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This week’s topic is Environmental Engineering and we decided to focus on the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. Using handouts, we gave examples of each type of resource and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using them. We emphasized that we currently face problems of finding good energy resources and that we can all do something in order to conserve energy.

In order to give the kids and experience on how it is to be an Environmental Engineer, we gave them a challenge: We told them that they were engineers in “East Sommerville Island”, which is running out of nonrenewable resources. As engineers, they needed to build a mechanism that made use of available renewable sources of energy in the island (such as water, sun, and compost). The students were divided into pairs and each pair was give “$5” in order to “buy supplies”. In exchange for “money”, the students were able to get a certain amount of supplies such as cotton balls, popsicle sticks, straws, and construction paper.

At first, the students were confused what to build because they were unsure what can possibly produce energy. In order to clarify, we told the students to look at the worksheet with the examples we gave and notice that there are certain mechanisms that engineers have built in order to harvest nonrenewable resources. We emphasized that it is not enough to simply have water or the sun to create energy; something has to be done to these renewable resources before they can turn into electricity.

In the end, the students mostly copied the ideas in the worksheet and made solar panels or wind mills. We challenged some of them to perhaps combine some of the examples they saw (such as a solar panel with a wind mill). We will give the students additional time and “money” next week in order to develop their ideas.