Monitoring Particulate Matter with Wearable Sensors and the Influence on Student Environmental Attitudes

The mobile monitoring of air pollution is a growing field, prospectively filling in spatial gaps while personalizing air-quality-based risk assessment. We developed wearable sensors to record particulate matter (PM), and through a community science approach, students of partnering Chicago high schoo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-02, Vol.22 (3), p.1295
Main Authors: Kane, Frances, Abbate, Joseph, Landahl, Eric C, Potosnak, Mark J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air monitoring
Air Pollutants - analysis
Air pollution
Air Pollution - analysis
air quality
Airborne particulates
Attitude
Attitudes
community science
environmental attitudes
Environmental Monitoring
High schools
Humans
Normalized difference vegetative index
Outdoor air quality
Particulate emissions
particulate matter
Particulate Matter - analysis
Pollution monitoring
Quality assessment
Remote sensing
Risk assessment
Satellite imagery
Secondary schools
Sensors
Students
Type 2 diabetes
Wearable Electronic Devices
wearable sensors
Wearable technology
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Summary:The mobile monitoring of air pollution is a growing field, prospectively filling in spatial gaps while personalizing air-quality-based risk assessment. We developed wearable sensors to record particulate matter (PM), and through a community science approach, students of partnering Chicago high schools monitored PM concentrations during their commutes over a five- and thirteen-day period. Our main objective was to investigate how mobile monitoring influenced students' environmental attitudes and we did this by having the students explore the relationship between PM concentrations and urban vegetation. Urban vegetation was approximated with a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) using Landsat 8 satellite imagery. While the linear regression for one partner school indicated a negative correlation between PM and vegetation, the other indicated a positive correlation, contrary to our expectations. Survey responses were scored on the basis of their environmental affinity and knowledge. There were no significant differences between cumulative pre- and post-experiment survey responses at Josephinum Academy, and only one weakly significant difference in survey results at DePaul Prep in the Knowledge category. However, changes within certain attitudinal subscales may possibly suggest that students were inclined to practice more sustainable behaviors, but perhaps lacked the resources to do so.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s22031295