Redesigning Our Future

By: Julia Vaughan, Delaney O'Connor   Go Ahead: Change Your Mind, Dr. Holtzman Learning techniques and skills from the professor. (Katie Allen, Jennifer Elizalde Martinez, Misa Harashima,  Katie Knotek, Cinthia, Moncada Soto, Autmn Ulrich) Using physical objects to teach and learn. (Katie Allen, Jennifer Elizalde Martinez, Misa Harashima, Katie Knotek, Cinthia, Moncada Soto, Autmn Ulrich) Water Wars?, Dr. Feeney Campers being taught about wars against water.  (James Dunbar, Jennifer Horsburg, Devin Kehoe, Cameron Marsh.) Taking in notes and information. (James Dunbar, Jennifer Horsburg, Devin Kehoe, Cameron Marsh.) A Backbone for Conservation, Dr. Poston Learning and discussing the different turtle types. (Robby Cogburn, Evan Dorsi, Sincere Hargrove, Shauna Hendrie, Patrick Lowder, Lexie Burns) Dr Posten notching a turtle to keep track of it. Green Reporting, Mrs.Wittum Students are updating a...

Getting Ready to Open Cafe Kudzu Members of "Invasive Alien Plants and Animals: Friend or Foe to the Environment" led by Dr. Jay Bolin always harvest young kudzu leaves and then deep fry the kudzu leaves during a fun learning activity at Redesigning the Future. At the end of the week, the environmental campers from the "Invasive" group make fried kudzu and other invasive species specials to share with fellow campers during the end of camp "What We Learned" showcase. This year, Bolin's group of campers went all out by setting up a full blown cafe and serving a variety of dishes ranging from kudzu quiche to a savory soup. They of course shared their fried kudzu too. Ready or Not - It's Time for the Doors to Open on the Cafe The "Invasive" group campers work hard getting all the food ready in a small campus kitchen and then set up for serving. When the camp crowd arrives, it's pedal to the metal getting samples of salad, s...

Campers Learned Many New Skills at RMI Programs at Environmental Camp Today, with the Rocky Mountain Institute, students learned how to have nice dialogue skills with others when having a disagreement. They were told not to just talk; listen to others. Give reasons why you think your idea is better, and then hear the other person out. These were just a few tips the Rocky Mountain Institute gave to the campers. The students were then thrown into to simulations of a disagreement and were told to use the skills they had just learned about. The first simulation was that two people were members of a council and they had to decide where to spend their  pretend one-hundred thousand dollar grant. Different groups decided on different ways to spend the money. The second simulation was that two people were stakeholders around a lake. Different stakeholders wanted different things from the lake, and the six different stakeholders had to compromise on what to do with the lake and h...

National Environmental Campers Learn from RMI ENV Leaders  By Annabelle Nagy One of the featured speakers at the Summit happened to be a large company that deals with saving energy for the environment. They are the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), located in Colorado. Recently RMI has been working with China to help them reduce the energy they use. The job with China started after the book Reinventing Fire came out. When they came to the National Environment Summit for high school students, they spoke about how they want to reduce energy in the future.  They wish to help create and see more walking and public transportation and also more community efforts to help reduce the amount of energy used (and wasted). RMI introduced to us the ways to help "saving energy" can be introduced. The ways are: lifestyle (how you live your life), education (educating the people on how to save energy), grassroots (local movements to conserve energy), political (getting politician...

Redesigning the Future Summit Students Hanging Out on the Library Steps Waiting for the Next Activity The lazy days of summer. That may be the case for some, but many students spend time during the summer doing production things. Some work. Some help around the house or farm. Others expand on their education. This summer a great group of students attended the national environmental camp for high school students in Salisbury, NC. Why did they come? Each had different reasons, and here are a few campers explaining why they selected an educational camp (which also happens to be loads of fun too). Fabian Navarro - "I came to the Environmental Summit this summer, because I really enjoyed my experience last summer here at Catawba. This summer I want to learn more about mammals in a habitat, the presence and absence in different ecosystems." Robert Benish (from Virginia) - "I came to learn more about how to save and conserve the environment around me. I hope t...