In the month of October, the Earth Team interns from Pittsburg High School and Antioch High School dove deeper into their journeys to becoming environmental scientists and leaders. As they begin to gain momentum in their projects, these interns have become immersed in developing STEM skills not only through activities in meetings, but through exercises in the field as well. For example, these intern teams had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience collecting data and road dust samples while walking around their respective communities. You can read more about that event here. Then, they transferred the data from a physical document to an online data sheet where the metrics can be more easily compared.
The interns used a similar data collection and organization process to complete a CalEnviroScreen Data Analysis Lab that built upon their investigation of tire and road wear particles in local road dust pollution. Developed by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), CalEnviroScreen is a publicly available tool that maps environmental, health, and socioeconomic data by census tract across the state. While this data is organized into composite categories that provide average scores based on the census tracts that are being studied, they are also further split into what CalEnviroScreen calls “indicator groups,” including exposures, environmental effects, sensitive populations, and socioeconomic factors.
The interns used open-source data from the CalEnviroScreen 4.0 Data Dashboard to explore how various types of pollution correlate with low community health levels, and to better understand the concept of environmental justice in their own neighborhoods. During this multi-week lab, interns followed a series of detailed steps to record indicator data for the census tracts within four localized selections. The geographic scope of these selections varied greatly, narrowing from census tracts within all nine counties of the Bay Area, to Contra Costa County, to just the City of Pittsburg or Antioch, and lastly to the single census tract that each intern’s specific home address is located in. While this lab was completed individually, interns worked collaboratively to help each other navigate CalEnviroScreen and analyze their collected indicator data.
Beyond the numbers, interns reflected on what these statistics represent in real life. They were able to identify which communities experience higher levels of pollution burden as they compared their cities and neighborhoods to the greater Bay Area. Many recognized that the data aligned with what they already knew about their communities or had personally experienced. Through this lab, students connected quantitative evidence with qualitative lived experiences, deepening their understanding of how environmental issues impact people differently across California. They also learned the key statistical concepts needed to properly read CalEnviroScreen data, including the crucial difference between percent and percentile, and how these numbers tell different stories about environmental inequity.
This experience not only strengthened interns’ data analysis and critical thinking skills, but also empowered them to become more informed advocates for environmental justice. As the teams move forward with their projects this year, they will continue to combine STEM learning and youth-driven advocacy to inspire change in their local communities.
