Learning how to sustain a healthier Earth is on the to-do list for Bioscience High School juniors this year.
For the first time, the school is dedicating more class time to helping its juniors learn to use their skills in science and math to protect the Earth’s resources, such as clean drinking water and air. Students will learn how sustainability relates to understanding and tackling the challenges they face in the world today.
Bioscience High School has about 300 students, 65 of which are juniors. Students choose one of three “pathways” to follow throughout their four years: engineering, biomedicine or wildlife ecology. Sustainability is an important issue for each category, according to Sara Turner, a junior studying engineering at the school.
“I think it’s important to learn about sustainability because you want to be able to hold things at a constant and be able to know what’s going to come up ahead,” Turner said. “And for future generations, it’s nice to know that there’s something to hold on to, and the Earth won’t be destroyed by then.”
Bioscience High School principal Quintin Boyce said students have embraced the topic so far because it allows them to work with the community and engage in hands-on application of the theme.
“I can remember just going through content in high school and having to learn stuff, and not really being provided a contextualized experience, like, ‘Why do I have to learn this?’ and the answer being, ‘Just because,’” Boyce said. “So now, students are able to see the importance of the material that they’re learning in class because they’re having the opportunity for the real-life application of that material.”
Cory Waxman, who teaches math, physics and engineering to juniors, said he tries to avoid using the word “sustainability.” He tries to make it a successful experience for students and not a strict teaching method.
While introducing students to the new concept on Sept. 12, Waxman asked students to write down their personal definitions of sustainability, adding that the word “has a lot of baggage.” Waxman told students the topic will “anchor” the entire year, and they will emerge with a solid idea of what the word means and how to practice it responsibly.
“The less you’re using the word ‘sustainability,’ the more you’re actually trying to embrace those concepts and strategies, and the better you’re doing it,” Waxman said.
Waxman jotted some questions on a whiteboard for students to ponder: How to define what to sustain, for whom to implement it, for how long and how to create sustainability. Waxman also asked students if they have responsibilities to future generations or citizens across the globe.
Bioscience High School students have outlets where they can apply what they learn this year. For example, a group of teachers and students started the E-Tech Club in 2008 to make innovative, energy-efficient projects. Club members have since constructed things like an XR-3 biodiesel electric light hybrid vehicle, a type of two-passenger car that runs on solar power and biodiesel and achieves 125 miles per gallon.
Octavio Rodriguez, a junior following the wildlife ecology pathway, said students apply concepts from one year to the next. As sophomores, students created biofuel using restaurant frying oil, and as juniors, they plan to continue this concept and use the biofuel to power the car.
“This year I’m looking forward to the projects we will be tackling related to wildlife and ecology because sustainability is a huge part of the solutions ecologists and wildlife experts try to come up with when faced with environmental issues,” Rodriguez said.
One of the E-Tech Club sophomores is designing an aquaponics station, which is essentially a “self-sustaining gardening system,” Rodriguez said. The station consists of placing a fish tank with fish below a container holding soil and plants.
Water from the fish tank is pumped into the soil with the plants, which absorb nitrogen from the fish’s waste products. The nitrogen is essential to plant growth, and the nitrogen-free water can leak back into the fish container as clean water, Rodriguez said.
Junior-level anatomy, physiology and epidemiology teacher Nadia Smith said the new unit for this year means more than just “going green,” as many people assume after hearing the word sustainability. Part of Smith’s lesson plans include topics on food and health.
Smith said juniors will research the impact of food issues, develop potential solutions and talk to people who work on solving those problems for a living. To engage students, Smith said they will study sustainability from an ethical perspective and question whether they have a responsibility to eat well.
“Although everyone has a right to eat how they want, ultimately, our healthcare system will be burdened by people who may become sick and ill (from obesity, diabetes, heart disease) if they eat an unhealthy diet,” Smith said in an email.
Smith noted that the students seem to enjoy the theme for this year and that hands-on learning is important to them.
“They like to know that what they’re doing has real-world applications,” Smith said. “They have an impact on what’s going on in the world, and they realize they can take on that challenge.”
Contact the reporter at emily.lierle@asu.edu
