With Green Seed Funding, Students Set CA Up for Aerial Environmental Monitoring

Technology has become a pathway to ecology for Quinn Williams ’25 and Carey Cai ’25. This year, the Class of 1972 Green Seed Fund supported their proposal to purchase a surveying drone equipped with multispectral cameras for CA. Designed for agricultural monitoring, the drone will enable the aerial mapping of local waterways and ecosystems and allow students to investigate algae blooms, monitor invasive species, and analyze plant health and seasonal shifts over time, among other possibilities. “It’s a great data collection tool with a ton of potential,” says science teacher Chris Labosier, CA’s environmental sustainability and justice coordinator. The two seniors have been conducting test flights on campus and setting up data collection and analysis procedures to pass on to other students interested in helping get this long-term environmental science project off the ground.