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Activity (Hands-On)Grades 3 - 5

Air Quality and Weather Connections

An Air Quality Index (AQI) ChartAir Quality Index (AQI) Chart

Students will explore the pattern between air pollution levels and weather conditions in this activity. Students work together to learn about the color-coded Air Quality Index (AQI) chart that describes levels of air pollution for two main transportation-sourced air pollutants—particulate matter (PM) and ozone—and action to take on high pollution days. Student teams design a Wind Streamer, a prototype for collecting particulate matter (PM) particles outdoors. Over a period of 1-week or more, student teams will record daily particulate matter (PM) and ozone levels using AirNow.gov and weather conditions (wind speed, wind direction data, air temperature) using and Weather.gov at their school location (or nearest town or city). When finished collecting data, the class will analyze the data to see if a pattern exists between air pollution levels and weather conditions. They will also compare the relative AREN Wind Streamer data with the AirNow.gov and Weather.gov data. Ways to stay safe on high air pollution days are also presented.

Clean air is essential for everyone and the environment. Air quality engineers are one type of environmental engineer, and they help to monitor, control, and most importantly, reduce air pollution to help improve public health. Like other engineers, air quality engineers perform a variety of tasks as part of their job including:

  • Modeling and understanding pollution and its sources
  • Monitoring emissions and compliance with applicable regulations
  • Designing and implementing air quality improvement solutions

Air quality engineers have natural sciences knowledge and expertise, such as chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics, to inform their decision-making processes.

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Recall that particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone (O3) affect air quality.
  • Interpret the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels for healthy and unhealthy air.
  • Design-build-test a wind streamer prototype to observe wind conditions.
  • Classify place-based AQI levels for particulate matter and ozone air pollution using real-time, place-based air quality data from the AirNow.gov website or app.
  • Record concurrent place-based wind speed, wind direction, and air temperature from the National Weather Service Weather.gov website or app.
  • Compare and contrast place-based, concurrent particulate matter and ozone AQI data with recorded weather data.

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