In attendance were representatives from Manchester University, Red Rose Forest and Councillor, Richard Cowell, Executive Member for the Environment, Manchester City Council. Due to its significance, the BBC and Manchester Evening News covered the event. Prior to the launch, students involved in the project conducted live interviews for BBC Radio Manchester.
The i-Trees project is a world first for Manchester and coincides with the United Nations conference held in Copenhagen, in which world leaders have gathered to discuss strategies which will reduce climate change. If global warming is allowed to continue at the current rate, it is expected that by the year 2050, the average temperature during summer in British cities will have risen to 30°C, which would become increasingly uncomfortable.
Furthermore, there has been an increase in localised flooding in the last 50 years and air particulates (from car emissions). It is predicted that by planting more trees in an urban environment we will counteract these effects. However, until now, no-one has accurately measured this.
Manchester Academy is acting as a working-lab to investigate these claims. At the back of the basketball courts, there are 3 adjacent sections consisting of: tarmac, tarmac with a tree in the centre and grass. Three groups of Manchester Academy Students will be responsible for collecting the data and comparing the levels of rainwater run off and surface temperature for each of the different surface types.
They will also measure the level of harmful pollution that is absorbed by the trees leaves (and therefore taken out of the air). The pupils will do this by washing the leaves, then filtering and evaporating the water. The residue left behind will provide an indication about how effective the trees are at removing harmful pollutants from the atmosphere – the more residue, the better the tree is at absorbing pollution.
Involving the students from Manchester Academy in the project is really important, as they will be finding out first hand about climate change and its effects, and making a real contribution to the study and the future of Manchester.
Pete Stringer, from the Red Rose Forest said this about the Manchester Academy Students: “I really thought that your students were a credit to the Academy. I was really impressed with how much they already knew. This is obviously a reflection of the teaching standards at Manchester Academy. What really struck me was how savvy your students were at working out the problems of measuring heat and surface water run-off. They were asked very searching questions about design and dealing with outside factors that might have an influence on or skew results and gave excellent answers”.
By Dr Jo Smiles
Curriculum Area Leader, Science
Manchester Academy