Pollution levels are not the same every day, and weather conditions may be why. Temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure all shift from day to day — and so do readings for carbon monoxide, particulates, and ozone. By graphing weather measurements alongside pollution data on the same chart, you can compare the patterns and spot which conditions line up with the worst air quality days.

Air pollution is harmful stuff in the air, but how much do people actually know about it? In one survey, most respondents did not know that 70% of air pollution comes from motor vehicles. You can design a questionnaire and give it to a random sample of students to find out what people know and where the gaps are.

Cars and traffic release harmful stuff into the air, and the amount changes throughout the day. This project sets up a video camera above a 200-meter stretch of highway with a 90 km/h speed limit, recording 18 hours of traffic from 6 a.m. to midnight. The footage splits into six 3-hour windows. For each window, you measure average vehicle speed, traffic volume, and flow pattern — and peak commute hours show the highest pollution scores.

Stop-and-go driving burns fuel less efficiently than steady cruising, which means rush hour traffic may release more harmful substances into the air than midday traffic does. To test this, you set up a video camera overlooking a 200-meter stretch of highway and record from 6 a.m. to midnight. Splitting the footage into six 3-hour windows, you estimate average speed, count vehicles, and note the flow pattern for each. Scoring those factors and adding them up produces a pollution index that shows how driving patterns shift air quality across the day.