A two-day Web-Quest on “Air Quality Evaluation” was organized for students of class VII to XII on 14th and 18th May 2020. The Web-Quest was designed to introduce the concept of air quality index and the possible reasons behind the changes that take place in it with time and events.
Around 300 students and teachers participated in the Web-Quest. Participants from various states of India such as Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar-Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttrakhand etc joined the Web-Quest
The first day of the Web-Quest started with a short sharing session about Air Quality Index (AQI) by 2 students of Assam and Kolkata who earlier attended the "Young Producers Camp" by TISS at Delhi in June 2019. This was followed by a task where students had to find AQI of various states, put it in a table which will automatically generate a graph and then analyze reason behind the changes in AQI levels over the months . The participants were sent to various break out rooms on zoom, based on their language preferences. Each room had an ITE team member as a facilitator. After completing the task the students were asked to analyze and reflect on the graph created out of the values of AQI they entered. At the end of the first day the students were given a homework activity to create an artifact based on the factors that contribute to the AQI for going higher or lower in value.
On the second day, students presented the projects they made based on research from various resources, related to the factors that control the AQI. The research results were presented using various applications like pictochart, powerpoint presentation, scratch, m-block, Arduino-UNO, Spreadsheets, Postermywall, Mindmaps etc. At the end of the second day of the Web-Quest, the students played a Synchronous quiz made by the ITE Resource Team Members, TISS on AQI. This activity was very much engaging for participants and they really found it very much interesting as it was an awaited moment for them.