Using the UK Air quality archive in Primary Schools

空气质量和气候变化是21世纪最紧迫的两个问题。在英国，城市空气污染的影响，尤其是对儿童的影响是众所周知的。最小的孩子，例如在英国上小学的孩子（年龄在4-11岁之间）往往是受空气污染影响最大的，因为他们的身高相对于车辆污染源和他们在小学期间经历的身体发育。然而，小学生、他们的老师和学校的其他利益相关者经常感到无助，要么通过使用“更清洁”的上学路线，要么通过了解如何减少附近的空气污染水平来改变自己的暴露。英国空气质量档案是世界上最全面的污染物数据档案之一。它包含大约4亿个数据点，具有广泛的地理和时间覆盖，甚至可以追溯到1970年代。所测量的污染物主要是主要来源，即它们是由污染源直接排放的，但也包含来自臭氧等次要来源的数据。人们错误地认为小学生没有能力参与科学调查，但事实并非如此。事实是，他们的教师没有获得信息、资源和培训，以帮助指导这些对周围世界极其好奇的年轻学习者，对许多人来说，他们敏锐地意识到空气污染问题及其对健康的影响。小学科学教学信托基金是英国的一个慈善机构，通过各种方式支持小学科学教学。最值得注意的是，PSTT举办了年度小学科学教师奖，那些获得该奖项的教师将被列为PSTT虚拟学院的研究员。这些优秀的小学科学教师已经发起并运行了许多使用户外教室的项目，其中一些项目使用了各种低成本的传感器。现在，PSTT以全职和兼职的形式聘用了其中一些研究员，这个为期4个月的项目计划将这些优秀的教师与布里斯托尔大学的空气质量研究人员聚集在一起，共同探索数据库。然后，该小组将设计适合关键阶段2（高年级和低年级），7-11岁儿童的调查，使用数据库中的数据，准备学校可以与资源一起使用的数据集，并指导教师如何使用数据库。此外，参与的PSTT研究员将在项目期间将这些资源传播给与他们合作的其他研究员和学校，并将在2020年4月结束后继续从事该项目。因此，将开始与小学进行一个正在进行的项目。数据库及其调查将帮助这个群体了解污染源，确定干净和污染的往返学校的路线，谁知道呢，这些年轻的研究人员可能会发现这些数据中一些被忽视的有趣特征。赋予这群人自己调查的能力会激发他们的志向，让这群人在他们的余生中不得不处理这些问题，从年轻的时候就了解这些问题，并帮助他们设计出减少接触污染和降低污染水平的方法。开发的资源将在PSTT网站上免费提供，对教师的进一步培训将通过PSTT区域导师计划提供，该计划支持全职研究员在其所在地区的学校工作。

Air quality and climate change are two of the most pressing issues in the 21st century. In the U.K. the impact of air pollution in urban areas in particular on children is well known. The youngest children e.g. those attending primary school in the U.K. (aged between 4-11) are often those who are affected most by air pollution, given their height relative to vehicle pollution sources and the physical development they experience during primary school. However, primary school children, their teachers and other stakeholders of their school often feel helpless to alter their own exposure, either through using 'cleaner' routes to school or by understanding how to reduce air pollution levels in their vicinity. The U.K. Air Quality Archive is one of the most comprehensive archives of pollutant data in the world. It contains some 400 million datapoints and has extensive geographical and temporal coverage, dating back even to the 1970s. The pollutants measured are mainly of primary origin, i.e. they are directly emitted by pollution sources, but does also contain data from secondary sources such as ozone. It is mistakenly assumed that primary school children are incapable of stepping up to engage in science investigations but this is not true. What is true is that their teachers are not empowered with information, resources and training to hep to guide these young learners who are extremely curious about the world around them and for many are acutely aware of the problems of air pollution and their impacts on health. The Primary Science Teaching Trust are a U.K. based charity that support the teaching of science at primary school level through a wide range of ways. Most notably, PSTT run the Primary Science Teacher of the Year Award and those teachers that win this award are inducted as Fellows to the PSTT virtual College. These outstanding teachers of science at primary school level have initiated and run numerous projects that use the Outdoor classroom and some have utilized a wide range of low-cost sensors. PSTT now employ some of these Fellows on a full-time and part-time basis and the plan with this short 4 month project is to bring these outstanding teachers together with air quality researchers at the University of Bristol to explore the database. The group will then devise investigations suitable for key stage 2 (upper and lower), children that are 7-11 years of age, using data from the database, prepare datasets that schools can use with resources but also guide teachers in how to use the database. In addition, the PSTT Fellows involved will disseminate these resources to other Fellows and schools that they work with during the course of the project and will continue to work on this project when it ceases in April 2020. Therefore, there will be the start of an on-going project with primary schools. The database and its investigations will help this group to understand the sources of pollution, to determine clean and polluted routes to and from school and who knows, these young researchers may uncover some interesting features of these data that have been overlooked. Empowering this group with the ability to investigate for themselves will raise aspirations, allow this cohort, who will have to deal with these issues for the rest of their lives, to understand the problems from a young age and to help them devise ways to alleviate their exposure and reduce pollution levels. Resources developed will be freely available from the PSTT website and further training for teachers will be available through the PSTT Regional Mentor programme, that supports full-time Fellows to work with schools in their region.