SAMHE FAQ

Find answers to commonly asked questions using the search tools below.


  • Background

    • Thanks so much for your interest in SAMHE! We are delighted to hear that you'd like to get involved.

      Registration to receive a SAMHE monitor closed on 31 May 2024 but schools can still benefit from the SAMHE teaching resources. See our get involved page for more information.

      If your school already has a SAMHE monitor, please note that the Web App will remain fully operational until at least January 2030.

      The support that we can offer SAMHE schools will reduce after 31st July 2024, when our current research funding ends. But don't worry - almost nothing else will change! We hope to receive additional funding in the future to extend and expand SAMHE, but even if we don't, you will be able to keep using your monitor and the Web App for many years to come.

      If your school has a SAMHE monitor, and it is not connected yet, please see our getting started page for help.

    • That's a great question! Our starting point is that because we know indoor air quality can affect our health, and children & staff spend a lot of time at school, we should try to learn more about the air quality in our UK schools.

      Our primary hypothesis is that involving pupils and staff in monitoring their air quality might be a sustainable way to gather school air quality data at national scale - if that works, we have many more detailed hypotheses to test with the data (for example, that the age of a building and the usage of a classroom might have an important effect on the air quality within, or that most classrooms can be adequately ventilated if staff are trained to manage their classroom ventilation).

      A secondary hypothesis is that our methods will, at the very least, raise awareness of air quality issues in some of the next generation - that cannot be a bad thing, and perhaps it will increase the likelihood of satisfying our primary hypothesis!

    • SAMHE has been designed to be used flexibly. You're free to use SAMHE however best suits you - you might use SAMHE during your lessons, with extra-curricular groups, or as part of extended project work. We know that in some schools our monitors will only be used infrequently and that's fine. Providing the monitors are plugged in and connected to the WiFi they still give us really useful data.

      For ideas about how SAMHE might work in your school take a look at our teacher testimonials video.

      Please note that although the research team's initial funding came to an end in July 2024, the SAMHE Web App will remain operational until at least January 2030 so you can continue using SAMHE in your teaching for years to come.

    • For an explanation of what the numbers on your monitor mean take a look at our guidance on monitor readings.This page has information on reference levels for each of the metrics we measure which will help put the readings into context. For more detail about what monitor readings mean in practice, and what you can do if these values concern you, take a look at our Resources. In particular, you might like to start by reading our About Air Pollution and ventilation guidance pages.

    • SAMHE is using AirGradient One monitors with custom firmware developed specially for our project. The monitors measure levels of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, total volatile organic compounds, temperature and relative humidity, all of which is displayed on the monitor screen in realtime. The concentration of CO2 detected determines the combination of monitor LEDs displayed.

      All information gathered by the monitors is transmitted to the SAMHE Web App via WiFi connection where it is made available to schools to explore in more detail.

      For more information about the AirGradient One monitor, including full technical specifications, visit the AirGradient website.

    • Yes! Based on the recommendations of the teachers we worked with during our 'Pioneers phase' we have developed a 15 minute presentation to assist you in introducing the project to interested parties at your school (and beyond)! Our template introductory presentation is linked from the Resources page.

    • If you are leaving your current school, please note that your SAMHE monitor was gifted to your school, so it cannot be taken with you. Although as of 1st June 2024 we are not sending out any more monitors, you can still get involved with SAMHE at your new school by taking advantage of our Teacher Resource Pack. See our get involved page for more information.

      Whether you're leaving school or just changing roles, if you are handing over responsibility for the school's SAMHE monitor to someone else, please use the following brief checklist:

      Handover checklist:

      If you're passing on SAMHE to someone else please:

      • Contact us - that way we can remove your contact details from our database. Ideally we'd also add details for your replacement (if you know who they are).
      • Give the new person the credentials for the school admin account
      • Encourage them to:
    • If you are wondering where to start with SAMHE, we'd recommend you follow these steps:

      • If possible, confer with the member of staff previously leading on the SAMHE project at your school to establish where they got up to with the set up process - you may find it helpful to refer to the Getting Started page when you do so
      • Confirm the credentials for accessing the school's admin account - these were sent to both the member of staff who initially registered your school on SAMHE and a non-personal inbox at your school (typically reception/admin team)
      • For context, read through some key pages on our website - we'd recommend the How SAMHE works to start with
      • Create yourself a teacher account and begin browsing the Web App - refer to our FAQ on 'How can I set up staff accounts?' for instructions on how to do this. Step 5 of the Getting Started page contains some ideas about what you might like to do first.
      • Over to you! SAMHE is designed to be used flexibly and can be used in a variety of different contexts - see our FAQ on What is expected of a SAMHE school for more info.
    • For a summary of what we know about the links between CO2 levels, cognition and concentration head to our Air Pollution and Health page.

    • For information about how outdoor air pollution can affect indoor air quality see our About Air Pollution page.

    • For information on the relationship between air quality and transmission of illnesses such as COVID-19 please see our Air Pollution and Health page.

    • Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are a low-cost but effective air filter which you could build for your school. Instructions have been provided by Clean Air Classrooms. If you wanted to, you could see if there are any differences in monitor readings before and after installation.

  • What does the monitor measure

    • The SAMHE monitors measure particulate matter (PM2.5), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), along with temperature and relative humidity. For more information about what we're measuring, why we're measuring it and how to make sense of your monitor's readings why not check out our guidance on interpreting monitor readings.

    • Data on the SAMHE monitor screen is in real time and is updated every minute. There is a slight delay of up to 2 minutes between what you see on the monitor and what you will see in the Web App.

