Elizabeth Spike, Anne Fenton, Bradley Webster, Kristen Marker, Brook LaPorta, Peter Mecca, Carey Pollack, Joy Harper, Gabby Ciarcia, Dennis Chestnut, Andrea Zimmerman, Breathe DC, and Air and Waste Management Association-Baltimore Washington Chapter

The team’s innovative teaching idea, “Our Air, Your Future” empowers teens to apply Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education to civic life. The project creates an air monitoring network of high school campuses in the metropolitan Washington DC area. Teachers are trained how to use ozone and particulate air monitors for classroom use. Teachers instruct students how to collect, graph, and analyze their own campus ozone and particulate matter quarterly during the 2019-2020 school year. Using a Slack channel, teachers and students can share campus data, analysis, the environmental science of ozone and particulates, associated public health implications, and pollution reduction solutions with other participating schools. The project culminates in a student conference in Spring 2020 where students propose campus ozone and particulates mitigation solutions to community leaders in government, business, and nonprofit.