Roanoke City Public Schools "Smart City" Summer Program around heat resilience planning
In the summer of 2021, professors from Virginia Tech and UVA, in partnership with the City of Roanoke’s Sustainability Coordinator and Roanoke City Public Schools, facilitated a 2-week summer STEM program with students ages 12 -14 enrolled in the Roanoke City Public Schools Summer Enrichment Program. Students were given hands-on experience using urban sensing technologies such as handheld weather sensors and drones to build understanding of the correlation between materials and vegetation and temperature. In addition to learning to collect, use and contextualize scientific data, students also carried out interviews, and engaged in planning solutions to urban heat in their neighborhoods.