by Susan Flesch
What do landfills have to do with recycling? Sustainability with financial profits? Politics with business plans? Academically talented students, grades 3-8, will ask these and other important questions when they explore the tradeoffs between economic desires and environmental realities in ECO Academy, June 16 – 27.
ECO Academy, blending ECO-nomics + ECO-logy, is one of 11 Summer Academies sponsored by Gifted Resource Council (GRC). The council has sponsored high-interest, hands-on enrichment programs for bright students since 1983. GRC’s 2014 Summer Academies will be located at Crossroads College Preparatory School in the Central West End.
Students in ECO Academy explore the relationship between ecological responsibility and economic entrepreneurship. They form a company, sell stock to family and friends, divide responsibilities, research needs and materials, design and make a product, develop and execute a marketing plan while remaining environmentally responsible.
Working as a team, these young ECO entrepreneurs will turn discarded tile into garden stepping stones. In the process, they benefit the environment, learn important lessons about business and ecology while potentially making a profit for their startup business.
The experience of thinking critically about the interaction of our environment and our economy will empower them to be more effective stewards of the environment as adults.
For more information, visit www.giftedresourcecouncil.org/sumacad.htm or call 314-962-5920