Sustainability Research Station at Pumpkin Days 2018

Thanks to the hard work of the Sustainovation Club members and to additional volunteers from across the campus, our second annual Sustainability Research Station at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days fall festival was a success! To assist Tyler Arboretum with extending their education mission into Pumpkin Days, we collaborated with Tyler’s Director of Public Programs Amy Mawby to host a Sustainability Research Station different from last year’s paper versus plastic straws. The goal of this year’s station was to educate Tyler’s visitors on conserving energy at home and learning about renewable energy sources. Visitors were also asked to reflect upon how they could change personal behaviors and/or encourage others to do so. Finally, we had a related fun activities for kids and their families.

On October 20, from 10AM to 5PM, volunteers from Penn State Brandywine (23 in total) hosted activities to engage visitors on their knowledge of energy use in the home. Then, visitors were showed renewable energy sources, and encouraged to use even less power by going outdoors for fun and activity. Visitors were also provided a handout with information on energy conservation, the Energy Literacy Principles from the Department of Energy, and the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations. You can view the brochure here.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, continuing on the wind theme, kids (and adults!) were challenged to construct a pinwheel made of paper, a paper straw, wooden stick, and a pipe cleaner. We were so pleased to see everyone have fun creating their pin wheels, with some clever design models! This activity allowed everyone to push their thoughts on innovative design while making this craft.

In the end, we were pleased to work with Tyler Arboretum in developing an activity that was educational and engaging, allowing us to encourage a reflection about individual choices on how to save energy at home. Our Penn State Brandywine volunteers interacted with over 320 of Tyler’s visitors and facilitated the construction of over 100 pinwheels. We volunteered for 72.25 hours (averaging about 3 hours per person)

Some of our campus volunteers, along with Amy Mawby (Tyler’s Public Programs Director) and the Nittany Lion

 


The Sustainability Research Station held at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days festival in fall 2018 supports the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Goal #7 – Affordable and Clean Energy; Goal #9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.

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