Feature: Earth Day 2012
Posted on April 2nd, 2012 by Mary Lord
For more than four decades, people around the world have celebrated Earth Day on April 22. This year’s organizers hope to mobilize 1 billion individuals to raise awareness about environmental issues and sustainability. Already, some 815 million have pledged to reuse water bottles, organize events, and perform other “Acts of Green.”
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Tags: Actos of Green, April 22, Earth Day, Earth Day 2012, Environmental Engineering, environmental protection, Environmental science, Pollution, Sustainability
Here’s a quick, fun video guide to environmental engineering produced by Channel One News. It explores the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the museum’s signature fully planted roof. It also explains the engineering behind the temperature control system in the four-story interior rain forest and includes an interview with an environmental engineer and advice on how to prepare for a career like his. 
The Environmental Protection Agency has a collection of materials that can be used to teach environmental topics like conservation, human health, stewardship, waste & recycling, and water. The EPA also offers publications, awards and grants, workshops, conferences, student scholarships, community service projects, and a club for kids.
Student teams in grades 9-11 gain a better understanding of heat transfer and engineering by designing and building solar water-heating devices that mimic those used in residences. Once the model devices are constructed, students perform efficiency calculations and compare designs.
This lesson for grades 6-8 explores how civil engineering has solved the challenge of moving water via irrigation. Students learn how irrigation systems direct water for use in farming or other purposes. Using everyday items, each team of students designs and builds an “irrigation system” capable of moving two cups of water at least three feet and distributing it evenly in two separate containers.
Mike Town has worked in steel factories and forests, tricked out a “green” house, persuaded legislators to save the wilderness, and started a student-run “Cool Schools” energy audit, saving his district $30,000 a year. Now, the Redmond, Wash., teacher is turning an environmentalist’s eye toward federal STEM education policy.
By building a simple watershed with paper and markers, students will understand how pollution accumulates in our water sources, especially from pesticides used in agriculture, and what constitutes a watershed. 
For more than 40 years, Earth Day — April 22 — has been inspiring individuals and communities to protect the planet. For 2011, Earth Day Network, the world’s largest environmental advocacy group, hopes to mobilize 1 billion “Acts of Green.”
