Carbon-not Education & Ambassador Program

The Gulf Coast Carbon Center’s Carbon-not Education & Ambassador Program empowers teachers to build expertise in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and helps them create and distribute educational resources for K-12 educators throughout Texas and Louisiana.

Would you like to become a Carbon-not Ambassador? Sign up here.

Read about the first Carbon-not Education & Ambassador Workshop here.

Click here for a detailed summary of upcoming & past activities.

We look forward to meeting more teachers in Texas and Louisiana, since we are currently seeking additional teachers willing to implement newly released curricula about current events and new technology into their classroom. To help future generations, we look forward to providing teachers with the appropriate training, materials, and support for their classroom success.

Program Successes

On July 15–18, 2024, the GCCC hosted three excellent science teachers for a workshop to help them link chemistry and carbon-cycle information to CCS technology, and to develop curricula specifically geared toward current Texas middle school science standards known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). During this workshop, these teachers learned how to test groundwater to ensure that CO₂ has not leaked from carbon storage sites. Using glass jars, GCCC staff built sandstone and limestone aquifers, creating a small laboratory version of monitoring wells and then used various testing equipment to measure pH, alkalinity, and total dissolved solids. These “controlled releases” of CO₂ in classroom-friendly “lab” wells showed how equipment can detect unacceptable CO₂ release events and indicate if the leak has stopped. Read more about the first Carbon-not Education & Ambassador Workshop and the day-to-day activities here.

On November 14–16, 2024, Sue Hovorka, Angela Luciano, and Linda McCall attended the Science Teachers Association of Texas Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST24) in San Antonio, TX. The group handed out over 300 recently released CCS comic books by the Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) that were requested by our Carbon-not Ambassadors and were specifically designed using Texas educational standards for 8th graders.

For the Carbon-not Ambassador Program, organized by the Texas-Louisiana Carbon Management Community, Dr. Cynthia L Hopkins from Corpus Christi Independent School District (ISD) and Stephanie Hurst from Cleveland ISD attended CAST24 to help spread the word about our Carbon-not Resources. These Master Teachers worked with GCCC Researchers to create and implemented CCS curricula and resources suited for 7th and 8th graders based on Texas learning standards (known as TEKS). For more information, click on: www.put-it-back.org

For the duration of the conference, the Bureau of Economic Geology, with support from GCCC Researchers, hosted a booth to distribute resources and awesome prizes to help boost STEM education.
November 14 at 8 am – Dr. Cynthia L Hopkins and Stephanie Hurst hosted a workshop for science teachers about CCS-related, STEM lessons that are tied to the new TEKS learning standards that were created from our July workshop.
November 16 at 9:30 am – The GCCC participated in the TESTA Share-a-thon to spread awareness about these resources and provided CCS demonstrations.

Last Updated: January 8, 2025