ARTICLES
The Schools Weather and Air Quality (SWAQ) Project
By Dr Angela M. Maharaj; Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), UNSW
The Schools Weather and Air Quality project – www.swaq.
org.au – is a citizen science project funded by the Australian
Government’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
as part of the Inspiring Australia – Citizen Engagement Program.
The researchers, Angela Maharaj, Melissa Hart, and Giovanni
Di Virgillio at UNSW’s Climate Change Research Centre, and
the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), are
partnering with Finnish instrument vendor, Vaisala, to create a
network of sensors covering 20 primary schools across the
Sydney metropolitan region. SWAQ is placing weather and
air quality sensors in Sydney schools to collect data for urban
climate, meteorology and air pollution research.
will therefore learn valuable STEM skills through being directly
involved in the analysis of meteorological and air quality data
collected on their school grounds.
For high school students the project will demonstrate how data
collected can be used for student research projects involving
work on this new, unpublished research. These projects will be
tailored for use in NSW Science Year 11 and 12 depth studies,
and the new Science Extension initiatives.
SWAQ data will be available freely online via a dedicated website
for school and public use. The data will be accompanied by real-
time visualisations to illustrate the environmental conditions in a
local area.
The Head of Air Quality at Vaisala, John Liljelund, travelled from
Finland to finalise the project’s partnership, and issued the
following statement: “We are proud and excited to participate in
this educational project that we believe will be a great example
for schools anywhere in the world on how to develop their
science education by partnering with a company with deep roots
in innovation and research.”
SWAQ has also been fortunate to have design consultancy
company, Tobias, and Data visualisation specialists, ‘Small
Multiples’, join the team to develop effective data visualisations.
As part of its consultation process, SWAQ and Tobias,
recently conducted concept testing (pictured) for the website
visualisations at UNSW, Sydney with over 30 high school science
students selected from a range of schools around Sydney, the
Australian Capital Territory and regional NSW.
Urbanisation can modify the climate in cities, resulting in the
urban heat island (UHI) effect, whereby a city is warmer than the
surrounding rural areas. Both temperature and air quality can also
vary greatly within a city due to: variations in land-use, surface
and geographical characteristics, pollutant emissions and
transport infrastructure across the city (Di Virgilio et al. 2018; Hart
and Sailor 2009). In most Australian cities, there are not enough
places where meteorological and air quality observations are
taken to adequately monitor the effects of increased urbanisation.
Despite being Australia’s largest city, and undergoing rapid
development, Sydney has not been the focus of much research
into urban climate or air quality, which is why this SWAQ network
is so important. Similar networks have been implemented in
cities in other countries (e.g., Birmingham, UK and Victoria BC,
Canada), though here SWAQ is using higher quality sensors in
order to better support research.
SWAQ concept testing with high school students at CCRC,
UNSW Sydney.
Citizen Science and Student Engagement
SWAQ is involving school students in the siting and installation
of instruments, and analysis of the data in syllabus-aligned
classroom activities. Both teachers and students will be able to
monitor the conditions at their school in real time, relate changes
in concentrations of pollutants to the weather conditions, and
observe how the onset of events such as bushfires, heatwaves,
or thunderstorms can affect air quality. Researchers will visit
the schools to work with students to gather additional local data
(e.g., reporting types of land cover around the school). Students
The Science
This project has three key research foci around urbanisation:
environmental change, energy use and health. Sydney’s
population is predicted to grow by 30% within 20 years, most of
which is slated for the semi-rural fringes (according to the Greater
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 1