Tyler Arboretum

Creating a virtual podcast discussion club for nature-themed education

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Tyler Arboretum

When the pandemic shut down the in-person educational opportunities at both Penn State Brandywine and Tyler Arboretum in March 2020, the Sustainovation Team leaders stepped in to keep the connections going between both communities. With the assistance of undergraduate student researcher Dallas Barber, Sustainovation Team co-leaders Laura Guertin and Karen Theveny rolled out a program for April through July that provided an online option for learning about nature.

Penn State Brandywine coordinated with Tyler Arboretum to form a virtual podcast discussion club, called Listen To This! Every two weeks, a new nature-themed topic was selected with a list of pre-selected podcasts for individuals to explore. Topics included World Bee Day, Water, World Biomes, National Forest Week, and more. After listening to the 5-7 podcasts, everyone logged in to Zoom for a one-hour discussion of the content. The discussions were enriched by the participation of Penn State students, alumni, and research scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) and 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod. The final discussion addressed how participants could make a difference for nature with education and advocacy.

See this Penn State News article from April 15, 2020, titled Brandywine, Tyler Arboretum offer online discussion group during pandemic.

To view the playlists and questions we discussed, visit: https://tinyurl.com/onlinepodcastclub

 

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Multilingual Storytime in February 2020 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Multilingual Storytime for International Mother Language Day 2020

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum

In celebration of International Mother Language Day, two student clubs from Penn State Brandywine visited Tyler Arboretum to lead a Saturday morning storytime. But this wasn’t like a typical storytime – the Sustainovation Club and Multicultural Student Club added their linguistic knowledge and read books in a variety of languages.

These are the books and languages the students shared with Tyler’s visitors young and old:

  • The Apple Tree by Jane Thai (a dual language book – English and Mandarin Chinese)
  • I Like Pickles by Jane Thai (a dual language book – English and Mandarin Chinese)
  • Das Schweinchen Mit Dem Ringelschwanz by Alexandra Dannenmann (German)
  • The Hungry Little Catipillar/Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt by Eric Carle (German)
  • The Giraffe that Ate the Moon/La Girafe Qui a Mange La Lune by Aralie Rangel (a dual language book – English and French)
  • Goodnight, Panda!/Bonne nuit Petit Panda! (a dual language book – English and French)
  • Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Korean)
  • Diez manzanas en la cabeza! by Dr. Seuss (Spanish)
  • La Luz de Lucia by Margarita del Mazo and Silvia Alvarez (Spanish)
  • Banana for Two by Ellen Mayer (a dual language book – English and Hindi)
  • Sleep Tight, Little Wolf by Barbara Brinkmann (a dual language book – English and Japanese)
  • Lily’s Surprise/La sorpresa di Lilli by Madhumita Mocharla (a dual language book – English and Italian)
  • Jojo’s Playful Day/Una giornata di giochi con Jojo by Sujatha Lalgudi (a dual language book – English and Italian)
  • One Rainy Day/Um Dia Chuvoso by Valeri Gorbachev (a dual language book – English and Portuguese)
  • My Snow Day/Meu Dia de Neve by Ally Nathaniel (a dual language book – English and Portuguese)
  • The Rainbow Fish (a dual language book – English and Vietnamese)
  • One Rainy Day by Valeri Gorbachev (a dual language book – English and Vietnamese)

Students also had bookmarks available for kids to color, as well as blank books where they could write their own story with stickers and color stamps. We utilized SCC grant funding to purchase 75 new carpet squares made of recycled carpet fibers for Tyler to use for future programming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Multilingual Storytime in February 2020 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Teacher Workshop – Air Quality Flag Program

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Tyler Arboretum

The Sustainovation Team worked with Tyler Arboretum in assisting them with expanding their teacher programming by offering a half-day workshop to help teachers learn about the EPA’s Air Quality Flag Program for schools. SCC funds were used to purchase flags for the schools to bring back and implement with their students.

