources of air pollution and efforts to mitigate that pollution. It begins with an introduction to the meaning of air quality, familiarizing students with terms such as ‘Air Quality Index’ and ‘particulate matter’, and wraps up with a Statistics and Computer Science extension where students collect and analyze air quality data collected from an Arduino micro-controller fitted with a PM 2.5 Air Quality sensor.