Author Archives: Mr. Wight

Before submitting to DOB, we needed to determine the structural engineering characteristics of the soil at the site. The investigation revealed that the area “ as dense soil and rubble fill, underlain by a very dense silty sand with traces … Continue reading →

Students Building a hydroponic lab to grow strawberries this winter! This will be installed in our Energy-Environment Research Center project, which we hope to break ground on this school year!

Calibrating our weir to better understand water retention rates on our green roof, with Columbia University graduate students!

Took a group of aspiring engineers to visit my Alma Mater, Columbia’s engineering labs last week. Here’s a video of Columbia’s Civil Engineering lab crushing a cinder block with 390,000 lbs of force!

Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation / Bronx Borough President’s Office coordinated Green Roof Tour, as part of “Bronx Week”. Bronx Design & Construction Academy was one of four green roofs visited!

Gravitational Waves detected! Nice work LIGO!  Here’s a NYT article and here’s an informative video. This news came out the day before I taught gravitational field theory to my 12th grade physics class (gravitational waves are just propagating oscillations of … Continue reading →

Check out this drip irrigation system we created using a soaker hose and single dial timer. The plants get watered automatically every other evening!

As winners of the 2014 Zayed Future Energy Prize BDCA was invited to the annual Sustainable Energy for All Forum (SE4ALL) at the United Nations. We attended a ceremony in the UN General Assembly Hall, and received this attached letter … Continue reading →

BDCA’s Sustainability Committee has teamed up with New York Restoration Project and Million Trees NYC! Sadly, this is because 27 street trees have died (many more are not in good health) surrounding our school; On a happy note, NY Restoration … Continue reading →

Honored to be featured on the cover of my Alma Mater’s magazine, along with two other amazing educators. Here’s the Linfield Magazine article!

Excited to be a participant in the webinar “Growing Schoolyard STEM Projects!” See below to learn more, What? Join us the Wednesday before National Environmental Education Week for an introduction to the many applications of schoolyard gardens and green spaces … Continue reading →

Update! Our Zayed Energy-Environment Research Center (E2RC) is currently in the Department of Buildings permitting stage, but we have confidence the greenhouse (powered by a 1kW wind turbine and .5kW solar photovoltaic array system) will break ground next school year. … Continue reading →

What an amazing conference! I thoroughly enjoyed learning about other Green Schools’ sustainability efforts at the Green Schools National Conference this week!

Last year BDCA students won a prestigious international prize for their Energy Environment Research Center (E2RC) design. This year, 11th and 12th grade architectural students refine the design using AutoCAD. Congratulations to Justine, Joande, and Noel! These winning designs will … Continue reading →

Here’s an updated CrowdMap, created through the participation of Bronx Design & Construction Academy students in Sustainable South Bronx’s AirCasting program! Students will collect more data on particulate matter / pollution in our community, and analyze it in the coming … Continue reading →

Check out this map create by Bronx Design & Construction Academy students through their participation in Sustainable South Bronx’s AirCasting program!

Architectural Drafting Students at Bronx Design & Construction Academy kick started our Energy Environment Research Center project by surveying the construction site today! Here’s our timeline for the project: Wk of Oct 6th: Students collect data on wind speed (with … Continue reading →

Every year the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognize outstanding kindergarten through grade 12 teachers who employ innovative approaches to environmental education and use the environment as a context for learning for their … Continue reading →

DivvySolar, a solar photovoltaic crowd funding platform, recently helped us fundraise to turn our pilot study into a full scale study to further prove that solar panels and green roofs can co-exist on the same roof and actually perform better … Continue reading →

Check out this cool Divvy Project, helping Eagle Slope Solar Farm in the South Bronx go solar! http://divvysolar.com/projects/eagle-slope-solar-farm/

Bronx school beats out deep field to snag international award!

Bronx 12 did a story on Zayed Future Energy Prize and goal to build an Energy-Environment Research Center! Check it out here: http://bronx.news12.com/news/bronx-design-and-construction-academy-in-melrose-wins-100-000-zyed-future-energy-prize-1.6893107

X552 (Bronx Design & Construction Academy), PS41 (Greenwich School) and MS442 (New Horizons) have teamed up! All three schools actively use green roofs into their curriculum; we represent an elementary school, middle school and high school. Our goal? To create … Continue reading →

Winner of the ZFEP for the America Region! Bronx Design & Construction Academy was recently named the winner of the Zayed Future Energy Prize for the Americas (South, Central, North) region! We were 1 of 5 high schools around the … Continue reading →

Woke up this morning pretty early preparing for the day. Today the finalist of The Zayed Future Energy Prize will be attending a press conference. After the press conference we’ll go to Shams1, one of the world’s largest Concentrated Solar … Continue reading →

BDCA was featured in two large regional newspapers today! Ray’s standing next to the prince of Abu Dhabi in the below photo! Zayed Future Energy Prize winners named – The National Zayed Future Energy Prize: Winners and why they won … Continue reading →

ZFEP Awards ceremony: Ray hanging with the president of Iceland and Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi!

