UToledo-Led Initiative Enables High School Students to Monitor Aerosolized Plume from Chemical Leak

UToledo-Led Initiative Enables High School Students to Monitor Aerosolized Plume from Chemical Leak

A hazardous materials incident earlier this week raised urgent questions about air quality in North Toledo and the surrounding region of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.

Now area high school students are among those exploring answers by perusing air quality data collected under a NASA-funded initiative led by The University of Toledo.

"Students had access to real-time data as the hazardous materials situation evolved in their own community," said Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, who heads the initiative as a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning. "I'm looking forward to seeing how they continue to engage with this data going forward, asking and answering questions with a real impact on the world around them."

The initiative calls for the development and implementation of protocols for the use of air quality monitors with Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), an international science and education program that provides students, teachers and citizen scientists around the world the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process and to contribute meaningfully to research on their local and global environments. NASA is supporting the initiative with a $745,242 grant.

The protocols specifically pertain to air quality monitors that detect PM 2.5, which refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. This form of particle pollution poses a significant health risk when inhaled.

P.M. 2.5 is what some of nearly a dozen monitors currently installed in and around Toledo detected overnight on Tuesday, Oct. 20, as noticed by students at partnering institutions including Toledo Public School's Toledo Technology Academy of Engineering.

Seniors in the school's Alternative Energy program have been researching and coding air quality sensors as a capstone project.

"Their work became much more relevant than a school assignment when they woke up on Oct. 20 to news that school was canceled due to a 'hazardous material situation,' and local meteorologists were citing the very sensor they deployed had recorded the highest ever AQI in Toledo," said Laura Kubiak, an instructor at the Toledo Technology Academy of Engineering. "As an educator, it is the ideal scenario to see students make the connection of real-world applications of their studies, which this project is achieving. My students were able to contribute important information to the community in a true time of need."

One of these students, David-Arthur Dreaney, said the experience has helped him to develop an interest in and build the skills for high-level research.

"With the recent chemical leak, knowing the sensor we helped set up here at school collected record-high PM2.5 AQI levels and helped to ensure people remained safe brought me a real sense of pride in the work we've been doing," Dreaney said.

Czajkowski said the incident underscored the value of the air quality monitors and the need to expand the network currently supported by the initiative.

"These monitors enable us to follow the evolution of an unusual situation like this one, but also more common occurrences such as the forest fire smoke we saw in July," he said.

The latest air quality project builds on Czajkowski's well-established ties with area elementary, middle and high schools as the head of GLOBE Mission EARTH, a separate project that similarly leverages the resources of NASA and GLOBE. GLOBE Mission Earth has been transforming the way science is taught to students in kindergarten through high school by engaging them in real scientific research since 2015.

GLOBE Mission EARTH is supported by more than $20 million to date from NASA.