PM Under the Big Sky Project: Does age matter

1
PM Under the Big Sky Project Does age matter?

• Presented by
• Corvallis High School

2
The Bitterroot Valley . . .
3
Question/Purpose

• Does the age of a home have any relationship with
  the air quality inside the home?

4
Hypothesis

• We believe that if samples are taken from houses
  of different ages, the newer houses will have a
  lower PM2.5 level.

5
Procedure

• Students took air pumps to their homes or other
  designated areas. Students filled out a
  questionnaire with questions pertaining to the
  building and its surroundings. The air pumps ran
  for 24 hours, then were brought back to school
  the next day for testing of the filters inside
  the air pumps.

6
Description of first graph

• The first graph has all the sampling sites and
  their PM2.5 levels. The PM2.5 concentration is
  measured in micrometers, and the age of the
  houses is measured in years with all the graphs.

7
(No Transcript)
8
Description of other three graphs

• In the next three graphs, you will notice that
  the samples have been split into three groups
  those that had neither frying nor woodstoves(6),
  those that had factors such as baking or frying
  during the sample period(6), and those with
  woodstoves(3).

9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Results

• The graphs show that the newer clean houses had a
  lower PM2.5 level than the old clean houses.
• In the houses with factors such as woodstoves,
  frying, and/or baking, the newer houses had a
  higher PM2.5 level than the older ones.

13
Conclusion

• We have scientifically concluded that our
  hypothesis was correct to a certain extent. It
  depends on insulation. A newer house has better
  insulation than an older house, therefore the
  newer house not only keeps unclean air out, it
  also keeps unclean air from woodstoves in.

14
Possible Errors

• The amount of time woodstove is used
• The amount of frying/baking taking place in the
  facilities
• Open windows and doors

15
Thanks to Our Judges . . .

• Russ Thomas
• Mark Heyka
• Garon Smith
• Heidi Meili
• Ben Schmidt

16
El Fin!