There’s a two-pound 24 carrot gold “ZFEP Winner” piece attached to the award certificate … this still hasn’t fully hit us!

After taking part in a very formal press conference, we had an amazing dinner in the Emirates Palace Hotel. I noticed after taking a bite of the caramel flan cheesecake that there were gold flakes sprinkled on top (look closely)!! … Continue reading →

We arrived the Emirates Palace around 7:06pm and met a handful of incredible business men/women. I gave them my E2RC card before the ceremony started. The ceremony was incredible. After hearing “and the winner is…” … “Bronx Design & Construction … Continue reading →

Nathaniel Thayer Wight

Busy day! I participated in a student panel at the opening ceremony at The Abu Dhabi Exposition Center. I also got a pretty cool tour of Masdar Institute, the most sustainable place in Abu Dhabi. We JUST arrived at the … Continue reading →

http://www.masdar.ac.ae

I caught a few ZZZs, still a bit Jet-lagged, but I’m super excited about today! Today IS the day! We got up and promptly jumped on a bus to head to the opening ceremonies of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability week … Continue reading →

First day in Abu Dhabi and it was a hectic! I accidentally swapped luggages with someone at the airport and spent too many Dirhams traveling to the Dubai airport and then back to Abu Dhabi. Luckily, we were still able … Continue reading →

We’re finalists (top 3 in all of the Americas) at Bronx Design & Construction Academy for a $100,000 Zayed Future Energy Prize. As finalists, we’re traveling to Abu Dhabi this week to participate in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and the … Continue reading →

BDCA students recently used old copy paper boxes to design and make their own recycling bin. We’re advertising it at school, which will lead to the next step: teachers and students using our design to customize their own for their … Continue reading →

Bronx Design & Construction Academy is excited to announce that we’re Zayed Future Energy Prize (ZFEP) finalists, for the second year in a row! As one of 3 schools representing the Americas, we’ll compete for $100,000 in Abu Dhabi this … Continue reading →

The City College of NY (CCNY) has launched a crowd-funding campaign to install the Solar Roofpod on the roof of the Spitzer School of Architecture. The Solar Roofpod will become the Center for Sustainable Projects, enhancing interdisciplinary work between professionals … Continue reading →

Our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project was recently fully funded through Divvy Solar‘s solar panel crowd funding platform! Thanks to everyone who made this a reality! We’ll keep you updated on our progress!

Thanks Steve and Marc from GLUCK+ Architecture for giving Bronx Design and Construction Academy architectural and carpentry students a tour of STACKS, the first modular, prefabricated building in NYC!

Solar Journey USA donated 24 95-Watt Solar Panels to our school! We’re going to use them in our Career & Technical Education classes! Thanks Rob and Garrett!

Students surveying our green roof, identifying plants, and collecting seeds. Urban ecology minutes from the classroom!

Consider supporting solar panel crowd funding at Bronx Design & Construction Academy! Click here to see our project page and watch this video to learn more about our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy research. You can easily do this by … Continue reading →

Support solar panel crowd funding at BDCA! Click here to see our project page and watch this video to learn more about Bronx Design & Construction Academy‘s student involvement with our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project. Support us by … Continue reading →

Support solar panel crowd funding at BDCA! Click here to see our project page and watch this video to learn more about Bronx Design & Construction Academy‘s student involvement with our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project. Support us by … Continue reading →

Support solar panel crowd funding at BDCA! Click here to see our project page and watch this video to learn more about Bronx Design & Construction Academy‘s student involvement with our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project. Support us by … Continue reading →

Click here to support DivvySolar‘s first fundraising campaign at Bronx Design & Construction Academy! Watch this video to learn more about BDCA and our project. If 1000 people donate $10 each we’ll have more than enough! If you’re in the … Continue reading →

https://vimeo.com/73305706 DivvySolar (divvysolar.com) recently launched the beginning of an exciting new era of crowdsourcing solar panels! Their first project is at Bronx Design & Construction Academy to help turn our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy (http://gripv.wordpress.com) pilot project into a … Continue reading →

See below info and attached flyer. RSVP here! What: Launch of DivvySolar, a solar panel crowd funding (like kickstarter) platform for NYC schools! When: Wednesday, August 28th, 7-10pm. Why: 1) If you’re interested in learning how to crowd fund solar … Continue reading →