    • It is not impossible but it is unlikely. Trees do give off lots of particular matter (PMs); for example, tree pollen is a PM but the particles tend to be relatively big. Most types of pollen would be expected to show up more in measurement of PM10 (we said 'relatively big' because PM10 is particles up to 10 microns in size, that is 1/100th of the millimetre on your ruler!). The SAMHE sensors measure PM2.5.

    • This is certainly something you could explore. We would expect that CO₂ levels and PM levels would go up as pupils move around more (more CO₂ due to heavier breathing, and more PM as dust from surfaces gets back into the air).

  • Access to data

    • Your school can see the data from your monitor, and so can researchers on the SAMHE project team. Other researchers will also be able to access your monitor's data subject to authorisation by the project team.

    • Other schools cannot see your data. We sometimes share average data from groups of schools and provide it to you as an average, but you'll never be able to identify which school the data came from.

  • Accessing the Web App

    • Yes, you can access monitor readings via the Web App using any web-enabled device, as long as you have your username and password. However, it has been designed to look best on either a tablet or computer. No matter what kind of device you are using you can find the SAMHE Web App by heading to https://samhe.org.uk/app. The SAMHE app is a 'Web App' as opposed to a 'native' app which means it operates within a browser, rather than being something you need to download from an app store

    • Yes, as long as they have their username and password.

    • Yes, if they wish to and they have their username and password

    • Unfortunately not, but if someone gives us more funding in the future, it is something we'd consider.

  • Interacting with the monitor

    • For advice on where to put your SAMHE monitor please refer to our guidance on monitor placement.

    • We encourage you to move your monitor(s) around to collect data about the different rooms in your school and we would recommend that you leave the monitor in each place for a minimum of a week, to allow it to collect data about the conditions of the room that it is in. When you move your monitor it would be really useful to the project team if you can tell us using the Web App when you have moved it and where you moved it to.

    • This is up to you and your school's timetable and other commitments. The SAMHE Web App is designed to be flexible and it is open to you to decide how you'd like to use it, you may have a regular group (e.g. a science club) who can do activities every week or so, or you might have one event a term where you interact with it.

      Measurements from SAMHE monitors, once they have been plugged in and connected to the internet, will be transmitted automatically to our secure database which supports the SAMHE Web App. This means that even just plugging in your monitor gives us useful information, so if you're too busy to interact with it for parts of the year that's not a problem at all.

    • If you can leave your monitor switched on overnight, and during other unoccupied hours such as over weekends and during school holidays, that will provide us (and you) with really useful data about baseline air quality conditions.

      If you are concerned about energy use, please be aware that SAMHE monitors require around 1.5 kWh energy per year.

    • SAMHE monitors require around 15 kWh energy per year - that's about £3.65 per year, using the UK price cap from Jun/24.

    • Ideally not! It's really important for our researchers to know what air quality is like when classrooms are not occupied (and your pupils might find it interesting too!). So please leave your SAMHE monitors switched on at all times, including outside of school hours and over school holidays.

    • Providing the monitor is plugged in and connected to the WiFi it will automatically transmit readings to our databases. This data will be made available to you within the Web App. There is no need to supervise this process.

      Using the date selection features provided on data views within the Web App you can review historical data, so if you are interested in seeing how monitor readings differ during unoccupied periods such as weekends or school holidays, this information is accessible at any time.

    • Please refer to our guidance on monitor placement for advice on where to put your monitor when moving it between classrooms.

  • Info for Teachers

    • The SAMHE monitor measures carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter, temperature, humidity, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs). You can read more about these in our guidance on monitor readings. If there are particular monitor readings which are causing them concern, you may wish to encourage your students to complete the data detectives activity to find out more about them.

      If your students are experiencing eco-anxiety, that is anxiety about effects of climate change, Hold This Space is a great tool for support and understanding, and they also have a list of resources that you and your students may find useful.

    • It is up to you. You have permission to share your data with whoever you like (or not, if you prefer). You can either let them know that the data are not publicly available and not provide it to them, or provide it to them. If you choose this second option, you could ask them which data they are interested in seeing and over what time period, navigate in the Web App to that graph, and then download the data as a csv file. If you do this, you may want to provide some guidance about onward sharing of that data (to e.g. other parents or other organisations).

  • Other

    • One of the key aims of SAMHE is to allow you to improve your understanding of air quality, so we have designed the Web App to enable you to investigate and understand your data, at least as well as we could - you know your school better than anyone else! For example within the Web App, the Data Detectives activity will help you find patterns in your data and identify possible causes. Our Resources Page is also a great starting point if you've got questions about how to interpret your monitor's data.

    • You'd probably see an increase in CO₂ levels and perhaps also an increase in relative humidity as little bits of spit come out of your mouth!

    • Your SAMHE monitor measures temperature and CO₂, and these two pieces of information together might be able to help you decide when windows need to be opened to ventilate, and when they can be kept shut. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools were encouraged to keep their windows open to ensure there was plenty of ventilation. In winter this can be problematic because then lots of energy is wasted trying to keep the classroom air warm enough. Keeping an eye on your CO₂ readings and opening windows when your monitor turns orange (800ppm) should allow you to have adequate ventilation but not require windows to be open constantly.

Get In Touch!

If you want to stay in touch by signing up for our newsletter, please complete the form below. (If you want to access the teacher resource pack, have a specific query about data, collaboration or media, please visit our Get Involved page to find out who to contact)

If you are under 13 then please ask your parent, carer or your teacher to submit this form on your behalf. If you are over 13 then you can send us a message yourself.

If you are experiencing technical issues with your monitor, please visit our Help Centre or use our Technical Queries Form.

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