PROJECTS
Our
Projects
The EJSLA program is led by a dedicated team of educators who cultivate a learning environment that encourages students to get involved in their communities, find their passion and make a difference through initiatives powered by STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine). Throughout the program, students are challenged to develop and complete hands-on citizen science projects. These projects are designed to instill and promote environmental stewardship and allow students to explore a range of possible career paths.
Composting & Conversation
During the Spring 2023 session, our students experienced the art of composting, hands-on. They learned how it conserves water, reduces erosion and adds nutrients to the soil.
Sea Turtle Studies
The EJSLA students recently studied sea turtles and they learned about the various species of sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, their habitat and what we can do to protect them.
Guest Speakers & EJSLA
EJSLA hosts guest speakers regularly. These speakers range from college professors to experts in the fields of science, technology and environmental justice.
Example Lessons and Projects
EJSLA students used birdhouses to investigate the urban heat island effect during the Spring 2023 term. In this long-term project, students began by painting one roof of their four birdhouses black, one white, and putting metal on the roof of a third. The final birdhouse was left plain as a control. Over the course of the term, students took heat readings of the roof of the birdhouse using a FLiR and internal readings through a SensorPush. In addition to weather readings from a Kestrel, students could use this data to make predictions on how heat would change over the changing season and with increased impacts of climate change. Importantly, they also were able to make connections to homes in their communities, how climate change might impact the heat within homes, and how this impacts human health.
Students in the EJSLA learned about coastal ecosystem characteristics, including abiotic and biotic factors. They were asked to create a coastal trophic pyramid based on information they had learned and explored over the last week. They considered how abiotic features or influences impact the organisms that inhabit their coastline, and were then asked to construct a coastline using modeling clay and other materials. They were encouraged to construct a bedrock foundation and a mouth of a river and its channel, and then they manipulated factors that shaped the coast by adding simulated rain, wave action, currents, and wind. They also added food coloring to mimic how nonpoint source pollution might impact a coastal area.
Students investigated how climate change and human influences impact sea turtles. During one of the activities for this project, they learned about the sea turtles that inhabit the Gulf of Mexico.
Five of the world’s seven species of sea turtle are found within the Gulf of Mexico, including the Kemp’s ridley, green turtle, loggerhead, hawksbill, and leatherback. All are threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The Gulf of Mexico is especially important for the Kemp’s ridley turtle as most individuals of this species are found in Gulf waters and almost all Kemp’s ridleys nest on beaches of the western Gulf, primarily in Mexico, but nesting also occurs regularly in south Texas.
