Sustainability Studies and Chemistry faculty member Kate Aubrecht and Sustainability Studies faculty members Arlene Cassidy, Jim Hoffmann and Jim Quigley have been awarded a $195,524 grant from the National Science Foundation Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science program for their project “Development, Implementation and Assessment of Novel Inquiry-based Interdisciplinary Materials on Sustainability for the Chemistry Curriculum.”
The team will work collaboratively to create learning materials for three courses that address the chemistry of environmental processes, environmental degradation, energy production and the connections between chemistry-related and non-chemistry-related aspects of sustainability, such as economics and policy. Students will conduct meaningful research in the laboratory course by evaluating the effectiveness of solar-powered algal turf scrubbers to remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients from streams and coastal waters, as well as the suitability of using the resulting algal biomass as fertilizer.
More information about the award, including a project abstract, is available on the NSF website.
Stony Brook has developed a group of majors that prepare students for a career in developing sustainable solutions to the problems our planet faces. The multi-disciplinary majors and minors train students to think critically and analyze data in a systems approach. Click here for more information about Stony Brook’s sustainability studies program.
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