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Citizen Science: Smoke Sense Study

red and orange fire
Photo by Adonyi Gábor on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we are looking at a project from the EPA, and a subject that has been increasingly important over the summertime as wildfires have spread across the Western part of the US.

“Smoke Sense is a crowdsourcing, citizen science research project developed by EPA researchers focused on increasing public awareness and engagement related to wildfire smoke health risks. Specifically, EPA wants to understand the extent that exposure to wildland fire smoke affects health and productivity, discover what steps people are willing to take to reduce their exposure, and develop health risk communication strategies that improve public health when there is wildfire smoke. “

Tools & Resources

How can you connect this project to your library, and to your school, in addition to this project? We have a few ideas to help you to get started:

  • Set up a display of books and materials – including handouts – on fire safety. Talk about the plan everyone can use to evacuate the library in case of fire.
  • Do some first-aid training for dealing with burns, including preventing and handling sunburns.
  • Bring in a guest speaker from a local fire station to talk about fires at home and in public buildings
  • If you can go outside, work on fire-building skills. Talk through a few different styles to organize the logs and other material to make an effective fire. Talk about putting out a fire effectively.
  • Share some recipes for cooking outside on a fire, or on a grill outside.
  • Find satellite pictures of wildfires, and the aftermath of fires. What effects to land, animals, birds, and others happen as a result of fires – both good and bad?
  • Try bringing in different colors, using paints, chalks, or other tools, to draw fires. How many different colors can you see?