Measuring Air Quality
Students become air quality detectives! They learn to use sensors, measure CO2 levels in their classroom, create graphs of their data, and produce a classroom air quality report.
4
Lessons
4-5
Class Periods
Med
Materials Cost
3
NGSS Standards
Essential Question
How can we measure and understand the air quality in our classroom?
Lessons
Key Concepts
Sensors
- Tools that detect and measure things
- CO2 sensors measure carbon dioxide
- PM sensors measure particles
- Give us numbers (data)
CO2 Levels
- Outdoors: ~420 ppm
- Good indoor: under 800 ppm
- Okay: 800-1000 ppm
- Too high: over 1000 ppm
Data Collection
- Record readings at regular times
- Note what's happening (windows open?)
- Keep data organized in tables
- Multiple measurements are better
Graphing
- Line graphs show changes over time
- Bar graphs compare different places
- Graphs help us see patterns
- Use labels and titles
Standards Alignment
| Standard | Description |
|---|---|
| 3-5-ETS1-1 | Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want that includes criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost |
| 3-5-ETS1-3 | Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered |
| 5.G.A.2 | Represent real world problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane |