Students conduct air quality survey

Courtney Flint’s Sociology 4620 class conducted a survey last month on the attitudes of Utah State University students, faculty and Logan residents regarding air quality.

Analysis of the survey, which will be completed when classes resume after spring break, will be given to the Logan City Council for public use.

“When the city came in, they said this is the first time they’ve even looked into air quality,” said Tom Magnuson, a sophomore majoring in business. “I think it will be really important (for the city to receive the data).”

Flint began planning this project once she became aware that the city chose air quality as an area of interest in its Community Bridge Initiative, an act that allows students to use knowledge learned in the classroom to solve local problems.

“I thought it was an interesting way for students to apply what they were learning in Environmental and Natural Sociology in the real world as well as to be of use for someone beyond the classroom,” she said. “This seemed like a perfect fit for our class since we’re studying the connections between society and the environment.”

The class spent significant time formulating questions that they considered scientifically appropriate. Afterwards the 36 students split up, they were able to survey 642 people in under an hour.

“We were … grouped according to our interests, then we worked together to formulate questions and submitted them to Dr. Flint,” said Cameron Lawrence, a senior majoring in environmental studies. “It was really nice that she was super involved in the project but that she also let us work to create what we thought was important.”

Flint said although the project began with only teaching and service purposes in mind, if students had ambitions of publishing research based on the survey, she believes it may be possible.

“If there are students who step up and actually want to work with this data really deeply and try to publish this, I think it’s possibly publishable,” she said.

Regardless, some students feel the experience has given them an experience they might not have had otherwise.

“I had never had the opportunity to actually conduct a face-to-face survey with anyone before, and it’s hands-on experience,” Lawrence said. “It’s something I could actually be doing in my field after I graduate.”

— levi.henrie@aggiemail.usu.edu