Back to Nature at the Outdoor School
Creating hands-on, outdoor learning experiences for K-12 students, the Outdoor School at the Texas Tech Academic Center at Junction is taking classroom learning back to nature.
Designed to teach science curriculum through nature-based experiences, the Outdoor School has programs perfect for school field trips or residential camps.
Spring Green-ing
Spring is here, and as new leaves bud, things are turning green around the Center for Engineering Outreach.
This summer, the Center for Engineering Outreach adds green engineering to its growing list of K-12 education content that already includes robotics and rocketry.
Simply put, green engineering is a combination of environmental science and engineering - a natural fit - and the blend of science, ecology and biology make it a great addition to K-12 classrooms.
Celebrate Earth Day
Twenty million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, during a time when cities were clouded in their own smog and rivers were streaming with pollutants.
Now, 36 years later, Earth Day is celebrated around the world. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, engineers, grassroots organizations and citizens like you, what began as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment.
Workshop Spotlight:
Green Engineering
As part of the Center for Engineering Outreach's new Green Engineering content, this year's teacher training workshops include a special look at Environmental Engineering in the K-12 classroom.
This year's workshop will investigate the engineering challenge of wastewater treatment as teachers learn where water goes when it flows down the drain.
Plus, there will be a few icky, gross secrets to share with fascinated science students in the coming year.
Classroom Connections
Tons of Trash
Illustrate the importance of recycling with this simple but eye-opening green engineering activity.
The average American throws away 3.5 pounds of trash every day. Multiply that by almost 300 million Americans and that's a lot of garbage!
In fact, if the U.S. wanted to throw all of its garbage into one landfill the size of a football field, the hole would have to be 100 miles deep.
Finding a place to put all that trash is a real problem, but finding a way to make the same trash take up less space isn't as hard as you might think. Your engineering challenge is to make a pile of garbage take up less room in a landfill.
Special thanks to Audra Morse, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for this month's featured lesson plan.
Center for Engineering Outreach, Box 43103, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3103
806.742.3451