Abingdon News No. 57

The 2020 lockdown was challenging for schools, but also demonstrated the strength and resilience of the Partnership programme at Abingdon. One example was SCAMPA. During a conversation on lockdown and improved air quality, ASP Coordinator Jeremy Thomas and Caldecott Primary School Science Coordinator Holly Irving saw an opportunity for pupils to carry out research, develop enquiry skills and communicate science to the local community. A proposal was submitted to the Royal Society of Chemistry for a Schools Outreach Grant and the bid was successful, allowing equipment purchase and evaluation. Particulate matter (PM) sensors attached to Raspberry Pi microcomputers were tested by sixth former Jake Wallis during his summer holiday, utilising Computer Science A-level skills and adding to data for his EPQ project on air pollution in the UK. Jake logged data via a mapping website so that all schools could see data in real time and wrote a very clear instruction manual for schools to configure and deploy their own sensors. In September 2020, the project was launched and 13 local primary and secondary schools jumped at the chance to take part. As well as PM sensors, diffusion tubes detecting monthly average levels of nitrogen dioxide were set up at twelve sites. Radley College joined, providing technical support for Radley Primary, and Larkmead sixth formers mentored Caldecott Primary’s team. SCAMPA teams at seven primary schools, plus teams at senior schools, Fitzharrys and John Mason, deployed the tubes and collected daily weather data to help interpret the results. The sites are now all up and running and the next stage is to analyse the results. Abingdon’s sixth formers have played an important role, with geographers Will Haynes and Noah Macer using GIS to map diffusion tube locations; Oliver Kirk, Caleb Maijeh and Cameron Eilbeck writing science briefing notes and John Bonchristiano using his considerable programming skills to construct displays of daily PM measurements. Dominic Wood, in the Lower Sixth, will base a new EPQ project on data gathered by SCAMPA teams, including Ms Alex Von Widdern’s third year Environmental Service group and Mrs Rebecca Schwarz’s lunchtime science club at Abingdon Prep. SCAMPA has attracted attention from local politicians, air quality campaigners and scientists, including an invitation to present at the Oxford Air Quality Meeting in January 2021. Professional scientists were impressed by what had been achieved and the potential for engaging schools in further research nationally and internationally. SCAMPA has also demonstrated that teamwork and collaboration are essential in science, with pupils, teachers, ICT and science technicians as well as parents and governors all supporting the project and ensuring its success despite the current, unusual circumstances. The Schools Clean Air Monitoring Project in Abingdon or SCAMPA By Jeremy Thomas, Abingdon Science Partnership Coordinator www.abingdon.org.uk 9