Engaging Youth in Urban Air Quality Exploration: A Collective Endeavor

What We Did

Over the course of five weeks, this dedicated team developed a new program for local youth called Climate Robot Rangers. This program was designed to engage middle school youth in an air quality exploration at the Monroe County Public Library in Rochester, NY, through the world of engineering and design. Guided by the expertise of Fae, the lead librarian, Eve, a STEM educator from the University of Rochester, Stephanie, an educator at Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) and a few interns from local colleges, these youth delved into a multifaceted exploration of air quality and climate monitoring. Here's a snapshot of their journey:

Mapping Air Quality: They delved into air quality maps, both regionally and nationally, leveraging models and data sets from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that monitor carbon dioxide from space. The aim of this was to help the youth to understand how their local data is situated within a global context.

Sensor Testing: The group meticulously tested a new commercially available sensor from Telos Aid, both indoors and outdoors to assess its efficacy in measuring air quality. They also interviewed the lead engineer Suresh Dhaniyala, who explained the process of designing air quality sensors that are driven by data.

Creative Design: Collaboratively, the team designed materials and crafted a captivating Science on the Sphere show for RMSC that included NASA Earth Observations models on urban heat islands. They also crafted tabletop games centered around urban greenways.

Prototype Development: Armed with Arduino components, the youth embarked on the prototyping journey, crafting their very own air quality monitors.

Data Collection: Venturing into the urban landscape, they collected air quality data at six designated tree and street corner sites, with the youth participants actively contributing to data collection at four of these sites.

In parallel with this immersive experience, Eve, alongside designer Ala’ Diab and intern Meaghan Martin, transformed the learners' inquiries and explorations into a portable pop-up museum exhibit on urban air quality and climate monitoring. The Climate Robot Rangers, designers, and RMSC staff then worked together to test the prototype exhibit with two groups of Curiosity Campers, a middle school STEM camp program run out of RMSC. The Climate Robot Ranger youth co-led activities for Curiosity campers. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with youth at RMSC fully engaged with the exhibit materials.

"Ariana loved working on this project. When we visited family this Summer in Massachusetts, she impressed them all by explaining how the lichens on the trees were telling us about urban air quality. She is hoping that the exhibit can come to her school!" - Parent of participant

This collaborative group of educators is currently working on the next phase where they are adapting the pop up exhibit for use in multiple contexts.

How We Developed the Experience

In Winter and Spring 2023, educators from Rochester’s library, museum, and university worked together over 12 weeks to plan curriculum, engagement strategies, and to review and discuss resources related to urban air quality, urban forests and heat islands, and public health. They also connected with LENE project partner Missy Holzer, who helped direct them to NASA Assets and information regarding air quality curriculum and atmospheric process models, which they then used in the graphic design process to create explainer materials on Carbon cycling in soil / plants, and human activity and chemical dispersion.