Summer program to promote energy awareness among local high school students
July 29, 2016
The Institute for the Environment at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Climate Leadership and Energy Awareness Program (Climate LEAP) begins Aug. 1. The program, now in its seventh year, provides a weeklong summer science enrichment experience for Durham and Orange County high school students and continued engagement during the 2016-2017 academic year.
Twenty-eight rising 9th through 12th graders will spend a week on the campus of UNC exploring topics related to current energy use, climate change, alternative energy and sustainability. Science educators from the UNC Institute for the Environment (IE) and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (MPSC) along with scientists from UNC will contribute to programming and lead hands-on sessions and lab tours.
Designed by staff at IE’s Environmental Resource Program, MPSC and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the program will enable students to take part in hands-on STEM activities such as the construction and testing of dye-sensitized solar cells and wind turbines. Students will take field trips to locations such as the UNC co-generation plant, chemistry laboratories at the UNC-based Energy Frontier Research Center and the Carolina Campus Community Garden.
Funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, this student science enrichment program is free and participants are paid a $500 stipend for attending the summer program and participating in at least four follow-up activities during the academic year. In addition, program participants will be supported in the planning and implementation of Climate Leadership Youth Action Projects, which are intended to provide opportunities to educate others about climate science, energy science and sustainability and/or to promote resource conservation.
The program will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 1- Aug. 5 in Phillips Hall (Physics Department) on the UNC campus. Members of the media interested in attending can obtain a detailed agenda by contacting the program director for Climate LEAP, Dana Haine.
For more information, visit: http://erp.unc.edu/climate/projects-climate/climate-leadership-and-energy-awareness-program/
Institute for the Environment contact: Dana Haine, (919) 308-6763, dhaine@email.unc.edu