Joining The Data

We are providing both student and teacher kits that will be run over the academic year with 6th class students. Each student gets their own kit and the activities work with the existing curriculum so can be included in a number of different subjects. Each kit includes a primary air quality activity with other recommended secondary activities. These can be done in school or at home.  

The Kit is designed to be compact, long lasting and easy to use for both the teacher and student. We began by defining the contents and activities. This allowed us to then design the packaging directly for the users and the activities they would be participating in.

The packaging is all about the student and the teachers, keeping things simple and removing any barriers to the learning process.

Each dox is clearly labeled 1, 2, 3 according the stage of the programme. There is a space to write your name and class on the front edge as they will probably be stacked on a communal shelf or placed in personal cubbyholes in the classroom. When you open the box, it stays open and you’re presented with a set of labeled activity boxes, each of which contains everything required for that activity, from instruction cards to equipment

Kit 1 includes the first group of activities. Kit 1 is an introduction to Air Quality and begins to connect Air Quality with visible items through tangible learning and links to the curriculum through Maths, Science, Art and Geography.

Catching Air (Main Air Quality activity)

Student writes their name on the back of the card

Smear vaseline on the square of the card

Hang up outside in the school grounds

Record the location

Examine one or two weeks later

• Collect 2-3 weeks later and send for analysis

• Visualise and share results when received

Upload and share the data as a class

We spoke to some teachers we know as well as those who are studying at NCAD. They provided great insights into how the children might respond to different tasks as well as how to make the kit more attractive to them as teachers. A key insight here was, rather than expecting the teacher to become familiar with the activity before running it with the class just give them a script to read from in the teacher’s kit. 

We ran the Catching Air activity from Kit 1 with a group of 6th class students in St Catherines Down national school. This allowed us to test eek with both the teacher and students.

School Trip Video (Awaiting confirmation)