Florida Polytechnic University welcomed high school students to campus on Saturday, Sept. 26, for its inaugural Environmental Engineering Day, offering hands-on experiences in sustainability and water quality.
The outreach event was designed to begin building a sustainable educational pipeline connecting the University with area school districts and future workforce talent. It was supported by a $5,000 Tampa Bay Water mini-grant and was the University’s first grant partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools.
Students learned about Tampa Bay’s drinking water sources, treatment processes and conservation practices using real-world equipment and guided activities.
“Students hear about clean water every day, but they rarely have an opportunity to see how science and engineering make safe drinking water possible,” said Dr. Jun Kim, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the grant recipient. “Through this Water Education Outreach Program through Environmental Engineering Day, we want students to measure water quality themselves, understand how treatment works and recognize that protecting our water resources is something that directly affects their communities.”
Dozens attended the Environmental Engineering Day event, which Kim said is the first step in building a lasting relationship with local school districts.
“We want to create a sustainable ecosystem between the University and K-12 schools,” he said. “We will also involve industry as we connect with this younger generation, which will be the workforce of the future.”
Florida Poly students organized, designed and led the interactive stations. Environmental engineering junior Jayden Ramey spent significant time preparing the materials, while Kelby Palmer, a junior majoring in business analytics, developed a popular station focused on water filtration.
To demonstrate the process, participants used syringe filters to clarify turbid water mixed with clay.
“We wanted to find an easy way to visualize cleaning water, and the students were all pretty surprised that the water went through the filter and was immediately clear on the first try,” Palmer said. “We discussed turbidity and why environmental engineers care about those kinds of things.”
At another station, computer science graduate student Lisa Szelig introduced chemistry concepts through a competitive guessing game focused on the pH levels of everyday products. Students eagerly used papers and pens to calculate variations before testing their mixtures with pipettes.
“They were really excited about it and didn’t want to stop,” said Szelig, a Fulbright graduate fellow from Germany.
Kim said the student response is encouraging as planning begins to transform the event into an annual tradition, expanding its targeted student base to include Polk, Hillsborough, Pasco and Orange counties.
Contact:
Lydia Guzmán
Director of Communications
863-874-8557
