Please see the calendar for Friday's events, check the description below, and come prepared for messiness!!!
We have 3 new partners this semester (and possibly a 4th) that we will be working with: 1) Kiwanis Bike Club: These guys take bikes collected from dumpsters (literally!), donations, burning man, ect., restore them, and sell them or give them away to kids! Students who put in enough hours will have the opportunity to restore their own bike to keep! We will talking about the impacts of transportation on our planet, from smog to rain water run off. Also, Kawanis folks teach kids to ride, so every student has the opportunity to learn to ride or to teach kids as well! Come prepared to get greasy or muddy!
2) KTMB (Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful): These guys organize groups that take hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash out of our riparian areas and parks, remove invasive species, and do landscaping to make our community more livable for humans and wildlife alike. We are going to have our own area to restore! We'll be covering waste management, water pollution, invasive species, and some wildlife management in this unit. Be sure to wear closed toes shoes and sun block if you need it!
3) Habitat for Humanity: Building and restoring homes for needy families is their main focus, but did you know that they are experts at reusing and repurposing building materials? We get to help build a house! Students will not only get to learn some valuable engineering skills hand on, we will also learn about the impacts of construction and urban sprawl in our area. There might also be some opportunities for students to volunteer in their retail store or in their administrative office to gain some valuable job skills. Gloves and safety glasses will be provided, but please wear something that you won't mind getting paint on and close toed shoes!
4) Urban Roots (still in the works): This is a Reno based non profit that has been teaching our community about sustainable agriculture. (Agriculture is the number one cause of pollution on the planet!) They also help schools around the district build school gardens (maybe some day we'll have one too). Urban Roots is planning to break ground downtown on their second farm location soon, hopefully this spring, and our students may be able to help them build it from the ground up! TONS of science to talk about here, including some botany, ecology, nutrition, and of course, engineering. If we go help, closed toed shoes are a must and expect to get dirty!