Sharing Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Air Quality in Schools

lbennett — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:47:19 +0000

lbennett Fri, 06/12/2026 - 20:47

The Ask: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sought to assess and synthesize decades of research on air quality in schools around the world. This involved casting a wide-net literature search, led by MDB’s library scientist, and screening nearly 2,000 articles for relevance and inclusion.

The Solution: MDB science writers led the development of a comprehensive 155-page contractor report on indoor air quality in schools that summarized the body of literature, including detailed overviews of 11 common pollutants (e.g., particulate matter, volatile organic compounds), including sources of exposure, measurement and monitoring strategies, impacts on the health of students and school staff, intervention and mitigation strategies, and barriers and challenges to implementation.

Notable Outcomes: MDB’s Creative Director and science communicators also developed a suite of eye-catching outreach materials to help share the findings more broadly. These materials included an interactive school map to be posted on a new EPA webpage, with several different rooms within a school building (gym, pool, technology room, art room, classroom, supply closet, etc.) with clickable pop-out windows featuring indoor air quality concerns in each room.

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PCC Decision Tree Streamlines Workflow

ntomchin — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 04:08:48 +0000

PCC Decision Tree Streamlines Workflow

Data Analysis & Visualization

ntomchin Wed, 03/09/2022 - 11:08

The ask: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT) staff sought to evaluate and clarify the logic underlying the application of Program Class Codes (PCC) to awarded extramural grants. The PCC assigned to each NIEHS extramural research grant contains important information, such as the grant’s relevance to the NIEHS Strategic Plan, primary and secondary science topic areas, and the assigned program administrator. DERT also was interested in streamlining the use of PCC, such as retiring codes that are rarely used or creating more specific codes for larger topics that captured too many grants.

The solution: MDB worked with DERT Program Analysis Branch staff and leadership to create a visual describing the workflow and decision points for assigning PCC codes. This iterative process required discussions with staff to reach consensus on the steps involved in the decision-making process. MDB used this information to create a decision tree in Visio to help DERT staff visualize the existing process and document any adjustments to the PCC assignment process.

Notable outcomes: The PCC decision tree helped identify areas where the existing guidance was unclear or required more nuanced decisions. We also created detailed data visualizations in Tableau showing how primary and secondary science PCC were used over time to facilitate these conversations and decisions.  

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