Nonprofit funds a way for high schoolers to skip a year of college

Good News Notes: “Pursuing a college education can be an expensive ordeal, but one big nonprofit is hoping to address the issue of affordability by helping high school students gain college credits at very low costs even before they graduate. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this week launched a series of grants to boost schools’…

First solar canal project is a win for water, energy, air and climate in California

Good News Notes: “Mounting evidence suggests the western United States is now in its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. Groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many places, and the dryness, wildfires and shrinking water supplies are making climate change personal for millions of people. As an engineer, I have been working with colleagues on a way to both protect water supplies and…

A community comes together to expand an important DC urban garden

Good News Notes: “It only occupies a small open area near Allen Chapel AME Church in Southeast D.C., but a newly expanded urban garden is having a big impact on the community it serves. “We provide food for anybody who needs food; we don’t ask them any questions,” said Thelma Speight, Executive Director of the…

Indoor, vertical farming could feed the world — and space

Good News Notes: “As the global population continues to increase, vertical farming is becoming a more widely recognized and viable solution to our food production problem. Vertical farming is a type of indoor farming where crops are grown in stacked layers, rather than spread out across large plots of land. These futuristic farms aren’t just going to have an…