The Sustainability Brainstorm: We recently collaborated with a grade 5/6 class in the Halton region on the sustainable development goals. We asked students to brainstorm how they might apply the 17 SDGs to greening their city. The conversations were quite insightful. Students consistently cited the need for socio-economic support, housing, the need for investments in renewable energy, leveraging technology to keep our cities clean, as well as the need to preserve and expand our greenspaces. Students not only realized the connections to the individual SDGs, but were effectively able to see the connections between the goals including transitioning to renewable energy, new job opportunities, innovation, and sustainable production. Outstanding work for such young children. We hope to expand the Sustainable Brainstorm workshop to reach more students, schools, and school boards. Please contact us if you are interested in bringing this workshop to your school.
Purposeful Learning to Keep Students in STEM: We are also very proud of the launch of our new curriculum through the Purposeful Learning School. Purposeful Learning is focused on engaging the whole student-where the student directs learning based on their interests and learning preferences. In turn, we work with both the student and parents in crafting the learning process based on their STEAM needs. Our STEAM programs answer the question: Why do I need to learn this anyway Mom?
Tanzanian Young Women Win Funding through MIT Solv[Ed]: Through MIT Solve, youth working with BioEndeavor were able to support young women from Arusha, Tanzania to receive funding to prototype a new composting kit for expansion into their communities and schools. The BioEndeavor youth are actively working to enable the young women of The Girls Foundation of Tanzania to leverage the principles of Design Thinking to experiment with a variety of prototypes that will work well for target consumers.
Working with Older Adults in Partnership with McMaster University: We are also launching a new three week online course for Older Adults in June on having an open discussion on climate change. We hope that by providing a safe environment for older adults, that we can jointly understand the science behind global warming, the health impacts from climate change, and ultimately find renewed purpose through climate action.
There is much to do to help our children and our communities work together to solve the challenges we are facing. It is through open discussion and collaboration that we can jointly move forward and prosper.