More than 120 students from across the La Plata and San Juan counties gathered Wednesday at Fort Lewis College to present project findings on a range of prominent environmental topics.
The projects were presented as part of the San Juan Resilience Youth Summit, held by independent nonprofit mountain research and education center, The Mountain Studies Institute.
Verbal and poster presentations covered a range of topics, including balancing local tourism with sustainability, creating a new recipe for seed cookies, regrowing vegetation in burn zones and exploring pH levels in local bodies of water.
Students came from a range of areas in Southwest Colorado, including Silverton, Pagosa Springs, Dolores and Durango.
“It’s just a really great spread – kids are coming from so far, which is great,” said Mountain Studies Institute Executive Director Molly McKeon.
Durango High School student Hadley Miller presented a project on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence.
“Every 100 words you put in AI uses up roughly one water bottle,” she said, referring to the practice by AI data centers of using water to cool mechanisms and machinery. “... So, that’s using quite a bit of water, and it puts (things) in perspective – 25 countries still don’t have sufficient water supplies. So, all this water going to AI seems to be a pretty big problem. ... It’s also using about 4% of our global energy usage.”
This was Hadley’s fourth year attending the summit.
“I think it’s really fun,” she said. “I like doing these projects. It’s nice to share information that I feel like I’ve spent quite a while researching.”
Dolores Middle School students Amelia Daniel and Ophelia Pietruszka presented research at the summit for the first time. Their project explored the impact of recent wildfires in San Juan county.
“I really enjoy how the Summit really brings out, like, ‘Here is what our environment needs, and here’s how we can improve it and make it better,’” Amelia said. “Raising awareness for the whole region ... I find it really important, because I do recognize more wildfires or more pollution in certain areas.”
Mountain Studies Institute Community Science Program Director Jewell Coleman said there’s value in getting students onto college campuses through events like the summit.
“It kind of springboards them into that post-secondary education,” she said. “So, we think that the outcome will be (students) connecting with partners that they might not know exist, being able to do internships in the summer, and kind of go through that education pathway, or environmental pathway, (and) also just getting on a college campus so they can see how awesome it is, and how fun it is, and then communicating with other students that have like-minded projects going on.”
Students were given the opportunity to choose up to two environmental and science-focused “campus experiences” after presenting.
Options included taking a trip to the biology department and exploring life under a microscope, learning about FLC’s composting process and hearing about pollination and working with bees from members of the FLC Bee Club.
Students having the opportunity to work with and hear from professionals in environmental science through the summit is important, McKeon said.
“We have a lot of our staff here today – a lot of our research scientists – and for me, it’s just really exciting to know that young kids are being able to connect with professional research scientists. ... I think it’s just such an important opportunity for kids – for students, young researchers – to feel like they’re stepping into that space. And I hope that it encourages them to do more of it.”
epond@durangoherald.com
