Reducing the carbon footprint

Faith communities can learn how to train congregations to reduce their households’ carbon footprint at a workshop from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Christ Church, 7 Elm St., Westerly. To enroll by Nov. 14, call (401) 267-0029. There is a suggested $10 donation.

Reading readiness to be topic

Meeting Street School will host a discussion called “Not Ready for Kindergarten in Providence: New Evidence of the Negative Impact of Lead Levels on Reading Readiness” from 2:30-4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 29, at Meeting Street, 1000 Eddy St., Providence.

Researcher Pat McLaine from Johns Hopkins University will discuss evaluations of reading readiness scores for 2,407 children in Providence public school kindergartens that were linked with state Health Department records of blood lead levels.

Panel participants include Roberta Aaronson, executive director of Childhood Lead Action Program; Dr. Pamela High, developmental pediatrician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital; John M. Kelly, president of Meeting Street, and Dorothy Smith, supervisor of K-8 education, Providence public schools.

Lead safety book to be published

A children’s book on lead safety, Spider’s New Adventure, has been published under a grant from the Healthy Kids Collaborative. Written by Janet Holmes, lead education coordinator at East Bay Community Action Program, the book is used in programs given in area schools and libraries. For more information call Holmes at (401) 437-0006, ext. 147, or e-mail Jholmes@ebcap.org.

Students win EPA energy grant

A team of students at Roger Williams University has received a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their work on a system that uses wind and solar energy to produce fish food. The EPA awards challenged college students nationwide to design and build sustainable technologies that improve quality of life, promote economic development and protect the environment. The students at Roger Williams are working to refine an aquaculture system driven by renewable energy sources in hopes of eliminating the need for commercial electrical power. After working on the project for eight months, the 43 teams receiving grants will submit their designs to the 6th annual National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC. There, a few projects will be awarded grants up to $75,000 for further work.