| dc.description.abstract | Student research campaigns (forskningskampanjer) have been an annual event in connection to Research Days (Forskningsdagene) since 2003 in Norway. The campaigns invite students fromall over the country to participate in a common scientific research event, which for 2007 was “CO2 on the way to school”. The campaign was geared to draw attention towards emissions of the most important human influenced climate gas, carbon dioxide - in connection with students transport to and from school. Simultaneously were the participants, which comprised of teachers and students, guided towards increasing knowledge of the general climate problem and to reflect over one’s own behaviour and various options for local solutions. As with previous campaigns, this campaign included data collection at the class/student level, and was entirely facilitated by the campaign website for obtaining guidance and entering the collected data, as well as later data analysis.
2575 students from 86 different schools participated in the campaign, all from varying regions of Norway, with a relatively equal distribution. All ages of students from 5th to 10th grade (10 to 18 years old) in primary/secondary school were represented, as well as the first two levels of high school. The data results show (see Table 3 and Table 4 below) that more than 42% of the participating students walk to school, while 26% bike to school, in other words, more than 2/3 of the students do not emit CO2 on their way to school. In addition, approximately 30% use public transportation, especially the bus, while the portion of CO2 intensive modes such as taxis and cars made up approximately 15%. The average CO2 emission per student per year on their way to school is approximately 95kg, a value that is less than 1% of the yearly emission rate per inhabitant in Norway. (Also in Norwegian OR 64/2008) | |
