Sustainability provider greeNEWit is partnering with EduSerc to launch a new Green STEM Residency Program where professional engineers work directly in schools’ science classes to provide hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) training and industry exposure to all students in a school.

Over the course of the year, greeNEWit and EduSerc will provide a 12-lesson course to science classes, educating students on how STEM unlocks the solutions facing environmental and resource challenges, such as sustainably producing clean power and organic food.

Sherwood Elementary in Olney, and St. Philip The Apostle Middle School in Temple Hills, are the first schools rolling out the Green STEM Residency Program.

“We’re one month in, and so far the teachers love it, the parents love it, and the students can’t get enough,” Sherwood Elementary Principal Dina Brewer said.

The first semester of the program features six lessons around renewable energy production and consumption, covering topics such as solar and wind production, energy storage and energy efficiency. The second semester transitions from renewable energy to sustainable agriculture, culminating in a year-end project where students will build a vertical hydroponic garden to grow vegetables for their school cafeteria.

greeNEWit and EduSerc are working directly with teachers to integrate lessons and activities with each grade’s monthly curriculum, providing students with fun, real-world applications to the topics they’re learning in class. Each of the STEM activities highlights a tech-based solution for the environmental challenges students will be solving as they begin their career.

Principal Karen Clay of St. Philip the Apostle Middle School said the STEM Residency program is engaging students in critical thinking skills while encouraging them to use all of their senses. “We can see it reinvigorating their love of learning,” Clay said.

“With the Green STEM Residency Program, every single student can learn from real engineers on a consistent basis to create extraordinary technological advances for the environment,” Founder and Executive Director of Eduserc Brian Smith said. “In addition, the adoption of a residency program turns the school into a specialized educational resource and target for upcoming or transferring members of the community.”

With this year’s program off to an exciting start, greeNEWit is already setting up programs for the 2017–2018 school year.

To learn more about the Green STEM Residency Program, visit www.eduserc.org/stemresidency.