Journal Spring 2018: Climate Change

Environmental Science Courses Urge Action on

Climate Change Last September, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced that California will host the Global Climate Action Summit from September 12 to 14, 2018 in San Francisco. From the start UHS has offered environmental science courses, and many of our alumni have gone on to work in environmental science or environmental justice professionally. In this issue, we’re sharing a few of those stories. Share your story by sending an email to communications@sfuhs.org.

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any Game of Thrones viewers consider the HBO series a parable for climate change. Like the show’s supernatural White Walkers and their army of the dead, global warming can seem too distant or overwhelming a threat to face head on. At UHS, environmental science courses are taking a different approach to teaching students about climate change—one that inspires action.

In her AP Environmental Science and Marine Biology courses, Rochelle Devault, who joined the UHS faculty this academic year, is tying science to the real world. She took students on field trips to the Headwaters Science Institute at Donner Pass, where they researched biodiversity and soil composition, and to a local park, where they estimated the carbon content of a tree. This fall, she plans to link coursework to the Global Climate Action Summit, which will bring climate advocacy leaders to San Francisco.

“I want students to feel that steps can be taken and this isn’t a doom-and-gloom situation,” Devault says.

That is also the goal of a new course that Devault is launching

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with English teacher Susee Witt this spring. Called “Climate Science/Climate Stories,” the elective is the first UHS course focused on climate change and the first to be cross-listed in the English and science departments.

The goal of the interdisciplinary course is to illuminate the human aspects of a crisis often seen as abstract.

“Our central question is: What is a human being’s relationship to nature, how has it changed, and do we have a moral responsibility to the environment?” Witt says.

The course will explore both the science of climate systems and the stories people have told about the natural world from the pre-industrial era to today.

Students will read everything from Native American and Greek mythology to the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau to Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. At the end, they will work on a local climate-related project with a social justice component.

“Included in our teaching philosophy is the notion that teenagers don’t need to be bombarded with disaster, but rather given the opportunity to create and imagine: This is going

Clockwise from top: Justin Sze ’18 and Queenie Li ’18; Rochelle Devault, science instructor; UHS students in the field.

to be your world. What would you like it to look like?” Witt says.

Devault hopes the new curriculum, combined with her other courses, can help overcome inertia on climate change. “I saw

a disconnect between science and the general public because there wasn’t a humanization of what was going on,” she says. “Here is the data, but how can we really make students and the public take ownership of it?” n — Katia Savchuk

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Elliot Britton ’18 Helps Solve a Local Environmental Mystery

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ast spring, hundreds of leopard sharks began washing up on Bay Area shores. Scientists had no idea why the animals were dying, and they were concerned: The sharks are a key part of the local food chain.

Last summer, senior Elliot Britton helped crack the case during an internship at the DeRisi lab at the University of California, San Francisco, which was collaborating with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Elliot flew drones along the coastline to scan for

Sam Steyer ’06 Energy Analyst While at UHS, Sam Steyer ’06 took AP Physics Mechanics, AP Physics Electricity and Magnetism, and honors math courses. He particularly appreciated how UHS taught the “whole system of math and science,” immersing the students in new “worlds,” rather than simply following “procedures.”

Sam is the head of analytics at Station A, a “spin-out company” of NRG Energy, he is currently developing software to facilitate the collaboration of clean energy companies and large landowners seeking to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, by making it easier for all parties to construct renewable

any dead leopard sharks that volunteer beach patrollers missed.

He only found one, which confirmed that counts were accurate.

“I wanted to use my interest in aviation and aerial systems to solve an environmental problem,” Elliot says. “I was able to figure out techniques for the best way to use drones if similar outbreaks occur in the future.”

Next, Elliot put his UHS coursework in molecular biology to use. He assisted Hanna Retallack, a graduate student working in the lab, to analyze the DNA and RNA in samples of brain fluid from leopard sharks that had died in the Bay and elsewhere.

Elliot’s role was to perform

energy projects. As an analyst at Advanced Energy Economy in 2011 and 2012, he fought for the implementation of a legal policy in Ohio, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania called the “renewable portfolio standard,” or RPS, which encourages politicians to support renewable energy. Steyer hopes that the Global Climate Action Summit next September will establish country-by-country specifics of implementing the goals of the Paris Climate Accord, as well as encourage industries and states to prioritize the environment. He hopes UHS will continue encouraging students to “rebuild some of the systems in the world,” and to keep asking students to imagine ways for cities to function more sustainably. n

polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a lab technique used to make copies of DNA segments.

Hanna was able to use the results to discover the killer: A parasite called Miamiensis avidus was infecting the sharks’ brains, causing them to become disoriented and die.

