2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Corsi-Rosenthal Box Learning Module: How Can We Make Clean Air Accessible for Schools? (Resource Exchange)

Presented at Instructional Showcase

The COVID-19 pandemic brought concerns about indoor air quality, particularly in schools, to the forefront. Poor indoor air quality is associated with decreased academic performance, trouble concentrating, respiratory health concerns (i.e. asthma exacerbation), and transmission of respiratory illnesses. The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is a do-it-yourself (DIY) air purifier that students as young as early elementary school can build that improves indoor air quality. This project allows students to engage in the engineering process with a project that is immediately applicable to their lives. It also provides a starting point for discussions of environmental justice.

We are sharing detailed multi-day lesson plans developed for 5th and 8th grade classrooms with specific links to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Social Justice Standards. The 5th grade lesson plan focuses on engineering and earth and life sciences, while the 8th grade lesson plan focuses on physical and life science, with both sets of lesson plans spaced out over three days. To elevate a focus on social and environmental justice in ways aligned to the NGSS, the 5th and 8th grade lesson plans position students to interrogate and propose actions to address differential access to air quality experienced by vulnerable communities as a result of historical red-lining, powered zoning decisions, and inequitable school funding models. In addition, we have a Girl Scout Lesson Plan which focuses on engineering and physical science. All lesson plans require the materials to build the DIY air purifiers: a 20” box fan, four 20”x20”x2” MERV-13 air filters, duct tape, and any craft supplies needed to decorate the filter. We recommend a set of materials for each group of 3-5 students. All the lesson plans are available to the public through our webpage.

Authors

Aaron Richardson University of Connecticut [biography]

Aaron Richardson studies and teaches with a focus on social and racial justice, accessibility, and creating relevant curriculum that will make use of students' lived experiences and knowledge to help them bring their own personal meaning to their education and into the classroom. Aaron Richardson's interest in the Corsi-Rosenthal Learning Module project revolved around accessible, relevant science and engineering education for students by using phenomena that can directly impact students' lives and communities to inform the direction of the unit plan. It is his hope that these and the future curricula he will work on will help to include and empower more diverse students to see themselves in the fields of science and engineering, as well as see themselves as advocates for change and innovation in their communities.

Aaron Richardson is a trained horticulturist with fifteen years of experience in the field dating back to his time in the National FFA Youth Organization, and has gone on to acquire Bachelor's degrees in Horticulture, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Biology Education from the University of Connecticut (UConn). Aaron is currently a Master's student with the Neag School of Education at UConn, seeking a Master's of Curriculum and Instruction, and will be entering the public teaching workforce after graduation of Spring 2024.
Todd Campbell University of Connecticut [biography]

Todd Campbell is a Professor and Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut.
Marina A. Creed UConn Health and UConn School of Medicine [biography]

Marina Creed is an Instructor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and practicing Neuroimmunology Nurse Practitioner in the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UConn Health. She has been engaged in translational public health efforts throughout the COVID19 pandemic to improve outcomes for her immunosuppressed patients by reducing exposure to infectious and non-infectious air pollution in public schools and community spaces throughout the State of Connecticut. She founded and is the director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative, a cross-campus, multidisciplinary team of scientists and clinicians studying low-cost air purifiers in both laboratory and real-world settings.
Dr. Kristina M. Wagstrom University of Connecticut [biography]

Dr. Kristina Wagstrom is an associate professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. She specializes in applying chemical engineering principles to better understand the human and ecosystem health impacts of air pollution (outdoors and indoors).

Download paper (9.74 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session