#DataYou: Colin Burt, Roslin Primary School

Colin Burt from Roslin Primary school tells us about the Internet of Things project, and the opportunity the pupils have to take data from their sensors to make recommendations as to how to improve the classroom environment. Proving it’s never too early to have a real hands on data experience- This is their data story…

We have a group of Primary 6 children at Roslin Primary School in Midlothian who are fascinated by data.

Their interest is in what data can do to solve problems, how it can improve things in the school.

We have monitors to record carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and air quality. The pupils know high levels of CO2 are not good for learning as they can make them drowsy and dull their attention span. They know we need cleaner air with higher oxygen content.

So the pupils have plotted data on graphs and charts to think about where we might need more ventilation – and how to move people around the school to reduce concentrations of CO2 when large numbers of pupils and staff are in the same area.

We want to make data relevant to children’s lives – so we ask lots of questions, and collect and collate information to think about health and fitness, or how much plastic we’re using in school, as well as air quality.

Roslin was one of the first schools involved in the Internet of Things project, which aims to get CO2 monitors and other equipment into all schools in Edinburgh and South East Scotland within three years. The aim is to collect and interpret data to inform decisions in schools, and in education across the region.

Before we got our monitors at Roslin, we were involved in the Data Town project. The children were given a map and told they could use sensors to capture different information. Where would they place them in the town? Why? What kind of data would they collect? How might that help?

The children (aged 10 and 11) came up with great ideas; sensors on hospital doors to measure people going in and out; checking temperature in hospitals; sensors at traffic lights and roadsides to measure pollution and car speeds.

The children also looked at health and fitness, doing weekly circuits for a specific time. They mapped their results onto a graph to see whether they were getting better or worse – then linked that to sleep patterns and what they were eating, to create personal plans.

When we got our CO2 and air quality monitors, they helped us to make data even more useful. There’s no point finding out about pollution levels and doing nothing. We ask: Why is it high here? What can we do? What if we move monitors to different parts of the school, or bring plants into classrooms?

A ‘data team’ creates a weekly report based on the 12 CO2 monitors in school, then reviews the data and looks at peaks – when it might be above safe levels – and potential actions.

We found some peaks in certain classrooms when children were all getting up at the same time and moving about. So they thought we should ensure we have a door or window open at that point – or stagger the times they move around.

We’ve put monitors in other areas of the school – the PE hall, library, some main corridors – to look at footfall at specific times. Is it too heavy and having a negative impact on CO2 levels? Could we use different corridors to benefit the circulation of air within the school?

The children are really excited about what we’re doing. We had a core group but the numbers wanting to be involved has increased. We’ve got nearly the whole Primary 6 class now and we are setting them data challenges.

The children also want to look beyond the school. We’d like to go into places like Roslin Glen – to monitor water quality or get leaf litter and see how many bugs or insects are in it to calculate how many there are overall.

And the children were very excited when the impact of the underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga at the turn of the year showed up on our air pressure monitor.

We set a challenge to see how fast the explosion travelled around the world, taking into account time differences, and using the physics formula: velocity equals distance over time. The children came up with all these questions – if there were clouds in the sky, would that slow the explosion down? If the wind was blowing in a certain direction would it speed it up? We did a conference call with a volcanologist and the children asked him lots of questions. That enthusiasm and excitement is great to see!

The children are aware of the importance of data for providing solutions to global problems like climate change. They realise that understanding it could be good for them in the future.

My opinion is that using and analysing data should be a staple part of the curriculum, because it’s such an important skill to have. These are the kinds of skills we need for the future, and for future jobs.

 

WHAT THE CHILDREN SAY

Why is Data important?

So we can tell if the thing we are measuring is improving – or whether it is getting worse (in relation to CO2 monitors) – Bethany Macqueen

It allows us to see if our solutions have made a difference – Orla McCafferty

 

What fascinates me about data?

I love to investigate the reasoning behind why data shows us certain things or results. – Zoja Bielecka

It fascinates me how quickly the measurements can change so in an active environment, and change so quickly; for example, the way the Tonga eruption changed our air pressure sensors so quickly – Olivia Inglis.

This project is part of the Data Education in Schools strand of the Data Skills Gateway. Visit their website for more information.