Sacaton Middle School

San Juan School District

Shonto Middle School

Tuba City Jr. High School

Monument Valley High School

Student Webpages

Cholla Power Plant

Fort Valley Experimental Forest

Grand Canyon

Summer Scholars 2001

Students from four middle schools each spent a week at Northern Arizona University (NAU) involved in the academic environmental education program, Summers Scholars.

Summer Scholars is a weeklong summer program providing Native American students the opportunity to experience college life, while using university resources, classrooms, computers, and science labs. A collaborative project between participating schools and the Environmental Education Outreach Program (EEOP), Summer Scholars increases students' understanding of how science, mathematics, and technology can be applied to local environmental issues.

Air quality at the Grand Canyon was the focus of this year's Summer Scholars curriculum. Working in teams, students developed recommendations to improve the visibility at the park. On the last day of the week-long program students presented their recommendations to environmental professionals including representatives of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Students made many innovative recommendations. They also prepared web pages to communicate their recommendations to the public. The student web pages are available at Student Webpages

Composting, vermiculture and recycling waste reduction methods were also employed by Summer Scholars while they were living on campus. Students collected food waste after every meal to compost and hands-on activities such as "Shopping For Waste" encouraged students to evaluate the packaging of products they purchase.

Tours of the Cholla Power Plant, NAU's Ft. Valley Experimental Forest and the Grand Canyon contributed to students' understanding of air quality. Each trip offered unique opportunities to speak with technicians, engineers, and scientists about ecology and air monitoring.

Problem Based Learning (PBL), an innovative education method, was employed so students could develop their own questions, issues, and topics of research. In addition to the field trips, students used NAU's Cline Library, the Internet, and local environmental professionals as resources to find information on their issues and questions.

"When you do Problem Based Learning, you give students a problem like visibility at the Grand Canyon, where there is no simple solution or answer. Working as a group, they list what they know, what they need to find out, and how and where to find that (information) to isolate their own learning issues. They then do their own research to propose some kind of solution," said MaryLynn Quartaroli, Instructional Specialist at EEOP.

Summer Scholars students had some time to relax and play. Students went swimming in Cholla Lake and at NAU's Wall Aquatic Center, watched the IMAX Theatre presentation on Grand Canyon, climbed the observation tower at Desert View Grand Canyon, played football and basketball.

For more information about participating in future Summer Scholars programs contact the EEOP Staff.