Integrating “Impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on air quality” in STEM courses and internships for undergraduate students

Madhumi Mitra; Abhijit Nagchaudhuri; Will Klein

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Environmental Engineering Division Technical Session 3
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41050
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41050
Download Count: 307

Paper Authors

biography

Madhumi Mitra University of Maryland Eastern Shore

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Dr. Mitra is a professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Her research areas are in Bioenergy, Bioremediation, and Biosorption studies of aquatic plants.

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biography

Abhijit Nagchaudhuri University of Maryland Eastern Shore

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Dr. Abhijit Nagchaudhuri is currently a tenured professor in the Department of Engineering and Aviation Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore(UMES). Dr. Nagchaudhuri received his baccalaureate degree from Jadavpur University (India) with honors in mechanical engineering in 1983. Thereafter, he worked in a multinational industry for a little over three years before joining Tulane University as a graduate student in the fall of 1987. He received a master’s degree from Tulane University in 1989 and a doctoral degree from Duke University in 1992. He is a member of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and, American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and is actively involved in teaching and research in the fields of (i) robotics and mechatronics, (ii) remote sensing and precision agriculture, and,(iii) biofuels and renewable energy

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Will Klein

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Rising Junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, pursuing a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering.

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Abstract

Air pollution is a global public health concern and has led to millions of premature deaths worldwide. In overpopulated cities, particulate matter such PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) in the troposphere have deleterious effects on human health leading to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The students in two undergraduate courses (Principles of Biology for Honors students and Ecology) and one graduate course (Teaching STEM at the K-12 schools) at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and summer-exchange undergraduate engineering interns learnt about the positive and negative effects of Covid-19 pandemic on air quality for some of the selected overpopulated cities in the world that witnessed lockdowns from March 2020 through spring 2021. The STEM students as well as the interns had the opportunity to learn how to analyze the real-time and historical air quality data from the Environmental Protection’s Agency’s centralized data system, AirNow, as well as from the Air Quality Open Data Platform (https://aqicn.org/data-platform/covid19) Worldwide Covid-19 dataset. For the above-mentioned courses, the materials pertaining to Covid-19 and air quality were taught in the form of modules (two for each course) with lectures; discussions and class debates; video materials; simulations with real-time data; and a project centering on that theme. The engineering students who worked as summer interns worked on analyzing data from five of the major cities in the world. Besides analyzing the effects of the pandemic on PM2.5, NO2, and O3 in the selected populated cities, the students also studied whether any correlations existed among the air quality parameters or not. The students’ learning outcomes included honing content knowledge in atmospheric chemistry and physics of particulate matter; environmental sciences and engineering; public health and policies; research skills with respect to data analysis and problem-solving; as well as presentation and writing skills. The students and interns in the courses and internships also addressed and debated on the various issues of sustainability, which encompasses social, environmental, economic considerations along with policies. The crisis of the pandemic on climate change is dependent on the policies of the governments towards which directions the economies need to head. When the governments prioritize to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, then the mitigation efforts of climate change could come to fruition. It is anticipated that with more ongoing collaborations across disciplines, the authors will be able to permanently integrate these diverse components in other STEM courses such as Statistics for Engineers, Big Data Analytics, and enhance multidisciplinary learning for all majors. This integration of research findings in STEM courses is a reflection of the KDB (Know, Do, Be) framework, as the interns and the students honed their skills not only in content knowledge through inquiry, but felt responsible in taking action towards mitigation efforts of climate change.

Citation
Format

Mitra, M., & Nagchaudhuri, A., & Klein, W. (2022, August), Integrating “Impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on air quality” in STEM courses and internships for undergraduate students Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41050

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Air pollution is a global public health concern and has led to millions of premature deaths worldwide. In overpopulated cities, particulate matter such PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) in the troposphere have deleterious effects on human health leading to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The students in two undergraduate courses (Principles of Biology for Honors students and Ecology) and one graduate course (Teaching STEM at the K-12 schools) at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and summer-exchange undergraduate engineering interns learnt about the positive and negative effects of Covid-19 pandemic on air quality for some of the selected overpopulated cities in the world that witnessed lockdowns from March 2020 through spring 2021. The STEM students as well as the interns had the opportunity to learn how to analyze the real-time and historical air quality data from the Environmental Protection’s Agency’s centralized data system, AirNow, as well as from the Air Quality Open Data Platform (https://aqicn.org/data-platform/covid19) Worldwide Covid-19 dataset. For the above-mentioned courses, the materials pertaining to Covid-19 and air quality were taught in the form of modules (two for each course) with lectures; discussions and class debates; video materials; simulations with real-time data; and a project centering on that theme. The engineering students who worked as summer interns worked on analyzing data from five of the major cities in the world. Besides analyzing the effects of the pandemic on PM2.5, NO2, and O3 in the selected populated cities, the students also studied whether any correlations existed among the air quality parameters or not. The students’ learning outcomes included honing content knowledge in atmospheric chemistry and physics of particulate matter; environmental sciences and engineering; public health and policies; research skills with respect to data analysis and problem-solving; as well as presentation and writing skills. The students and interns in the courses and internships also addressed and debated on the various issues of sustainability, which encompasses social, environmental, economic considerations along with policies. The crisis of the pandemic on climate change is dependent on the policies of the governments towards which directions the economies need to head. When the governments prioritize to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, then the mitigation efforts of climate change could come to fruition. It is anticipated that with more ongoing collaborations across disciplines, the authors will be able to permanently integrate these diverse components in other STEM courses such as Statistics for Engineers, Big Data Analytics, and enhance multidisciplinary learning for all majors.
This integration of research findings in STEM courses is a reflection of the KDB (Know, Do, Be) framework, as the interns and the students honed their skills not only in content knowledge through inquiry, but felt responsible in taking action towards mitigation efforts of climate change. 

AU  - Madhumi Mitra
AU  - Abhijit Nagchaudhuri
AU  - Will Klein
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Integrating “Impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on air quality” in STEM courses and internships for undergraduate students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41050
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41050
ER  -