Cymraeg 
Introduction
In June 2024, a workshop was convened at a Caerphilly County primary school, bringing together teachers from the school with the EXPO-ENGAGE team (Jo Garrett, Sian de Bell, Rachel Hale). The workshop aimed to lay the groundwork for a research plan concerning an air quality citizen science project in a Caerphilly County school. Discussions centred around identifying research questions, as well as discussing ways of enabling and encouraging participation, possible project funders and what impact the project should have.
The workshop was made possible by funding from a Learned Society of Wales workshop grant for the EXPO-ENGAGE project, which seeks to involve residents in monitoring air quality within their community. This summary presents an overview of the discussion and contributions from attendees.
Underpinning Values
Commitment to valuing and respecting the diverse perspectives and contributions of every member of the community, ensuring inclusivity at every stage of the process.
Research questions and topic ideas
Ideas were sought about potential research questions or topics that could be explored with an air quality citizen science project. These were:
- Tracking journeys to school (active journeys; students or teachers) – The school is a Sustrans active travel school, so this would particularly link with current activities
- Compare the air quality with the surrounding areas
- Compare the air quality at multiple schools
- Exploring seasonality in air quality
- Monitor air quality on the nearby Newport Road using static sensors, e.g. using houses of parents
- The school has a road closure before and after school, whereas the school down the road (Machen) does not. A natural experiment (a cross-sectional control-impact design) could explore the effect of the road closure on air quality.
Facilitators – linking with education
Ideas were sought about potential research questions or topics that could be explored with an air quality citizen science project. These were:
- Tracking journeys to school (active journeys; students or teachers) – The school is a Sustrans active travel school, so this would particularly link with current activities
- Compare the air quality with the surrounding areas
- Compare the air quality at multiple schools
- Exploring seasonality in air quality
- Monitor air quality on the nearby Newport Road using static sensors, e.g. using houses of parents
- The school has a road closure before and after school, whereas the school down the road (Machen) does not. A natural experiment (a cross-sectional control-impact design) could explore the effect of the road closure on air quality.
Facilitators – teachers’ needs
What the teachers would need from an air quality citizen science project was explored. The teachers would need the project to be as straightforward as possible to implement, by:
- Easy access to information e.g. info sheets about types of air pollution or the health effects
- Linking in with existing events e.g.
- Bike bus
- Caerphilly 2k run
- Walk/ride to school campaign
- School Streets
Project impact
The potential outcomes from an air quality citizen science project was considered. The data collected should be appropriate to support or provide evidence for policies and behaviour changes that improve air quality, such as:
- Educate parents (e.g. about impact of driving on air quality)
- Educate children (e.g. about vaping/smoking, global citizenship, scientific research, air quality)
- Change behaviour (e.g. fewer parents driving to school)
Possible Project Funders
Possible sources of funding for the air quality citizen science project (mainly to support the purchase of portable outdoor air quality monitors) were identified:
- Welsh Water
- King’s Canopy
- Community Council
- Local business sponsorship
- Campaign for change (https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/how-you-can-help/campaign)
- Sustrans
Next steps
Following the workshop, the EXPO-ENGAGE team have been looking into funding some air quality monitors from their existing research grants (these have since been supplied). Further actions were:
- School to explore other sources of funding (as outlined above)
- EXPO-ENGAGE team to discuss how they can support the school in conducting an air quality citizen science project and what research they could conduct
- EXPO-ENGAGE team to explore sources of research funding (currently writing, in collaboration with the school, an application to EPSRC Ecological Citizens for a Deployment grant)
- School to consider what air quality citizen science activities they want the children to be involved in
- School to look at Welsh Government air quality resources (links sent by EXPO-ENGAGE team)
- School to consider how the project will fit into the curriculum
Send us your feedback
If you have any thoughts and feedback, we will incorporate them as we develop our plans. The primary objective of the workshop was to lay the groundwork for a research plan for air quality citizen science specific to the local area and we continue to build on this.
