East Bay students fight extreme heat in schoolyards with trees — and data

It was an unusually hot spring day at Livermore High School in the East Bay, the school ground’s mostly asphalt surfaces scorching under the sun, when Robin Deepak was in math class. Suddenly, he heard a thud behind him. A student had fainted. The cause? Extreme heat and dehydration. 

“Students really feel the heat on a day-to-day basis,” Deepak says. “Going back and forth to classes for hours-long days has really taken a toll on their health.”