Using hands-on educational modules and. materials, Breathe Providence engaged Providence residents and connected their lived experiences to hyperlocal air pollution data. This repositions vulnerable community members, primarily youth, as active actors of change within their own communities. The educational modules created were deployed as both Public Library Community Workshops and Groundwork Rhode Island Youth Workshops. Advertisements, flyers, and handouts were distributed in multiple languages to increase awareness and draw attention to the need for Air Monitoring and filtration. In library-based workshops, community members were led in building home air filters for use in home daycares, bedrooms, and kitchens. In the Youth Workshops, students used hand held monitors to learn and understand fluctuations in air quality, and see how different at home pollutants like candles and aerosols contribute to concentrations. The impact of these workshops was studied for efficacy and to better gauge future interests from community members.
Barry, Aissata,
"Emphasizing Environmental Justice in Environmental Education"
(2023).
Breathe Providence Digital Collection, Summer Research Symposium.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/ag7f-bx70
This collection holds research and engagement materials for Breathe Providence, a community-focused air monitoring network in Providence, Rhode Island based at Brown University. The monitors continuously measure concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), ozone (O₃), …
Each year, Brown University showcases the research of its undergraduates at the Summer Research Symposium. More than half of the student-researchers are UTRA recipients, while others receive funding from a variety of Brown-administered and national programs and fellowships and go …
