North Central Region 

One-Week Institute for Middle and High School Educators

Exploring Innovative Solutions to Environmental Challenges Through Green Chemistry, Biomimicry and Real World Technologies

During this hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based professional development institute, educators:

• Discovered how green chemistry, the science of creating safe, energy efficient and non-toxic processes and products, is providing sustainable solutions for the environmental challenges facing our society today.

• Explored how biomimicry applications are informing the design of everyday items, including safer hair dyes and surfaces that prevent bacteria from growing, to build environmental awareness around issues related to ocean plastics.

• Gained an understanding of how Harvard Forest gathers and uses real-time data to investigate how forests are helping in the fight against climate change.

• Visited the Eco-Art Mobile to learn how this tool is being used to build an environmental awareness around the issue of ocean plastics.

• Examined how industry and academia are working to understand climate change and design materials to use excess carbon dioxide.

• Built their understanding of the environmental challenges associated with plastics.

• Investigated how agricultural waste and mushroom mycelium can be used to create alternative materials used in the manufacture of anything from packaging to lamp shades.

Partners: Beyond Benign; Fitchburg State University; The Revolving Museum; Harvard Forest; Mass Audubon’s Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary