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High school students participate in this project by:
Using the Personal Exposure Toolkit (PET) to measure environmental exposure
Designing and building low-cost sensors
Devising scientific surveys and controlled experiments
Analyzing exposure event data
Creating mathematical models of exposure
Completing reports and presentations
Teachers can:
Lead students in projects
Help to fine-tune the curriculum
Satisfy Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). See more below.
student science and engineering: WHAT'S IN YOUR AIR?
student science and engineering: WHAT'S IN YOUR AIR?
Dr. Neil Klepeis is currently working with teachers and students to develop a curriculum for incorporating Exposure Science air monitoring projects into High School Science and Engineering classes and after-school programs.
Students use the Personal Exposure Toolkit (PET) or design and build their own tools to explore everyday airborne exposures in their environment arising from air pollution sources such as cooking, cleaning, incense, vehicles, dust, pollen, aerosol products, nail polish, or wildfire smoke.
Students measure and model exposure contexts as a function of space, time, and human activity.
Are you a teacher or student interested in using Exposure Science in High School STEM projects?
Please click below to fill out an interest form.
Projects in Exposure Science are naturally suited to fulfilling the Next Generation Science Standards. To illustrate, the published Science and Engineering Practice guidelines, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Cross-Cutting Concepts are described below alongside aligned elements of Exposure Science inquiry.
Scientists engage in certain practices as they create models and explanations to investigate the natural world; Engineering practice involes the creation of designs to solve specific problems. Below we list elements of NGSS science and engineering practice with examples of how Exposure Science projects can provide student experience in these areas.
Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Exposure scientists frame hypotheses about what is causing adverse health
Developing and using models
Exposure scientists create explanations and models about how people might be exposed to certain environmental agents.
Planning and carrying out investigations
Exposure scientists design surveys and experiments to gather data and elucidate the timing and duration of exposure events.
Analyzing and interpreting data
Exposure scientists analyze data from sensors, instruments, and surveys to discover what may be leading to exposure.
Using mathematics and computational thinking
Exposure scientists use mathematical models of exposure and pollutant dynamics, including the fate and transport of pollutants.
Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
Exposure scientists use models to explain the mechanisms of exposure and devise ways to mitigate exposure .
Engaging in argument from evidence
Exposure scientists present their data and findings to other scientists and the public to argue for possible solutions to reduce exposure.
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Exposure scientists must integrate diverse kinds of data (sensors, survey data, observational data, qualitative data) to evaluate the sources and solutions for exposure and communicate their findings to others.
Disciplines include physical sciences, life sciences, earth and space sciences, engineering, and technological applications of science.
The practice of Exposure Science overlaps with all traditional disciplines and core disciplinary ideas. It includes the study of physical processes involving pollution, the impact of pollution on life systems, the fate and transfer of pollution in the environment, the design of pollution mitigation technologies, and the application of science to finding social and political solutions.
Core disciplinary ideas are framed as:
Having broad importance across multiple areas of science and engineering or being key in the organization of a discipline;
Providing a way to understand complex ideas and solve problems
Relating to student experience or connecting to social or individual concerns that require knowledge
Being teachable and learnable across grades and levels of advancement
Crosscutting concepts can be applied in all areas of science, thus connecting all types of science. The following list contains cross-cutting concepts with examples of how they occur in Exposure Science investigations.
Patterns: Identify patterns of pollution and exposure
Similarity and Diversity: Discover differents ways that people are exposed to pollution
Cause and effect: What physical and social factors determine exposure?
Scale: How does particle-scale and molecular-scale character of pollution determine its impact?
Proportion and quantity: How do we define pollution and exposure quantities and concentrations?
Systems and system models: How can we describe systems of pollution and exposure in different physical and social environments?
Energy and matter: How do we describe sources and sinks of pollution and work done to remove pollution and mitigate exposure to pollution?
Structure and function: How can we design systems to remove or migitate pollution and exposure?
Stability and change: How does pollutino reach steady state levels or exhibit cxponential rise or decay?
In science curricula, these concepts are made explicit to teach students how to encapsulate and organize knowledge from difference science fields.
EVALUATing OUTCOMES RELATED TO THE NEXT GENeration SCIENCE STANDARDS
EVALUATing OUTCOMES RELATED TO THE NEXT GENeration SCIENCE STANDARDS
Teachers and educators are faced with the challenge of evaluating student outcomes related to learning and the Next Generation Science Standards. How do we measure whether or not students are engaging in authentic scientific inquiry? For many types of learning, the acquisition of knowledge and skills can be determined from testing and standard scales of measurement.
However, the ability to initiate, conduct, and complete projects in science and engineering is more difficult to measure - and is dependent upon the close observation of students as they engage in science and engineering practice.
Exposure Science projects lend themselves to clear evaluation of learning outcomes as students complete the hypothesis-generation, study-design, data-collection, analysis, and communication phases of an investigation.
More to come...
More to come...
As part of ongoing work, Dr. Klepeis is currently developing and testing lesson plans and teacher guides for High School Exposure Science projects. To become involved or learn more, please follow the interest form link given above. Stay tuned!
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