West Irondequoit High School Kicks Off STEM Institute with GLTi Unit Plan for Green Roofs and Walls.
Rochester, New York (July 22, 2013.) Green Living Technologies International (GLTi) announced a strategic relationship with the West Irondequoit High School (IHS) STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) Institute starting on Monday July 22, 2013. The GLTi STEM application will demonstrate how green roofs, green walls, vertical farming and other green technology can be associated to core subject matter. This GLTi introduction is the same curriculum and technology applications that provided 100% graduation rates, 100% passing grades on the NYS regents and an increase from 43% to 93% attendance four years in a row at the beta classroom located at Discovery High School in the Bronx New York. The educational success has been featured on TEDx, NBC and CNN with a formal 4 year curriculum in the planning.
“Our education curriculum and design is not about providing a plug and play system, we provide the tools that make learners want to come to school, our process is to work with the existing culture and the learning objectives of the school scaffolding from existing skills as all students are engaged”, said George Irwin, former teacher, founder and President of GLTi. “In order to be successful the instructors have to be on board and the content has to align with what teachers are already teaching, we challenge them to make it (instruction) their own, we don’t go into schools and try and reinvent the wheel, it is a true collaborative planning effort. Our garden programs start in September with indoor vertical farms, growing food, students have to prepare and install projects as part of the culminating activity that may include installing green roofs on the school. They have to plan and apply the technology as part of a class that is a STEM philosophy correlating all the core and special subject matter into authentic learning. In return schools are being provided green roofs for pennies because they are part of a class or produce for the cafeteria; there is a triple bottom line here. Students graduate, the schools are applying 21st century green technology and they are saving money on cooling, heating, waterproofing maintenance and in some cases the food being grown in the classroom is used to supplement the cafeteria. Part of the GLTi programming involves an OSHA 10 (Occupational Safety Health Administration) certification. We want our students to be job ready and have the skills to obtain a living wage. The other side of the coin is we are also stimulating the next generation of engineers, scientists and architects.”
The GLTi program impacts every single subject matter inclusive of Physical Education, gardening is a lifelong activity and art, the design is just as important as the outcome. There is nothing we don’t correlate to these technologies and the learning is authentic.
The STEM Institute at West Irondequoit High School (IHS) will provide the first green roof in Irondequoit and the first installed by students. The roof will be monitored with a data coupler to collect and monitor the thermal fluctuation compared to a non vegetative control roof. The summer program will also include a demonstration vertical wall that will provide edible crops. Locally GLTi has also provided materials to the Harley school however the STEM Institute is the first of its kind here in Rochester. The STEM Institute will be in session from 8 am to 11 am from July 22 – August 9, 2013. Invitations are open to the press for interviews and scheduled appearances please contact GLTi or West Irondequoit High School.
