Announcements
Announcements
SAMHE (pronounced ‘Sammy’) stands for Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education. It is a citizen science project that has been designed with and for UK schools. SAMHE aims to establish a network of air quality monitors in schools across the UK to help us better understand schools’ indoor air quality. This is important because poor air quality can have impacts on pupils’ health and concentration levels.
Teenagers working in school classroom. Photo: Phil Boorman / Getty images.
The quality of our air is important. After all, around 10,000 litres of air passes through each person’s body every day. UK residents spend around 90% of their time indoors, yet regulations to address air pollution focus almost solely on outdoor exposure. Our indoor air often contains pollutants that can damage our health. Since young people spend lots of time at school, it is important to make sure that the air in classrooms is good, and improve it where it isn’t.
SAMHE is a collaboration between five UK universities and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The SAMHE research team aims to establish a school-based network of air quality monitors which is representative of the UK’s schools. Through that network we will record measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM) along with temperature and relative humidity.
SAMHE monitor
SAMHE also aims to give school communities the power to understand and improve their air quality. To that end we have created an interactive Web App that pupils and teachers can use to interact with the data from their monitor. They can see how their air quality changes over the course of hours, days or weeks and months. This creates opportunities for pupils to be scientists and do hands-on experiments with their monitors. It also gives students and teachers the knowledge and agency they need to control their own air quality, for example through opening and closing windows.
SAMHE Web App
The short video below introduces the Web App, highlighting the ways pupils and teachers can view and interact with the data from the SAMHE monitor and the range of curriculum-linked activities available. We also touch on the achievement badges pupils can work towards, and embedded glossary links to help students understand important terms.
A short tour of the SAMHE Web App
We are continuing to expand and develop the Web App throughout the life of the project. Some of the activities promoted through the Web App will be curriculum-linked. All of the activities have been designed to be flexible, so schools can do them as little or often as they like, for example, for one particular module for one class, or in a regular slot for a science or eco club.UK Schools are invited to participate, free of charge, in SAMHE. It is open to primary, middle and secondary schools and sixth form colleges. (Unfortunately exclusively early years schools cannot be accommodated).
Schools have helped co-design and test the SAMHE project before it was formally launched in April 2023. Read more about the co-design process.
Ultimately SAMHE aims to enhance understanding of air quality in schools to evidence national policies that result in improved health & education through changes in air-quality. We also aim to increase the engagement of school children in air quality science, potentially leading to a step-change in future national awareness.
Professor Sarah West was interviewed for the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology in its most recent briefing on indoor air quality. Read a feature discussing her contribution to the POST briefing, based on her work on SAMHE and also the INGENIOUS project which is investigating air quality in UK homes.
Feature / SEI York Centre Director Sarah West was interviewed for a recent briefing for the UK parliament.
This month Rhys Archer gave a webinar on the SAMHE project for the Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM). Watch her 20 mins talk to see what the (newly revamped!) SAMHE Web App looks like, how schools helped design it and how pupils and teachers are now using it to investigate their classroom air quality.
Rhys Archer presents the SAMHE project in a IAQM webinar
SAMHE was included as a case study in the The Child of the North: Addressing Education and Health Inequity report, published September 2023. The report highlights how children born into the poorest fifth of families in the UK are almost 13 times more likely to experience poor health and educational outcomes by the age of 17.
Sarah West said:
“I was delighted to contribute a case study about the SAMHE project to this important report, as citizen science projects like this can be an important way of empowering schools to better understand their environment and take low cost actions to improve it, thereby reducing inequalities.”
Read a press release about the report’s publication.
Early in the month we released the exciting new SAMHE Web App activity ‘Data Detectives’, which supports pupils to investigate data patterns they find interesting, including formulating a research question and finding an answer backed by evidence. We also finalized the Web App makeover, giving it a new colour scheme and improving navigation, helping pupils and teachers to find our activities and resources more easily.
Read about these developments, and much more, in the September 2023 issue of the SAMHE newsletter.
New look SAMHE Web App
We now have over 800 schools registered with the project. This was boosted by a piece on SAMHE by BBC Newsround, with Newsround presenter Ricky Boleto and SAMHE lead Henry Burridge visiting to one of our Pioneer Schools.
Read the June 2023 issue of the SAMHE newsletter.
We’re delighted to have seen a rush of schools signing up to take part in the project! This has been helped by a large number of school-facing organizations sharing our promotional material, inclusion in a Department for Education sector mailing, and media coverage including an article in Schools Week.
SAMHE has launched! From today (24 April), schools across the UK are able to register to receive their SAMHE monitor and access to the Web App. SAMHE will be available to 1500+ UK schools and we hope to recruit a wide diversity of schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, representative of the whole UK school community.
Read the press release.
Read the April 2023 issue of the SAMHE newsletter.
Read the March 2023 issue of the SAMHE newsletter.
Over the last few months our SAMHE Pioneer Schools have been testing and reviewing important aspects of the SAMHE offering to ensure that it meets schools’ needs.
With their feedback we have revised our instructions for schools logging in and connecting their SAMHE air quality monitors and improved the functionality of the data views on the Web App. They have also tried out our first Web App Activities and helped us refine our in-app ‘Achievements’ structure and the rewards strategy for how badges and certificates are gained.
Over the coming few weeks Pioneer schools will be invited to start testing our new ‘Data Detectives’ activity, which will help students investigate ‘spikes’ in their air quality data and explore what could be causing them.
That will bring our beta testing process with schools to an end. The SAMHE team will continue to implement the feedback, create new activities and tidy up the Web App and SAMHE website ready for the official SAMHE launch after Easter when we make SAMHE available to another 1500+ schools.
Screenshot from the SAMHE Web App in development
Our school registration form is now live. If you are are a staff member at a UK school, you can sign your school up to receive a SAMHE air quality monitor this autumn and help test the beta version of the SAMHE Web App.
The SAMHE website is now live. Visit it to read more about the project and find out how UK schools can get involved.
The SAMHE co-design schools have helped us design our logo, which we are very pleased with!
Teachers from our first co-design schools have met with members of the SAMHE team to start shaping the design and functionality of the web app. We have also started getting feedback on possible logo ideas from young people.
SEI York is leading on stakeholder engagement, including co-design and project communications. See the SEI York members of the SAMHE team.
The following organizations are providing support by promoting SAMHE to their networks:
Initial funding was provided by the Department for Education, which continues to be involved. Funding for the main project is provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
SAMHE team, partner and funder logos
SAMHE co-design process
Around 20 schools worked with the research team to co-design aspects of the project. They helped shape the design and functionality of the interactive Web App and shared ideas for activities it could offer. They also helped design the SAMHE logo (below).
SAMHE logo
In Autumn 2022 a further 100+ schools joined us as ‘SAMHE Pioneer Schools’. They received SAMHE air quality monitors and access to the beta version of the SAMHE Web App.
Pioneer schools helped us iron out potential issues schools could face in setting up and connecting their monitor. They also gave valuable feedback on the Web App, the initial activities it offers and the in-app achievement structure and rewards system.
Read more about the SAMHE co-design process.
To keep up with project developments you can:
Read past issues of the SAMHE newsletter
A section of SAMHE newsletter #3 March 2023
Feature / SEI York Centre Director Sarah West was interviewed for a recent briefing for the UK parliament.
Media coverage / The children's news programme visited a school where pupils were investigating their classroom's air quality using the SAMHE monitor and Web App.
Project / This project investigates air pollutants inside homes in the city of Bradford, UK: their sources, interactions and health effects on those living there.
Design and development by Soapbox.
