Micro Campus, Macro Future: School-based Microclimate Monitoring and Forecasting Network in Geography and STEAM Education

Overview

The scorching Urban Heat Island (UHI) impacts are raising concerns in the society. More frequent extreme hot days were recorded under the synergy of climate change and urban development in Hong Kong. To quantify the thermal comfort and health threats of secondary school students, this school has setup experimental pilot studies to conduct meteorological measurement and simulation with integrating Geography, and STEAM-education initiatives at local secondary schools. With the establishment of Community Weather Information Network (Co-WIN) by the Hong Kong Observatory and Tertiary Institutions in 2007, around 35 community stations were actively operating at the rooftop of local schools across the territory. To further investigate and forecast the spatiotemporal extreme heat ‘hotspots’ surrounding the school campus, this project engages students to participate in low-cost environmental sensors’ measurements and conduct multi-methods heat survey over their school campus with inquiry-based learning pedagogies.

The project aims to utilise the existing Co-WIN network, to deploy low-cost environmental sensors with Long Range Radio (LoRa) technology for campus heat measurement. It also aims to provide opportunities for secondary school students to participate in the measurement and fieldwork campaign at their school to promote Geography and STEAM education initiatives. Further, the project aims to develop heat-precaution guidelines and heat alert forecast for schools.　

Through the qualitative and quantitative approaches, students could take initiatives in spotting out the potential extreme heat locations at their campus and conduct measurement and field work surveys to validate their hypothesis. Besides, the hands-on experiences on DIY sensor assembly had gained student’s interest in connecting the humanities Geography subject with the STEAM and science knowledge, which can serve as a key for the paradigm transformation in reshaping Geography subject into a more diverse and science-based disciplinary. Upon the completion of this pilot study, by integrating the meteorological measurement and automatic regional weather forecast from the Hong Kong Observatory, a school-based thermal comfort alert had also been developed to forecast the uncomfortable ‘hotspots’ within the campus, which can serve as a health-safety management tool for school to take precautionary actions in advance of potential heat stroke impacts from students’ outdoor activities. These outcomes had remarked the importance of institutional collaboration.　

Participants of this seminar will understand:
1. Co-WIN (Win-Win) solution by integrating education and research initiatives for a school-based inquiry-based learning project;
2. 1 plus 1 can greater than 2 by institutional partnership for the goals; and
3. applying geography and STEM interdisciplinary learning and teaching activities can help to explore in-depth environmental sustainability issues.