PHOENIX — Whether it’s the flu, seasonal illnesses or COVID-19, parents know classrooms can be a hotbed for nasty germs.
Now, some Phoenix students are doing everything they can to protect their health while at school.
Engineering students at Cesar Chavez High School in Laveen have built purifiers to help fight against COVID and other viruses.
The students not only put the purifiers together with materials like fans from retail stores and tape, but they also researched their effectiveness in filtering out viral particles.
"The top questions were, what do these things really do and how effective are they, do they really make the classroom safer, and how long would someone need to leave this on to clean the air in their classroom?" engineering teacher Chelle Myrann said.
The students tested it out to answer all those questions.
"We had so many trials. We did different tests," Gabriela Herrera said. "We did our research and we found it's 90% efficient, the filter will catch the particles."
"They did some research about the filters themselves and wanted to try to figure out how fast the fan was moving the air, and we were really surprised by the amount the filters slow the air down," Myrann added.
The goal was to make classrooms safer and the teacher said her students accomplished their mission.
"I'm very proud of them," Myrann stated. "If I was concerned if the students had COVID, it would probably take 30 minutes to an hour (of the purifier running) to be reasonably safe."
"I don’t like wearing masks -- they get annoying when they’re on long enough," said Connor Costa, one of the students who worked on the project. "So yes I like the purifiers, it makes me feel safe being around everyone and not having to worry about getting sick."
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