2021 Celebration Event


 

Due to restrictions associated with the covid-19 pandemic, GLOBE Ireland was once again unable to have an in-person event to celebrate the Globe Ireland Air Quality campaigns of 2020/2021. Instead, on May 20th, 2021, GLOBE Ireland held a virtual online event to celebrate the successful completion of the 2020/21 campaigns. We were delighted to be able to celebrate the achievements of the teachers and students that worked so hard during the year. Over 200 people attended the virtual event, including teachers and students that took part in the Air Quality campaign, along with GLOBE Director, Tony Murphy, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director General, Laura Burke, EPA representatives from the Citizen Science and Air Quality teams and scientists from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, Technical University Dublin, and University College Cork.

Students presented air quality stories from four secondary schools and two primary schools. The students presented their air quality findings and spoke about the traffic-related pollution pressures that exist at their school. All students demonstrated an impressive depth of knowledge and scientific reasoning skills. Several schools created posters for display in their school and showed how they communicated their air quality story with their local community.

Irish EPA Director, Laura Burke, said ‘two aspects of this work are important, firstly students are raising awareness around air quality and secondly students are collecting good quality data which supports EPA decision making on the Irish environment’. This meaningful statement from Laura Burke helped students understand how important their air quality project is for the EPA. The students also heard from Dermot Burke from the Air Quality team in the EPA. Dermot explained air pollution in a little more depth and described the role of the EPA in monitoring air pollution levels in Ireland. Students also heard from Trinity College Dublin scientist Dr Kamila Kwasniewska, who spoke about Lichen as bioindicators of air pollution and presented the new Lichen based Science-Art collaboration between GLOBE Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and the Irish Arts Council. 

You can watch the full video of the event here: https://youtu.be/OE7J6QlMnvs