Living The "Green" Life at SYEC
May 17, 2012
Spokane Community College 

The Spokane Youth Environmental Conference (SYEC) is a one day event for 7-12th grade students in Spokane County. The conference promotes environmental sciences by encouraging students to conduct scientific investigations, while providing them a venue to showcase their environmental research project.

On May 17, students participating in the 15th annual conference will experience a day of hands-on environmental education. They learn from each other about local and global environmental issues and actions that can be taken to help address these issues. A draft conference schedule  is available for review.

The Conference is designed to: 

• Encourage students to do real scientific investigations.
• Provide students a forum to share their projects with their peers.
• Through presentations and poster exhibits, students learn from each other about environmental issues and concrete actions they can take to address these issues.
• Enable students, through their active participation, to demonstrate their mastery of the WA state Office of Public Instruction (OSPI) Science Learning Standards.
• Complete culminating projects for seniors if applicable.

Awards: The money raised from conference donors is used to award teachers and students.

• Schools that participate in the conference receive $250 for their classes science department needs. 
• Students with superior projects receive a $25-50 gift card.
• Funding resources are available for student transportation and substitute teacher fees for participating teachers. 
• Monetary award amounts depend upon the amount raised in conference donations and are subject to change year-to-year.
  

There are three ways to present a project at the conference:

• Session Presenter: You/your group can share an environmental project using overheads, slides, computer slide show or a video. A maximum of three students may present on a single project.
• Poster Exhibitor: You/your group can create a display of your environmental project to showcase during the conference "poster session."
• Other Presentation Formats: You can also choose to present your research project using a creative presentation format, such as a skit, newspaper, photo essay, book, website, documentary or newscast.

Conference attendance is limited to:

• Students displaying a poster or giving a presentation at the conference
• Students who have participated in a class project being presented by other students from their class, or
• Students who completed a project in class but are not presenting at the conference.

Conference organizers consist of scientists, communicators and educators. For the past 15 years, they have been working on ways to improve students’ presentation skills and their exploration into science.

In addition, the conference organizers can also be used as resources to connect with environmental organizations that can help assist with mentors, data, resources or community service hours the students may need to complete their projects. 

SYEC recipient of 2009 Science Education Advocate Award: Washington State Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER). Funds from the award help off-set substitute and transportation costs for teachers and their students.