“They are understanding that they can help the environment, they can help our school, they can do things to make an impact”
Meet the RISE STEM Academy’s Green Team
Kristen Witt, Ph.D, is the Innovation Specialist and Sustainability Coordinator at Rise STEM Academy, an all-girls elementary school in Lexington, Kentucky. She works with the Green Team, a group of students supporting several environmental science projects in the school. The Green Team has built electric cars, performed energy audits, but one of their most impactful responsibilities has been maintaining the school’s Corsi-Rosenthal boxes.
Kristen discovered Corsi-Rosenthal boxes through the Central Kentucky Clean Air Team, a Clean Air K12 grant recipient. She worked with her principal to replace her air filters and invested in building boxes for her classroom. The Green Team built 25 boxes, developed a series of videos to demonstrate proper usage for classrooms, and replaces air filters annually. Kristen says that student responsibility is the key to getting the whole school to buy in: “because the kids took ownership of it, the teachers are more willing to accommodate”
Kristen says that “It takes time but the time is worth it. The kids understand and can see the change that’s happening on the filters, they can tell that it’s cleaning our air, this group of kids cares about clean air more because they went through COVID and they understand sickness. They don’t want to be sick, they want clean air in their buildings”
“It’s a part of our school. Every classroom has one and every student can tell you what it does. It’s one of our big things that we can say what RISE does”