Geography: Section 2
Fieldwork: Air Pollution around our School
Now that you have an understanding of what air pollution is and what the main causes are you could carry out your own investigation into what the air quality is like around your school and consider the causes of this pollution.
An air sensor may have already been setup outside your school by one of your teachers. This sensor monitors levels of fine particles in the air and automatically sends this information back to a database. You will be able to see the results of this monitoring in the next lesson.
After completing this section you will be able to:
- Use a traffic count to record the number and type of vehicles that pass your school or chosen area
- Use simple observation and recording techniques to identify other possible sources of air pollution that might be contributing to the levels of pollution around my school.
How to Complete a Traffic Count
In this activity you will conduct a simple traffic count to record the number of vehicles that pass your school over a given time. The results of your count will give you an indication of the level of air pollution you may find outside your school.
To carry out the survey you will need to download the traffic count record sheet. The count should last twenty minutes. Please consider carefully your own safety and that of others while carrying out the count. If your school is unable to undertake fieldwork you could pre-record your section of road and complete the activity from inside.
If you are using one of SEPA’s air quality sensors you can input the result of one of your traffic counts here: Traffic Survey Entry. Your traffic count results will then be linked to the air quality sensor results which can be explored in depth in the next section. If you aren’t using an air sensor then you can still undertake the activity and answer the questions on the traffic count record sheet.
How to Complete the Causes of Air Pollution Survey
This activity allows you to record your observations of the individual factors that may cause air pollution around your school or within your local area. In this activity walk around your school grounds or chosen area and note any factors you can see across the landscape that may be a source of pollution. You may also want to use a camera to take a photograph of what you see. It would be useful, before starting this activity to recap and think about the nine causes of pollution that were identified earlier in the site.
To carry out the survey you will need to download the observations sheet. The observation should last twenty minutes. Please consider carefully your own safety and that of others while carrying out the count.
Ideas to develop these activities further:
- Google maps, OS maps, street maps or local maps could be used by pupils to identify where they carried out their surveys.
- Instead of taking photographs you could draw a field sketch of the landscape and annotate it to identify different sources of pollution.
- Traffic counts could be done to coincide with quieter or busier times of the day
There is also a Homework Sheet you can download that supports and develops further the ideas from this section.
