Place-Based Air Quality Inquiry in U.S. Rural Contexts

• In Event: Data Literacy in Context: Culturally Oriented and Place-Based Learning Through Data

Abstract

Although benefits of situating environmental and data literacy efforts in local community contexts have long been known (Bouillon & Gomez, 2001; Buxton, 2010; Feldman, et al., 2000), most research and development on place-based, culturally responsive and culturally sustaining education in the United States ignores rural contexts in favor of urban and suburban contexts (LaValley, 2018). Additionally, political polarization has led to the rural U.S. being increasingly conservative and Republican (Pew, 2018); since the 1970s Republican-supporting voters have increasingly come to doubt and distrust science (Gauchat, 2012). Thus, it is vitally important to a well-educated citizenry that rural students find STEM to be relevant to their lives, hold constructively critical rather than dismissive views of data-informed argumentation (Walsh & Tsurusaki, 2018), and learn how data can inform life. Our poster examines data from three years of a partnership of university-based engineers and educators with rural high school educators in the Western United States on an air quality inquiry initiative.
In this project, the university provides teachers and students at rural high schools with portable air quality monitors along with curriculum support and university mentors to support hyper-local inquiry. The monitors, dubbed “pods,” include sensors measuring a variety of pollutants such as carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). High school students develop air quality questions tied to their school, home, or community environment. Students collect data using the pods, then use tools for processing, analyzing, and visualizing the data. Student projects culminate in annual public symposia, where students share their work with peers and community members.
Inquiry projects are based on curiosities and questions students generate based on their daily lives. Some of the common foci do not seem particularly place-based at first glance, but they intersect with cultural norms and practices. Examples include school environments (e.g., air quality in the gym or locker rooms at various times), vehicles (emissions of cars and trucks, or along roadways), relating to common issues in homes (burning candles, cooking), or to personal hygiene (perfumes, deodorants, body odor). Examples of projects that are more obviously place-bound to rural history and practices are investigations of coal mine sites, cattle
and horse ranches and barns, and a sawmill. One group of students used VOC sensors to compare scents used to trap animals. In interpreting their results these students referenced personal and familial experience and knowledge, concepts from biology, and the air quality sensor data – and they were experts in the room as they explained their project and prior knowledge to visitors.
Our analysis draws from multiple sources over the course of three years, including observation notes, surveys and interviews of university mentors and high school students, and artifacts. Key artifacts are 225 posters and presentations from high school students, which we are coding for content and practices, linked to local culture and geography as well as to scientific aspects and elements of data use and analysis. We are currently analyzing how the cultural-historical content of inquiries relates to the data analyses performed and conclusions drawn.

Authors

• Joseph L. Polman, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Trang C Tran, University of Colorado Boulder

• Daniel W. Knight, University of Colorado