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CUE 2005

Environmental engineering student Melissa Mora presents the curriculum she designed on renewable energy to CU students from the School of Education.

Environmental Engineering:
Student Develops Renewable Energy Grade-School Curriculum

Environmental engineering student Melissa Mora has taken a step out of the classroom to bring renewable energy into the minds of elementary school students in the Boulder Valley School District and, possibly, across the United States.

Originally from San José, Costa Rica, Mora is a sophomore in the Environmental Engineering Program and works as an intern for CU-Biodiesel, a non-profit student organization dedicated to advancing the use of biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel is a vegetable-based, clean-burning alternative to petroleum-based diesel.

CU-Biodiesel was founded two years ago by Andrew Azman, now a senior in environmental engineering. Mora volunteered to work with the group after Azman told new students about it in the First-Year Seminar in Environmental Engineering.

What started as an idea of CU graduate and current CU-Biodiesel advisor Evan Belser has been developed by Mora into a five-week, grade-specific renewable energy curriculum for students in kindergarten to fifth grade. The curriculum plan, called Project Yellow Bus, complies with Colorado state standards of education.

Through a series of lessons, the curriculum introduces basic concepts of solar, wind, and hydroelectric power to students, and it presents biodiesel as a feasible renewable energy source. The curriculum encourages critical thinking about the substitution of renewable resources for traditional nonrenewable ones.

In January, Mora introduced a trial version of Project Yellow Bus at the National Biodiesel Board Conference. The introduction generated interest from several national organizations, including the National Energy Education Development Project, the Environmental Youth Allegiance, and the Energy Cooperative. She expects to launch the final version of Project Yellow Bus by Earth Day.

www.colorado.edu/engineering/EnvEng