Today, students from the Dorchester Collegiate Academy came to learn about environmental sciences and engineering. In the morning, students learned about pollution and how it affects rivers, such as the Charles River. Students read a story about the Charles River, polluting a basin of water, representing the Charles. Using materials “purchased” off a $50 budget, students created water filters to clean this dirt water.
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- Students “buy” supplies for water filters
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- Comparison of water filter results
Afterwards, Gina gave a short talk on wetlands and Peyton discussed the three major types of water filters: natural/biochemical filtration, mechanical filtration, UV/infrared filtration. Before lunch, Carlin discussed the various engineering disciplines and what one can do with a degree in that field. During lunch, students asked our student volunteers questions about college.
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- Carlin talks about engineering disclipines
After lunch, students learned about the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the effects of oil on the environment, and what people are doing to combat oil spills. They then came up with their own designs for removing oil from water, using a $100 budget to “buy” materials and clean their water. One group got the cleanest water I’ve seen in the last 2 years, with 99% oil removed (108 total points).
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- Students clean an oil spill using pipettes
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- Students clean an oil spill using feathers and fibercloth
