Windermere Preparatory High School of Orlando was welcomed to the University of Central Florida campus on Friday. Eighty high school seniors began learning about green initiatives in their classroom and were eager to see the same concepts in real-time fruition.

The International Bachelorette school holds a requirement for students to engage in a Group 4 project, with this year’s theme being sustainability. Students from three science disciplines, biology, chemistry and physics, will work together to develop a proposal for some type of green initiative to implement at their school.

With that, Windermere Prep students and teachers trekked to their neighbor university – UCF. Upon arrival, the group embarked on a walking tour to various displays of sustainability around campus. The first stop was the glamorous 107KW solar array in front of Garage B to see photovoltaics and clean energy production in action. They then had the chance to walk through the Chiller Plant to view the behind-the-scenes mechanism used to efficiently cool the university’s buildings. Following, the Arboretum staff guided the group to their community garden and newly renovated greenhouse to show sustainable food growing practices and to give a peek at the natural lands. The last stop of the day was the new construction, Global UCF, to explain the components that go into a LEED Certified building.

Before leaving, students shared the projects that they were bringing back to the other side of town. One pair of students was especially interested in stopping by the solar Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station near Memory Mall. Their vision is to cover Windermere’s parking lots with solar pavilions to not only produce shade for vehicles, but simultaneously create clean energy.