Creating Universal Healthy, Happy, and Air-Filtered Futures : The Corsi-Rosenthal Box Initiative

Presenter: Ella McCloskey, Biological Sciences: Cell Biology & Genetics, Global Public Health Scholars

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For my practicum, I worked in the School of Public Health's PHAB Lab. I studied how to minimize the spread of airborne respiratory diseases through the use of Corsi-Rosenthal Box Air Filters. I put on informative box-building initiatives to UMD classes where I began with a presentation about air quality, disease transmission, and CR boxes, then went into teaching the student how to make the box air filters and building them alongside them. I gave out pre-, immediately post-, and one month post-build surveys to evaluate how well the students absorbed the information taught during these initiatives and how to best alter the initiatives for more effective use in the future. Through this research, I learned so much about how airborne diseases are spread and how effective little adjustments to your daily life, like adding a portable air filter to your surroundings, can be in minimizing your risk for disease. In addition, I also learned a lot about myself. I learned just how much I adore public speaking and teaching, which I hope to incorporate into my future career. I also discovered my newfound love for virology and now hope to study that on a more molecular level in the future. This research project also ties to public health because it is looking into small ways to help provide everyone, despite socioeconomic status and location, access to clean air, which is a necessary essential for all. Clean air should be a given, and this research provides us a way to give people a cost-effective, easily accessible way to obtain it, which is a very ambitious public health initiative.