Sustainable life practice for preschool pupils: Sustainable environmental education program (SEEP) model

Global pollution can only handle with education in early childhood. Especially, the pre-school period is an important time for environmental education. It is seen that current pre-school education programs generally include environmental education but it has missing parts. The aim of the study is to add the built environment elements to the environmental education programs that include only natural elements such as trees, animals, etc. The environment is basically divided into two parts as natural and built (man-made structures). There is no environmental education program in the literature that includes these two basic subjects. The built environment includes architectural elements such as buildings, bridges, and infrastructure systems. All people use these systems and should have knowledge about them. The complete Sustainable Environmental Education Model has been created which is including both natural and built environmental elements for preschool pupils in the study. The LEED criteria were taken as a reference while planning the model. The model was applied to 134 (5 years old) pupils who studying pre-school education for eight months. As a result of the model application, the level of awareness of pupils who have never study any environmental education before, according to the beginning of the program, is from 23.37% to 79.81% in sustainable areas, from 23.87% to 85.32% in "efficient water use", from 13.80% to 91.79% in efficient energy use and from 13.78% to 82.98% in the usage of waste materials It was determined that it increased. The designed model can be the solution for global pollution.

Light People: Tarik Bourouina

EditorialIn 2015, 195 countries of the United Nations proposed Sustainable Development Goals so as to alleviate the problems of climate change and global pollution. In France, there is a scientist dedicated to contribute providing solutions for above issues by virtue of MEMS, Lab-On-Chip and metamaterials. This expert is Prof. Tarik Bourouina, a Professor of Physics at ESIEE Paris, Université Gustave Eiffel. He devoted himself to the investigations on micro sensors and metamaterials, and kept seeking their applications in the future blueprint of “Sustainable” and “Smart” cities. On the other hand, he has formed an indissoluble bond with Light: Science and Applications (LIGHT) since the very beginning of the journal. He also set up the LIGHT’s Paris office, which is the first LIGHT’s overseas office in Europe. We are much honored to have an opportunity to exclusively communicate with Prof. Tarik Bourouina, who will share his research experience and stories with LIGHT in this interview.

Geoengineering: Spread Areas, Technosphere Safety Aspects and Management Characteristics

In this paper have been considered the basic approaches and main principles of geoengineering. The “geoengineering” term transformation, as well as the term’s specifications of use in the Russian-language scientific literature, and the application area have been demonstrated. In connection with the growing biosphere problems, it has been proposed to classify mining and global pollution (i.e. pollution of atmosphere, hydrosphere and soil) as geoengineering. Special attention has been paid to the possible risks of geoengineering (including at large reservoirs of hydroelectric power plants), and the necessity for detailed study before launching of large-scale projects. The UN approach to geoengineering management has been characterized, and the main principles of geoengineering regulations have been presented. An extended classification of geoengineering technologies has been proposed.

Advances in Methods for Recovery of Ferrous, Alumina, and Silica Nanoparticles from Fly Ash Waste

Fly ash or coal fly ash causes major global pollution in the form of solid waste and is classified as a “hazardous waste”, which is a by-product of thermal power plants produced during electricity production. Si, Al, Fe Ca, and Mg alone form more than 85% of the chemical compounds and glasses of most fly ashes. Fly ash has a chemical composition of 70–90%, as well as glasses of ferrous, alumina, silica, and CaO. Therefore, fly ash could act as a reliable and alternative source for ferrous, alumina, and silica. The ferrous fractions can be recovered by a simple magnetic separation method, while alumina and silica can be extracted by chemical or biological approaches. Alumina extraction is possible using both alkali- and acid-based methods, while silica is extracted by strong alkali, such as NaOH. Chemical extraction has a higher yield than the biological approaches, but the bio-based approaches are more environmentally friendly. Fly ash can also be used for the synthesis of zeolites by NaOH treatment of variable types, as fly ash is rich in alumino-silicates. The present review work deals with the recent advances in the field of the recovery and synthesis of ferrous, alumina, and silica micro and nanoparticles from fly ash.