Students will examine water quality, climate change and the health of forests
The Mountain Studies Institute is now registering students and adults for its Online Resilience Youth Summit, which will be held April 24 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Jerry McBride / Durango Herald File
Mountain Studies Institute is looking for students and adults interested in participating in its Virtual Youth Resilience Summit, which will allow students to present their projects on innovative solutions to regional environmental problems to an audience of scientists, community leaders and other students.
The online summit is free for students and adults and will be held on April 24 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ten to 20 students are expected to present projects designed to find solutions to environmental problems in the San Juan Mountains and southwest Colorado to an online audience of other students, environmental scientists, and other interested adults.
In addition, an interactive and collaborative game will be organized to engage students in solving a hypothetical environmental problem.
“Any student is welcome and any student is welcome to present,” said Jeremy May, education coordinator at the Mountain Studies Institute. “Some students have class or science fair projects and others work on after-school programs. “
Topics will cover issues such as drought, forest health, water quality and the impacts of climate change.
A collaborative game at the end of the summit will examine challenges with water resources in the San Juan Mountains and southwest Colorado.
“Essentially, we’re looking at the drought, the amount of water and how the water is used, and the quality of the water,” May said of the interactive game. “They will look at these different challenges and then work together to find solutions, with advice. We gamified these scenarios.
The summit will also include information for students on career opportunities open in environmental science and natural resources.
“We are creating a career exploration tool,” he said. “We call it a career collage in natural resources. We will be asking professionals from across the community to create short videos and information segments that they will have online.
Students can watch the video presentations to learn more about areas involving environmental and natural resource sciences.
Adults are encouraged to participate not only in the career collage, but also to provide feedback on student presentations.
Summit registration is available online on the Mountain Studies Institute website until April 16.
amongjo@durangoherald.com