ENVIRONMENTAL COURSES

LONNIE COPLEN

Lonnie is the founder and CEO of ARC (Alternative and Renewable Construction LLC) with over 25 years of experience in mega-infrastructure projects. She will be leading an invaluable course where students will learn critical thinking skills and how to identify problems and solutions related to environmental issues. They’ll learn to develop an outline for a story about challenges and potential solutions they’ll face on projects and how to present findings and conclusions in various media sources.

KATHY PUFFER

Kathy is an internationally renowned expert in solar cooking and biodigester applications who will be teaching a course that will empower students with knowledge and skills in using natural resources for energy independence and sustainability.  Students will learn how to build and use solar cookers, biodigesters, and DIY hydroponics as hands-on activities and fun experiments. Solar cookers and biodigesters are important for emergency preparedness during natural disasters with power outage, cooking fuel shortage, and clean drinking water. Students will understand many solar cooking concepts such as insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction, and convection. As they experiment with solar cooking they gain a better understanding of the power of solar energy and the science behind solar cooking They will be familiar with multiple usage of solar cookers such as water pasteurization, cooking and leaf drying.