Website: Superfund365
Posted on April 19th, 2010 by Jaimie Schock
Each day for a year, Superfund365 visited one toxic site in the federal Superfund program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For each entry chronicling the trip, an interactive graph shows what kinds of contaminants are involved, along with the acreage affected. The entries also feature timelines, local demographics and population statistics, photos, location and descriptive information, a hazardous ranking score, maps, and a blog entry about the site visits.
Filed under: Web Resources | 1 Comment »
Tags: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Protection Agency, Internet Resources, Superfund, Web Resources
For residents of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Blue Mountain is a scar on the landscape and a health hazard. But for 120 sixth graders at Eyer Middle School in Macungie, Pa., Blue Mountain became a laboratory for understanding the nation’s problems with toxic waste and ways to clean it up.
Students have to grapple with real-world applications of environmental engineering, Prof. Jeanine Plummer of Worcester Polytechnic Institute believes: “They need to see how it applies, why it’s important — ‘why am I here’ sort of questions.” An article from ASEE’s Prism magazine.
In the late 1950s, Rachel Carson began to realize that mankind had acquired the power “to change drastically — or even destroy — the physical world.” Her book on the damage caused by chemical pesticides changed history. 
In this activity, students in grades 3-5 collect, categorize, weigh and analyze classroom solid waste. The class collects waste for a week, and then student groups spend a day sorting and analyzing the garbage with respect to recyclable and non-recyclable items. Students will discuss ways that engineers have helped to reduce solid waste.
The Think Green website engages students in learning about the environment. Materials include teacher and student pages, with standards-based lesson plans, hands-on classroom activities, and at-home extensions, as well as video clips and printable posters.
Hawaiian students are going nuts over a new biofuel. At Seabury Hall school on the island of Maui, teachers Kathleen Ireland and Martin Emde have enlisted the entire freshman and sophomore classes and 35 seniors in a uniquely Hawaiian energy solution using kukui nuts.
