Recently, Tampa Prep Upper School students worked together on a month-long service project to design and build an air purifier system to help Graham Elementary School combat air quality issues and help with COVID reduction.
The students, Bryce Bedke, Isaieh Chois, Parker DeMarcay, Izzy Gobioff, Brady Hauser, Isaac Joyner, Nicholas Osgood, Collin Rogers, Asher Strauss, Demo Vazquez and Mason Yerrid, worked together to build 12 box filters, using wood and easily obtainable materials, for their final project in Computer Science Principles class, taught by Ms. Lassacher.
The inspiration for the project came from Dr. Rosenthal of UC San Diego who designed and disseminated plans for an air purifier using a simple box fan and MERV-13 air filters which have the capability of trapping virus particles.
The students tweaked the design of the air purifier to include two air filters, each of which can last a month, so that the school need only replace the filters every six months. Basic research on this shows that this type of inexpensive air filter is 90 percent effective at removing virus particles from the air in a small classroom even when the fan is run at medium speed.
