EDUCATION

RETI Center teaches skills and tools to increase the capacity for climate resilience in learners of all ages.

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Field Trips

Our Field Station floating on Gowanus Bay provides unique opportunities for place-based learning in the subject areas of sustainable design, water science, or green energy. We also tailor visits to support specific groups’ needs.

  • What does it mean for an object or process to be sustainable? How can we build structures that are beneficial to the environment they exist in?

    We explore and answer these questions in the construction of floating gardens, buildings made of salvaged material, and site-specific structures to increase surface permeability and habitat. Come get your hands dirty and build with us!

    All trips can be adapted to different age ranges and content-specific knowledge levels.

  • One of our ongoing projects is learning about our ecosystem through water quality testing and monitoring for harmful algal blooms. From identifying coastal species, to testing for specific nutrients and identification of unicellular organisms, we’d love to help your group get hands-on experience at our barge field site.

    All trips can be adapted to different age ranges and content-specific knowledge levels.

  • How does the power grid work? What are the options for green energy in the future? These are questions that we explore through small-scale prototyping with mini solar panels combined with a tour of existing demonstration projects on our barge.

    All trips can be adapted to different age ranges and content-specific knowledge levels.

  • Co-creation is at the heart of what we do, and we love developing custom learning experiences for a wide variety of groups.

    Please contact us to learn more.

Research Groups

We have a few ongoing research groups in specific subject areas that bring high school and college students together with experts in these content areas.

  • This group works with small-scale plastic recycling with the Filabot reclaimer system of machines to produce 100% recycled 3D printer filament and plastic pellets from scrap and landfill-bound material.

    Looking past the era of oil-based plastics, we are also developing algae-based bioplastics with the strength for outdoor applications.

    Please reach out if you would like to collaborate with us!

  • In collaboration with NOAA we carry out weekly monitoring of the Gowanus Bay for early detection harmful algal blooms before they occur. We also are expanding this network in the 2022/23 year to include a sensor network for weather and nutrient monitoring.

    Please reach out if you would like to collaborate with us!

Internship
Program

We collaborate with local high schools, colleges and the Summer Youth Employment Program to create custom paid internships that blend sustainable construction skills and STEM education to support job readiness.

Custom Curricula and Professional Development

In addition to education at our locations, we also work in-person in schools to support one-off workshops, custom lesson plans and professional development sessions. If your school or organization is interested in working together on in-person learning around sustainability, please reach out.