UDC program brought out the inner scientists in teens

Over here at One City Youth, we're jealous of the young folks who participated in UDC's 2014 Summer Bridge Program in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences program. Why? Well, let's start with the fact the youth participants got to work outside in water, dirt and with plants. Field work was performed in Rock Creek Park, the UDC Van Ness Campus and the Muirkirk Agricultural Research Farm in Beltsville, MD.

Next, the youth had the opportunity to learn how to use very cool equipment. Finally, they got to learn all kinds of useful science stuff. And by stuff we mean environmental computing, cloud computing, sustainability, water quality, climate change, engineering design and mobile technologies.

2014 Summer Bridge STEM Course Concludes walks readers through the highlights of the program. Perhaps the most interesting part of the summer was the work the young people did on their capstone projects.

The projects were:

1. Nathnael Eshetu and Heran Tatek: Solar Power for Food, Energy and Water (evaluating the potential benefit of photovoltaic power at Muirkirk Farm
2. Lataija Gilmore, Kevon Johnson and Semale Stafford: Orthophosphate Analysis in soil
3. Niles Townsend and Joel Crooms-Porter: Aquaponics System: Nutrient Cycle (water difference in aquaponic tanks)
4. Courtney George, Amen Hailu and Sofia Cisneros: Potomac River vs. Rock Creek River Quality

The post is an interesting read and you'll learn about all the cool things College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences does with students, faculty and the community for the benefit of us all.

More pictures from the program, on Facebook.