Montana K-12 teachers participated in focus groups providing input on SMART FIRES' new citizen science initiative which will provide schools with air quality measurement tools. The teachers–from Billings, Cut Bank, Great Falls, and Yaak–expressed interest in the concept, saying that they are always open to bringing new technologies into the classroom. They said the technologies could be used for hands-on lessons to engage students in the science of measurement and awareness of their local air quality. The initiative would then use the collected measurements from across the state, allowing students to be part of an ongoing research project.
The citizen project could integrate aspects of the Social Psychology, Economics and Ethics thrust by engaging students in discussions of how different air qualities affect them and their communities. The data might also be used by the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning thrust as a set of test data for their new model.