Student Sustainability Lab

How can we prepare our students to be leaders and innovators providing solutions to the 21st century challenges to our social, environmental and economic well-being?

SustainaFest’s Student Sustainability Lab is our groundbreaking educational program launched in 2014 that provides students an opportunity to understand human-environment interactions, sustainable living and our connectedness with ecosystems, economic systems, and one another. The Lab takes students on an educational exploration of the social, environmental and economic future of our:

  • Oceans
  • Watersheds
  • Climate & Energy
  • Food Systems
  • Human Infrastructure
  • Wildlands

Our program connects and complements traditional Pre K-12 educational disciplines by combining art, humanities, social sciences, and the physical and life sciences to encourage students to explore their environment, society and the economy through the lens of sustainability in the modern world. We provide students an age-appropriate, broad introduction to the complex challenges of sustainability and the tools needed to address current, real-world issues. We leverage art and entertainment as primary delivery vehicles and ensure that all elements are accompanied by action-oriented opportunities.  Our resources, including world-class films, filmmakers, musicians, subject matter experts and entrepreneurs, come together to allow students to experience an immersive educational experience unlike any other.  Project by project, the Lab is evolving traditional educational constructs to more readily align with the realities of today’s world while ensuring that students learn deeply and are moved to action.

2014-2015 Participants

In 2014, participating schools explored Human Infrastructure, focusing on the many facets of sustainable living. The average new home size in America has more than doubled in the last 35 years accompanied by increased demands on natural resources and ever-growing individual debt. More recently, a movement has begun to take shape that encourages a deeper understanding of living choices and tends toward a realignment of priorities, valuing quality over quantity, community over separation, and time over material assets.  Hundreds of elementary, middle and high schools students took an educational expedition, delving into the full breadth of issues ranging from green building practices to homelessness and the meaning of the American Dream.  The capstone project for many of these students was the building of SustainaFest’s first Tiny House.

http://vimeo.com/103441271

SustainaFest is now working with numerous schools participating in the Student Sustainability Lab program.  Please contact us at info@sustainafest.org to explore how you and your school can become involved!