This summer, while most kids were on vacation, four Kingsburg High School students attended a once-in-a-lifetime conference in South Africa.

The environmental event was held to shed new light on the correlation of ozone to a growing problem in Fresno County: asthma.

The students' science teacher, Peggy Foletta, had seen the problem worsening over the years. Not only did she see more students with the disease in her classroom, but the statistics showed that the number of kids with asthma was on the rise.

"In the Valley, in 2003, 15 percent of students had asthma, now it's 19 percent. It's going up," Foletta said. "We (Fresno County) have the highest rate in the country for asthma."

This led Foletta and the students to research ozone levels and the respiratory health of 300 of their fellow students.

A year ago, then-seniors Kan Sohal, Melani Por and Kiran Banger, as well as junior Chelsey Carlson, suggested that the rising levels contributed to asthma in 19 percent of Kingsburg students, the Valley average. And it turned out to be true.

Not only was it an eye-opener, it's research that got the team accepted into the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) conference, an honor involving 50 countries -- and only five teams from the U.S.

Their presentation in Cape Town centered around their findings after they measured ozone around the Kingsburg campus.

Ozone is created by sunlight and other air pollutants, so the students decided to get to the bottom of it by seeing if ozone varied by location on 13 different sites around campus.

Even before they got the results of the data, Por said fellow students started to become more aware about the problem of asthma in the Valley, as well as other environmental issues.

"Our project put a spotlight on the environment," Por said. "Many of our peers would come up to us while we set out the ozone strips and ask us what were we doing, what were we testing for?" Por said. "And when they heard we got the opportunity to go to South Africa, some of them wanted to get involved in future Global Learning Expeditions."

Though the testing cards revealed that ozone didn't vary on campus, that was one of the only surprises to the hypothesis -- but it's still something that sticks out to Foletta.

"You don't expect it in a building, but if you have computers and photocopiers, you expect higher (ozone levels)," Foletta said. "It was kind of a surprise that different sites (had similar readings)."

Other areas of study for the risk of asthma included factors such as being involved in sports and living in the city vs. living in the country.

As expected, Kingsburg High School students who played more sports had a higher incidence of asthma and those who lived in the city were also more susceptible -- results that helped reaffirm what Sohal shared with students at the GLOBE conference.

"This project helped reinforce everything we had been hearing about ozone and asthma in the Valley," Sohal said. "I have always had strong environmental beliefs and after going to the conference and doing this project, they have only grown stronger."

But to give the speech, she first had to conquer the nerves that came with being one of four students worldwide to be selected as a keynote speaker -- to many in the audience who didn't speak English as their first language or at all.

"I didn't really get nervous until we actually got to the conference," Sohal said. "It was terrifying speaking in front of everyone, but it was a good experience because it helped me voice my opinions and be more outgoing with them."

Breaking through the barrier of language and different backgrounds to collaborate during the conference made the experience that much more valuable, Carlson life experiences for which she is grateful.

"We were learning a lot about the environment, but we were also learning so much about collaborating with people, and connecting with people even when it is not easy," she said.

To compare data, Kingsburg High School worked with a school from Germany, which also tested the ozone levels around its campus. The results showed that while the ozone levels rose at about the same time during the day, the ozone levels in Kingsburg rose much higher -- one of the many findings that made Carlson grateful she got to expand her view of the world.

"I learned to look at environmental issues on a global scale rather than just in the U.S. Issues would be discussed and I realized how important it is for us to work together on these issues and share our findings with each other."

The lessons continued even after the conference was over, as Foletta gave the students the chance to visit a school in Port Elizabeth on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, where one of Foletta's colleagues, Joelle Bruce, taught on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2001.

"I rented a van and we drove across South Africa to visit the school from a poor neighborhood," Foletta said. "We also had an opportunity to go on a safari while we were there."

Between the conference, the school visit, the safari and everything they learned, Carlson said she found it hard to pinpoint her favorite part of the experience -- so she chose it all.

"There is so much I could say about the trip and the cultural presentations and the student presentations and the encouragement we were give to pursue our interests in science," Carlson said. "The conference had the atmosphere of being proud of what students can accomplish and it was very inspirational."