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HalesAir

Lectures & Sessions

Teaching sessions delivered by Dr James Williams across the project — from sensor hardware to community presentations.

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About these sessions

Sessions are delivered by Dr James Williams (STEM Partner, Research Fellow, University of Nottingham) to Halesowen College's Digital T Level (Data Analytics) students as part of the HalesAir project. Each session is hands-on and directly connected to a stage in the project pipeline — from building the first circuit to presenting findings to local stakeholders.

Session Schedule

Session 01

What is Air Quality? Sensor Design & Research Questions

Friday 6 March 2026
  • What is air quality?
  • Who is the STEM Partner?
  • Designing your sensor
  • Picking a location · Research question design
Delivered View Slides
Session 02

Hardware & Electronics

  • Raspberry Pi Pico W overview
  • GPIO and I2C communication
  • BME680 sensor board
  • Breadboarding and circuit basics
Next up View Slides
Session 03

MicroPython Fundamentals

  • Setting up Thonny IDE
  • Variables, loops, and functions
  • Reading from the BME680
  • Printing and formatting sensor data
Next up View Slides
Session 04

Data Logging & Transmission

  • Writing data to a CSV file
  • Connecting to Wi-Fi on the Pico W
  • HTTP POST requests in MicroPython
  • Handling network errors
Next up View Slides
Session 05

Data Cleaning & Exploration

  • What is 'dirty' data?
  • Identifying outliers and missing values
  • Summary statistics
  • Exploratory data analysis in Python/Excel
Next up View Slides
Session 06

Statistical Analysis

  • Descriptive statistics
  • Correlation and trends
  • Time-series patterns
  • Comparing sites and conditions
Next up View Slides
Session 07

Data Visualisation

TBC
Session 08

Science Communication

TBC

A taste of the code

In Session 03 students write their first MicroPython to read live sensor data from the BME680.

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# session03_bme680_read.py
from machine import I2C, Pin
import bme680, time

i2c = I2C(0, sda=Pin(4), scl=Pin(5))
sensor = bme680.BME680_I2C(i2c)

while True:
    temp = sensor.temperature
    hum  = sensor.humidity
    pres = sensor.pressure
    gas  = sensor.gas

    print(f"Temp: {temp:.1f}°C  "
          f"Hum: {hum:.0f}%  "
          f"Pres: {pres:.0f} hPa  "
          f"IAQ: {gas}")


    time.sleep(10)
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Session Resources

Slide decks, code examples, and worksheets for each session will be linked here as the project progresses. Students can also access materials via the college's learning platform.