Cutting-edge climate science has inspired students from two Wellington primary schools to reduce their carbon footprint through a two-week active transport campaign. An atmospheric sensor has been measuring CO2 and CO concentrations outside the schools, during school holidays and term time. The students are now on a mission to create a measurable difference in their emissions.

From 11 November the students have been on a quest to walk or wheel to school, with the GNS Drive it Down! project team continuing to measure greenhouse gas concentrations across the two-week campaign. For every trip to school by walking, scooter, bike or public transport they score a stamp for their ten-trip card. Greater Wellington has provided prizes to incentivise the students to get involved.

But it’s not just about the prizes – in the lead up to the initiative the students have been using educational resources supplied by the Drive it Down! project to learn about the carbon cycle and greenhouse gases, and the power of making a difference at a personal level.

Silverstream School Science Teacher Erin Edmonds says that the students are showing a great enthusiasm for the challenge of reducing their emissions, and have enjoyed working directly with the scientists.

“Our tamariki are realising they can individually contribute to decreasing our local carbon emissions simply by choosing to find alternative ways to get to kura. Drive it Down! has provided our whole school community with a real-world platform and actual local data to teach about the greenhouse effect, statistics, interpreting graphs, and how important it is for us to continue to push for alternatives to fossil fuels.”

“Teachers have also noticed children coming to class in the morning with a bit of a spring in their step, a little more awake and ready to learn. “Maybe it's because our blood is pumping a little bit faster because we biked to school” one of our children said last week. Perhaps that might be our next scientific investigation!”

Matt Finnigan, Associate Principal Years 5-8 at Seatoun School, says that the project has provided leadership opportunities for students.

“It was great for our student leaders to have a project to spearhead. It has been a big collaboration between students, teachers, iwi, project partners, families, neighbours, and Seatoun Kindergarten,” says Finnigan.

GNS Carbon Cycle Scientist Leigh Fleming, says that the project hopes that by making “invisible” carbon dioxide emissions visible through the data, the students will feel empowered to take action.

“Transport contributes 90% of the average kiwi’s personal direct emissions – most people who drive to work and school can reduce their own emissions by around 20% simply by changing to low carbon transportation one day per week,” says Fleming.

The Wellington wind has presented a few challenges, making it harder to spot a peak in concentrations in relation to the school-run traffic. The team have concluded that this is due to a process called “atmospheric mixing”, when the wind blows the emissions around and mixes them into the atmosphere, so the sensor is picking up a mix from the wider area. 

Whereas in Auckland, where the Drive it Down! project was first piloted, the sensor found very clear peaks in CO2 and CO between 8 – 9am, the data from Silverstream and Seatoun requires a closer look to begin to see the impacts from school traffic.

“For Seatoun School, we could see an average increase of 2.9 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 between 8-9am compared to 4-5am during term times, but only a 0.3 ppm increase during the holidays. Breaking down the data by day of the week, we can see the tell-tail peak around school-drop off, it’s just a bit harder to spot” says Fleming.

“This is the way scientific research sometimes goes – it’s not as clear-cut as you might like. It’s a great opportunity for the students to learn about the research process, and how the data does not always tell the story you expect – which opens the door for further investigations,” says Fleming.

Students from both schools are also collecting survey data counting the number of people walking or wheeling to school, before and during the initiatives, providing another way to measure the impact of their active transport campaign.