photo: shapeshift/ BY-NC-SA

When Labor Day barbeques come around, and everyone gets one day off of work and school, the large national youth unemployment rate fades to the background.  However, in San Francisco, scientists and educators have their eyes set on new jobs for youth, in fields that haven’t even been invented yet.

The Exploratorium, a hands-on science academy in San Francisco, and Literacy for Environmental Justice are presenting a series of teacher workshops in conjunction with the newly built EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park called, “Understanding the Science of Sustainability.”  These teacher workshops will teach teachers about how sustainable technology works, so that they can bring this knowledge back to their classrooms, with the goal of creating a generation of environmental leaders.

“The time has come to re-think our habits. We have a growing population and we have to do things differently.  This is the generation to take that up,” said Lori Lambertson, who works at the Exploratorium Teacher Institute, and is creating the curriculum for the workshops.

The content of the workshops is inspired by the EcoCenter building itself, which is something of a sustainable masterpiece and operates almost 100 percent off the energy grid. According to their website, "More than 400 high school students provided input throughout the design and siting of the EcoCenter."  Teachers will be able to take their students on field trips to the EcoCenter for free, where LEJ youth nterns will serve as resident naturalists and tour guides, according to their website.

“I really think the curriculum and information will inspire them.  We are on the cusp of opening up so many new career opportunities as well.  There is so much stuff that hasn’t been thought of yet.  It’s an exciting and challenging time,” said Lambertson.

The first workshop will focus entirely on water.  She explains, “Waste water, water conservation and water treatment.  The EcoCenter is the only building in SF that is treating its own waste water.  It took a while to get licensed because no one in San Francisco has ever done it before. We want to look at what’s happening when water leaves through the toilet or sink. How is it clean enough to be released?  We’ll talk about the science of sedimentation and the filtration process.”  

One cool experiment at the Eco Center is exposing water to UV light to kill bacteria.  “I haven’t figured out how we’re going to model that for our teachers. My idea is to take my water bottle, scoop up some pond water from the Eco Center wetland and look at it under the microscope and see creatures moving around.  Then we’ll zap the water with UV light and see if there is still life,” said Lambertson.  

The second day of the institute will be focused on energy efficient processes. The building is solar-powered, but unlike the city buildings where the energy just goes right on the grid, at the EcoCenter the energy goes into batteries - so it’s off the grid.  “Plants take their energy from the sun, and so does this building,” said Lambertson.   

Teachers seem to be chomping at the bit to participate in the institute, as there is now a waiting list.  Lambertson says, “We have room for 25 and 30 have applied. We give preference to San Francisco teachers, but we’re accepting them from all over.  We even have some after-school program leaders who have applied with the intention of making sustainability a platform of their program.” The teacher institutes are funded by a grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Family Foundation.