18 little scientists without limits fighting to have a better air in their own town

We live here, not so far from Venice.

This is our school in Paese (Treviso)

The problem is the quality of the air we breathe

The photo on the left shows high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in troposhere of the Po Valley; the photo on the right shows a gray cast to the terrain due to urban development and air pollution (nasa.gov)

question n. 1. what is the quality of the air in our region?

We measured carbon dioxyde, PM10 and Pm2.5 concentration, air temperature and air humidity at school, during all the winter (from 2019 November, 28th to 2020 February, 18th)

We collected our data in a spreasheet: here the media values.

We made some graphs from collected data.

We host an ARPAV expert, in our class, who helped us to analyze our data and to compare them with ARPAV data.

We observed that:

PM10 concentration is higher during the night
PM10 concentration depends on meteo conditions (air temperature, humidity, wind,...)

FROM THE DATA COMPARISON, WE LEARNT THAT:

1) SENSORS WE USED ARE VERY SENSITIVE TO MICROENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY.

2) ARPAV DATA ARE MORE REALIABLE, ALSO BECAUSE THEY CAN CONSTANTLY TAKE MEASURES, EACH DAY AND EACH HOUR.

ARPAV EXPERT SHOWED US FILTERS USED TO MEASURE PM1O CONCENTRATION

THE DARKER THE FILTER IS, THE HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF PM10 IS IN THE AIR.

We planned to visit ARPAV control unit, but the visit was canceled because of the Coronavirus emergency.

During the lessonwith ARPAV expert, we also learnt about prepAIR project the main sources of air pollution and the most important actions taken by the project.

We discovered that the air in our region sometimes is very bad.

The PM10 levels are often high, as shown for example in the graphs on the left.

question n.2. Which factors affect air pollution?

From analysis of the data, we discovered that the quality of the air depends on many factors, for example:

QUESTION N.3: WHAT CAN WE DO?

ACTIONS...

... and messages

We don't want a polluted world!

"The Earth is like a body and the air is its lungs: if we continue to suffocate them, sooner or later they will die"

"Everyone should do his part and think about the consequences of his actions"

"The world is not ours, so we must treat it as best as we can"

"The Earth is our home and it is irreplaceable: we must learn to respect it"

"Working together we can get a better world"

Angelo, Emma, Gaia, Manuel, Sara, Camilla, Pietro, Lorette, Anna, Evelyn, Edonis, Enea, Yucheng, Giulia, Nicolò, Kevin, Andrea, Emilian 2K I.C. Casteller Paese (TV)

Appreciate