CleanAir @School

How a public science project aims to stop Italian parents driving their children to school.

CleanAir@School is a science and environmental education project on air quality monitoring. It started out as a joint initiative of the European Network of the Heads of Environmental Protection Agencies and the European Environment Agency. Under the initiative, primary and secondary school pupils in Europe monitor air quality near their schools using a common approach. The main goal is to raise awareness of the links between air pollution and health – mainly in cities, where most Europeans live – and to change people’s behaviour by promoting new and sustainable lifestyles and focusing on mobility. One of the key questions is whether – in the light of this knowledge – parents will stop driving their children to school.

The science campaign, which was launched at the end of 2019, involves 82 Italian schools and will be used to better understand how children are exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), emitted by vehicles, near to their school. Radial symmetry samplers have been installed outside the schools at two points – one closer to traffic, the other in a less exposed area, for example a courtyard. The project will end in 2020, when Italy will assess whether to roll out the project in the coming years.

Air pollution is one of the topics of most concern to Europeans. It is therefore extremely important to make young generations aware of how the institutions operate and to explain to them how they are working to improve air quality. The CleanAir@School project is organised by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ispa) and by the Italian Network for Environmental Protection (snpa). The latter carries out environmental checks all over Italy and is coordinating the project together with 15 regional environmental agen

cies that manage air quality monitoring networks and provide official data.

Children actively participate in the classroom, making scientific instruments as well as taking part in air quality monitoring. This involves investigating, observing, filming, filling in recording sheets and collecting data. They play an active part in the research process, keen to get involved in problem-solving activities and cooperative learning, which stimulate participation, creativity and commitment. The main goal is to teach them good practices that have a positive impact on life outside school and on the family.

At European level, the initiative explores how data collected by individuals might complement »official« air quality monitoring to help improve our understanding of local air quality. This in turn supports the Commission’s efforts to streamline environmental reporting, in particular to »promote the wider use of citizen science to complement environmental reporting«.

snpambiente.it/progetti/cleanairschool

Contact: sandra.moscone@isprambiente.it

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