Insp-AIR-ation 

art+science community engagement project

In 2022 a citizen art project was created as a satellite project of Art+Science (AIR) Life’s a Gas  
by artist and project curator Pam McKinlay liaising with multiple community and school groups.
The schools’ “Insp-AIR-ation” project included a citizen science car count which converted tail pipe emissions into carbon dioxide equivalent then into the number of trees
which would be required to offset the emissions produced by passing cars.
The car count was partly an exercise in observation of things we take for granted
 – how many cars are in our environment plus an opportunity to take note of trees, birds, clouds, wind, sound and other “airey” things in our environment. The process of reflection drawing on the activity
 and observations was consolidated with the collaborative design and collective creation of fabric banners which embodied thoughts and feelings, aspirations and inspirations on the notion of our Air.

Below is an example of the Citizen Science activity plus results from a trial school.

 

Citizen Science activity

This activity can ideally be done on a fine day from the safe confines of the playground with participants counting from behind the school fence. Otherwise please observe safe counting practices in accordance with your classroom health and safety EOTC plans.

The count can be done in a variety of ways depending on age. For some just a total of passing vehicles will be the outcome. Ideally, we would get a more nuanced feel for passing vehicles in your neighbourhood by distinguishing between larger and smaller vehicles and if possible EVs*.

Directions for Car Count.

Count cars that go past for ten minutes

Small cars SUV/UTE Larger Trucks/Vans   Electric Cars Number of vehicles counted         Time of day

Note: Calculations – calculations might be above the level of some classes so please adapt to your classroom level or ability and needs. But the car data will be a fun activity and invaluable to the wider project.

From your average car count over ten minutes work out how many cars in an hour.

And then estimate how many cars over a day.

And then a year.

To find out how many trees must we plant each year to bind CO2 each year to compensate for those cars we have used a distance of 2km from the school’s locale.

See example of calculations from our trial school, on next page.

Use questions as the starting points  for discussion . How can we help get CO2 emissions down? Use a carbon footprint calculator for your household – what ways can we help reduce CO2?

RESULTS FROM TRIAL SCHOOL 

How many trees must we plant each year to bind CO2 each year to compensate for those cars? 

Car count example:

Child A 50

Child B 50

Child C 50

Child D 49

·        Average = 50 cars went through locale in 10 minutes

·        How many in an hour?  300 cars in an hour

How many in a day?
Note: are there busy and quiet times – for example the roads are quieter at night and early morning.

8 hours at 300 cars (busiest time – during day)= 2400 cars

Estimate 8 hours at 10 cars (quiet time – overnight) = 80 cars

Estimate 8 hours at 125 cars (intermediate times) = 1000 cars

·        Total in a day:  3480 cars

How many in a year?

3480 x 365 = 1,270,200 cars passing through this1km stretch in a year

So, 1,270,200 x 2 = 2,540,400 km is the distance the cars passing through your local school community locale will travel in a year.

We assume 10 litres of petrol per 100km for a vehicle to travel.

So: 254,040 litres of petrol are expended in our community each year.

 Each litre of fuel generates 2kg of CO₂

635,100kg of CO₂is emitted per year

1 tree can compensate for 1 litre of fuel

We would need 254,040 trees in our area to compensate for the gases produced.

 60 kg of CO₂emitted every hour.

There are 525,600 minutes in a year therefore if we had no existing trees already in our community, we would need to plant a tree roughly every 2 minutes to absorb all the CO_2.

How can we help?

·        Plant trees at school and a garden

·        Make people aware of the problem

·        Talk to other schools about what they are doing

·        Organise vehicle trips so you do lots of jobs in one trip

·        Bike or scooter to the shop

·        Use the carbon footprint calculator for our house – what are other ways to reduce CO₂

·        Find out where the most green house gases  are coming from

Workshopped collages. 

Words came from discussion groups which were then focussed into simple statements and simple images to convey strong messages.  This art project tried to be as sustainable as possible.  Collages were made only with textile remnants from Stitch Kitchen.