On November 15, 2016 eighteen bright students, who are members of Ponchatoula Jr.
High’s chemistry club, toured Southeastern’s Sustainability Center. The visit included
a tour of the grounds, an interactive bio-mass demonstration, and an interactive solar
panel activity.
The visit started outside with a tour of several aspects of the center such as, the
ponds, community garden, and plant nursery. Next, the students viewed an informative
PowerPoint presentation on alternative and renewable energy concepts such a geothermal,
solar thermal, solar photo-voltaic, wind, and biomass energy. The students also watched
videos that were used to illustrate more complex concepts such as the biomass and
geothermal energy process. Afterwards, the students engaged in critical discussion
and answered the following questions:
- Imagine that it is twenty years from now, and you have just bought your first energy-efficient
home. Describe its energy saving features.
- Has this tour changed your attitude about sustainable practices? Give details to support
your view.
This critical thinking exercise stimulates our future leaders to think outside-the-box
and understand the importance of sustainable initiatives.
During the tour, Southeastern engaged the students through kinesthetic learning by
having the students divide into smaller groups to become familiar with actual working
components of a photovoltaic (pv) solar panel system and generating enough power to
successfully operate a table top fan. This activity is geared towards middle and
high school students and has proven to be a huge success.
The group shared positive feedback and responses including “I enjoyed the interactive activities.” “I enjoyed the entire morning. Thanks for
having us.” “I loved the bio-mass demo :).” “It was all good.”
We invite you to contact us today to plan a visit to the Southeastern Louisiana University
Sustainability Center, located at 2101 North Oak Street, for a day of fun and learning. Email us at sustainability@southeastern.edu or call 985-549-5034 to schedule a visit. We'll see you there.