Swiss pilots and inventors Bertrand Piccard (you may remember him – he broke a record by completing a non stop balloon flight around the world) recenlty made history by flying Solar Impulse day and night cross the USA exclusively with … Continue reading →

Towards the end of the school year a neighboring Elementary school took a field trip to visit our green roof. Here’s one of the many thank you cards we received from the students, and here’s a video of one of … Continue reading →

I just got back from West Virginia as a faculty fellow for the Student Climate & Conservation Congress at the US Fish and Wildlife’s National Conservation Training Center. Two of my BDCA students attended this 7 day environmental camp as … Continue reading →

Student first-draft plans to build a comprehensive Energy Environment Research Center (E2RC) in front of our school!

Soundscapes Ecology on our Green Roof! Click here to listen!  Seems like we have several house sparrow and possibly a Tufted Titmouse, fairly common bird in city parks and gardens.

Changing the World to Green: In Offices and Homes – Sam Marquit, blogger Fair Marquit Value   One of the biggest trends that contractors have seen this year is renovation for homes and offices to go green. People are choosing solar … Continue reading →

Last January we attended Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at the annual World Future Energy Summit in the United Arab Emirates. Here’s a video highlighting all of the Global High Schools (We took 2nd place for all of the Americas!)

Going to the American Solar Energy Society was a blast. We learned all about new forms of renewable energy. And we also learned different ways of making energy, such as new ways of making thermal energy. We learned a lot, … Continue reading →

Eco-Schools USA is hosting a Sustainability Coordinator Gathering at BDCA!

Earlier this month Bronx Design & Construction Academy Energy-Environment Research Club students submitted a research paper about our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project. As a result, we were invited to compete in the preliminary rounds of the New York … Continue reading →

Thanks Nathan Pace for highlighting our efforts in this recent Mott Haven Herald article “High Schoolers Harness Sun’s Power“!

We were recently highlighted in Solar1’s newsletter!

Bronx Design & Construction Academy Energy-Environment Research Club students recently competed in the annual New York City Science and Engineering Fair. We competed against 550 projects from a select group of high schools (including Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant, Bx Science) – … Continue reading →

Andrew Revkin, a science and environmental writer for the Dot Earth environmental blog on The Times’ Opinion Pages, recently wrote an article titled “Schools, and Syllabuses, Designed With the Environment in Mind” highlighting our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project … Continue reading →

Here’s a video featuring our Green Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Canopy project at Bronx Design & Construction Academy. This was shown during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at the annual World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. We took 2nd Place! https://vimeo.com/58508578

Two students at Bronx Design & Construction Academy, myself, and an English teacher wrote and submitted a $100,000 grant through the Zayed Future Energy Prize last July. We made it to the finals and are currently in the top 2 … Continue reading →

Engineering Exploration Experience Hosted by Columbia University and New York Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Engineering Exploration Experience (E3) is an event for high school girls in grades nine to eleven to learn about engineering through hands on activities. All … Continue reading →

Engineering Exploration Experience Hosted by Columbia University and New York Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Engineering Exploration Experience (E3) is an event for high school girls in grades nine to eleven to learn about engineering through hands on activities. All … Continue reading →

ROOTS (Restoration of the Outdoors Organized by Teen Students) is a program for teenagers where you use Central Park as an outdoor classroom. The Central Park Conservancy’s Youth Education & Service programs provide groups and individual youth with hands-on opportunities … Continue reading →

See below opportunity to apply for the “Young Eco-Hero” Mr. Wight | EcologyBronx Design & Construction Academy http://www.bxdca.org | http://www.BDCAecology.wordpress.com http://www.actionfornature.org/eco-hero-awards Are you a Young Eco-Hero? Do you know a Young Eco-Hero? Want the world to know what you’ve done? … Continue reading →

If interested in job training for a career in the green industry, see below. Here’s a contact email and phone:Greenjobtrainingnyc 212-854-4500 ________________ GreenNet is a FREE job training and certification course which aims to help low-income out-of-school youth attain careers … Continue reading →

Subject: Scholarships available for students and teachers to attend NOFA-NY conference… Reply-To: Angela McGregor Hedstrom <acm237> Hello, Please see below for scholarship information (teachers and students) to attend Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York’s (NOFA-NY) winter conference. Please direct … Continue reading →

See below scholarship opportunity to attend the NOFA-NY Conference. Let me know if you’re interested, About NOFA-NY NOFA-NY was founded in 1983, and has grown steadily along with the growth of organic farms in New York state. NOFA NY, Inc … Continue reading →