History

History of Collaborations with Tyler Arboretum

While the Sustainovation Team is bringing forth new projects, research opportunities, and chances to form lasting relationships without community, it does so against a backdrop of previous initiatives and goals achieved by this campus community. Below, you will see the projects completed by members of the Penn State Brandywine community in collaboration with Tyler Arboretum.

2015

The historic tulip tree measured, with the ecobenefit data presented in this blog post. July – Three students at Penn State Brandywine were given the opportunity to do a six-week engaged scholarship project at Tyler Arboretum.  This project required weekly  visits to collect data for a research project.  Their data collection include measurements such as the height and circumference of the historic trees in the Painter Collection, photos, and GPS coordinates. This data was used to generate a custom Google Map for the project. Measurement data was submitted to a site called “PhillyTreeMap,” a crowd-sourced database which utilizes the tree height and circumference from a measured tree and computes the “ecobenefits” and how many dollars per year a specific tree is saving our community. More here…

 

August – The camFresh Start Day of Service flyerpus provided an opportunity for incoming freshmen to “get rooted in service.” The Fresh START Day of Service, held on Friday, August 21, encouraged new students to have their first service opportunity through Penn State that would lay the foundation for them to continue service through their academic career and their lifetime.  Campus faculty and staff worked with Tyler Arboretum’s Volunteer Coordinator, to offer indoor and outdoor volunteer opportunities.  Some students assisted the fall school program mailer (over 700 pieces of mail were prepared!) and helped prepare for the upcoming Butterfly Festival, while others who were more outdoor oriented and/or interested in ecology or conservation worked with Tyler’s horticulture department in invasive removal and clearing areas of weeks and unruly plants from the Chestnut Orchard to the Wister Rhododendron Garden.  More here…

2012

In Spring 2012, Penn State Brandywine undergraduate researcher Aimee Ralph collaborated with Tyler Arboretum to enhance their annual plant sale with QR codes. The codes were placed on the signage of select plants, and when scanned, opened up to a web page that described the butterflies that would be attracted to those plants. Watch this video to learn more!

2009

[Under construction] Students put together a tree tour and published research.