Wk 6: Citizen Science
Above is a humidity and temperature sensor ( https://www.adafruit.com/product/386) connected to an Arduino and programmed with the DHTester code from the DHT sensor library for Arduino. These measurements were taken on the third floor of 370 Jay St and include humidity, temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, and a heat index in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.
Note: The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. —National Weather Service
I don’t often think about the humidity and temperature of my house (unless I find it uncomfortable) but being more aware of these conditions and their consistency in my home would probably help me keep plants alive. I can either use the data to change the conditions in my own to make them best suited for my plants or I can start getting plants that are better suited for the conditions in my home. Despite being obsessed with optimization I also think we are a society of people that are use to just getting things and making them work in a space rather than choosing what we have and how we craft our spaces so that everything is in harmony. The part of me that wants to embrace more thoughtful decision making is definitely excited to monitor data overtime and make adjustments based in observation.
The part of me that enjoys tinkering is also interested in using sensors to create a micro environment in my apartment for plants. During the lockdown portion of the pandemic a trend that I started to see a lot of social media feeds was the Ikea greenhouse cabinet (some examples linked below). I have seen some of these with humidity and temperature monitors inside of them, but not as a way to collect data overtime. I think it would be really fun to create a self-monitoring cabinet that uses sensors to either changes its conditions or to alert me that I need to change something and that documents my plants overtime.
