Kalcheva A. and Shalamanova V.

Air Insights

For this Science Fair we decided to do an experiment studying Sofia’s air quality. Our initial idea was to collect air samples with a vacuum cleaner and a gauze every month, and then to study and compare these results’ change to the online air quality reports of PM (particulate matter) that we daily followed and reflected on. Until we figured out the perfect way to collect our samples, we made many trials. It was a long journey of making mistakes and learning from them. Because of that, and the state of emergency that occured, we ended up having only three good samples, which were not enough and prevented us from achieving our initial goal. However, we continued to keep track of the online data of the PM and AQI of the air, which is live broadcasted every day and can’t be found otherwise in any online reports. Finally, we decided to make a statistical project, where we more elaborately study this data and make scientific conclusions about it. The samples we collected were used as a visual depiction of Sofia’s dusty air, which we breathe daily. With our project we encourage everyone to be more concerned of the air we breathe and check the air quality from online AQI live maps.