Some scientists believe California’s drought, followed by heavy rainfall in Northern California, helped the parasite spread by washing toxins into the Bay or decreasing salinity.

Such extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change.

Elliot, who is now studying microbiology and working on a student pilot's license, says his internship inspired him to persevere in using his love of planes to solve realworld problems, including environmental ones.

L to R: Elliot Britton ’18; Hannah Retallack, graduate student who works in the DeRisi Lab; Dr. Joseph DeRisi, Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF, and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. Photo courtesy of Paul Hauser.

“I couldn’t believe I could fly a drone every day and call it work.

It was amazing to be able to see scientists solve problems in a lab setting and even help out” he says. “If you have a passion or weird interest, think about how you can connect what you know to what other people need help with.” n — Katia Savchuk

L to R: Sam Steyer ’06 with Michael Wara ’91. The two met at Stanford University when Sam was a statistics grad student. Michael advised Sam on a project concerning integration of wind and solar into the electricity grid. At the time, Michael was an associate professor at Stanford Law School. He is now the director of the climate change and energy policy program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

— Roxie Miles ’19 SFUHS.ORG

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Defending California’s

ENVIRONMENT

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either Bradley Solomon ’81 nor Elaine Meckenstock ’89 started out in their careers defending the environment, but today both are proud to work for the State of California Attorney General in the Natural Resources Section.

Brad spent the first part of his law career as a personal injury lawyer litigating in front of juries. A few years back, he was recruited by the Natural Resources Law Section because they thought having a strong litigator on the team would be an asset. One of his most recent cases has involved defending our state Department of Fish and Wildlife in regard to a moratorium on suction dredge mining, sometimes called

“recreational” gold mining, and its effects on the environment.

Also a Deputy Attorney General, Elaine came to law as her second career. While in law school she studied the legal issues presented real time by Hurricane Katrina.

In her third year she secured an internship with the California Attorney General’s office in the Natural Resources section and has been there ever since a postgrad stint clerking for the 9th circuit. She has worked on the same case for ten years, defending California’s carbon intensity standard for transportation fuel sold in our state. California’s clean air standards for fuel sold in our state are higher than other states, and she and her team defend that practice. n

Aquatic Scientist

Samantha Ives ’08, Ethical Designer Sam Ives eschews the term sustainable design. “Ethical is the word we should be using,” she says. “The problem is that most fashion apparel is made with cheap material and cheap labor in styles that people tire of quickly.” Sam’s clothing line, Maker and Mineral, walks the walk. Garments are seasonless and versatile because the items can be worn with or without layers. Materials are upcycled fabric, scrap fabric, and dead stock fabric. She’s so thoughtful that she prints the fabric after it’s been cut so the blank scraps are more versatile. Inks are water soluble. Her manufacturing equipment is two second hand industrial sewing machines.

Packaging is made from recycled materials. Everything she sells she prints, cuts and sews herself.

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Michelle Woo Bowman ’89

She’s built a following for her business at craft fairs and through Instagram. “The change that has to come is massive. We need to be more considerate of our purchasing choices in general.

We need big businesses to say it’s important to be green, important not to poison rivers with dye runoff. We need customers to say we value safe work environments for factory workers, and we’re willing to pay for it.” n

During the next big winter rain, you won’t find Michelle Bowman inside keeping dry; she’ll be deep inside a storm drain monitoring water quality.

Michelle’s first job out of college was with an environmental consulting firm that specialized in storm water regulatory issues and it’s what she’s still doing today. As an aquatic scientist, Michelle monitors water and sediment (a.k.a. mud) for her clients to make sure they comply with clean water regulations.

Michelle spent her summers as a kid playing in tidepools in Hawaii, her mother’s birthplace, and always knew she wanted to be a marine biologist. She studied marine biology at UHS with Rob Spivack P ’07, volunteered at the Marine Mammal Center, received her Bachelor of Science from U.C. San Diego in general biology (because they didn’t offer the specialized major back then),

and did work towards her M.S. in animal physiology at S.F. State University. She curated a career path into her profession by holding internships throughout her undergraduate career at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in marine benthic ecology and taxonomy, and was a scientific illustrator at the Scripps Institute Aquarium. Her expertise is in water quality monitoring and sediment characterization, and her clients include the Port of San Diego and Port of Los Angeles. She provides chemical analyses and toxicity testing of water and sediment samples. More recently, she's provided her clients with environmental outreach and education. She has filled a much-needed role in translating scientific results or compliance regulations into layperson terms. She uses these skills to teach the public how to use more environmentally friendly practices prior to regulations needing to be put in place, and to help them understand new or current regulations. n —Marianna Stark ’89