Why study Air Quality in VIS Classrooms?
This study was an investigation regarding the Air Quality of classrooms at Vienna International School (VIS) throughout a regular school day. During the current global COVID pandemic, VIS has adapted and provides a distance-learning environment. However, in the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year, students were allowed to return to the school under thorough precautions, such as social distancing, masks, etc. to – deployed to mitigate the risk of further spreading the COVID-19 virus. While useful, wearing FFP2 masks all day long caused me – and many of my fellow students – headaches. I knew that the masks are an important and vital tool to limit the pandemic. But I wondered whether the headaches had to do with “just the masks” – or whether the masks were amplifying an already existing problem, namely the perhaps anyways poor indoor air quality in our classrooms. I wanted to find how how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ the air was that we are breathing in our classrooms, and as a result became the inspiration for this study.
How was data collected?
The data was collected from a first-hand experiment at VIS. Measurements of CO2, PM2.5, and PM10 were taken during normal classes at specific time increments to create a comparison. These measurements were taken using a “Temtop M2000C” Air Quality monitoring device by “Temtop“, in classrooms with and without ventilation.
Volume of Data collected:
Data was collected over 8 school days, taking air quality measurements in seven different classrooms at different times throughout the day (beginning and end of a period). In creating the graphs that illustrate the level of concentration in CO2, PM10 and PM2.5, averages across all measurements were computed. For a full evaluation of the hypothesis that the air quality in VIS classrooms needs to be improved, it would be good to gather further data. The data collection that underpins the investigation presented on this website was limited by COVID-19 restrictions; also data were not checked for inaccuracies or outliers.
Indoor Air Quality 