More information about the EPA Air Quality Flag Program is available at: https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=flag_program.index

An excellent StoryMap describing the program is available at: https://gispub.epa.gov/OAR_OAQPS/FlagProgram/

Sustainability Research Station at Pumpkin Days 2019

aus206 Activities, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum , ,

photo of Sustainovation Club membersDue to the efforts of the Sustainovation Club and other campus volunteers, on October 12 Penn State Brandywine held its third annual Sustainability Research Station at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days fall festival! Over the past three years, the campus has collaborated with Tyler’s Director of Public Programs Amy Mawby to create new and innovative activities in order to help extend Tyler Arboretum’s education mission into its fun, family-focused events like Pumpkin Days.

During the first year, the Sustainability Research Station focused on the concept of paper versus plastic straws, while the second year’s station educated visitors on conserving energy at home and learning about renewable energy sources. This year, the research station found a new location at the Arboretum and combined many different activities. Student volunteers engaged visitors on their knowledge of recycling and its importance. Young visitors were encouraged to demonstrate their ability to identify whether items were paper, plastic, or aluminum and place them in the correct recycling bin.

Club member helping young Tyler visitor with craft

Visitors were also invited to participate in several crafts. With the help of campus volunteers, kids created beautiful flowers using donated coffee filters (some dyed beautiful colors using food coloring), pipe cleaners, and paper straws. Also, they were invited to write or draw their own stories about nature, using pictures of animals and other objects in nature as prompts, which led into another important part of the research station: the Short Edition machine. Penn State Brandywine’s own short story dispensing machine made an appearance in order to help inform Tyler visitors of the Nature Narratives contest, which is co-sponsored by Sustainovation, University Libraries, and Tyler Arboretum. More information can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/naturenarratives

students assisting children with recyling activityEvery year, the station’s mission, beyond entertaining visitors and creating amazing crafts, is to help families reflect upon how they could change personal behaviors and possible encourage others to do so as well in order to make choices that are sustainable and beneficial to the environment. Overall, this annual event has helped student volunteers and visitors connect, discuss important issues facing our world today, and create beautiful arts and crafts.

 

The Sustainability Research Station held at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days festival in fall 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development  Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Pancake Breakfast and Maple Sugaring Celebration at Tyler Arboretum

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum

A full summary of Sustainovation activities at Tyler Arboretum for the Pancake Breakfast can be found on this Adobe Spark page.

At Tyler Arboretum’s annual Pancake Breakfast and Maple Sugaring Celebration, the Sustainovation Team and students came out to assist in a unique way. Tapping in to Tyler’s 75th anniversary as an arboretum, Sustainovation Team member Adrienne Showalter worked on a survey, database, and website to compile a list of the favorite nature-related books from Tyler members. Check out the website, along with member quotes for their choices at the website https://sites.psu.edu/tylercreative/greatnaturereads/. During the celebration on February 23, 2019, visitors to Tyler could view the listing of book choices and explore a display of copies of the books. Adrienne also had information for Pennsylvania residents to learn how to find electronic versions of these books through libraries, especially the availability of Penn State’s library system.

In addition, Sustainovation Team member Dr. Laura Guertin had a poster and spoke to visitors about the impacts of climate change on maple trees and the production of maple syrup. A copy of the poster can be viewed here: The changing taste of maple syrup

We had tables set up where kids visiting the event could color their own bookmarks, and even create their own book on nature to take home with them – thanks to the efforts of the Penn State Brandywine student volunteers for their assistance in working with the kids and families that morning.

One final piece to our program at Pancake Breakfast was a nature story time, led by Penn State Brandywine librarian Annie Jansen. We happened to have some children’s nature-themed books written in English and Spanish, so Sustainovation Team member Dr. Ivan Esparragoza jumped in and co-read some of the books with Annie. This part of our event was so popular that we’ll be doing an International Nature Story Time next year at Tyler, involving more of our international students to read in their native languages.

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Pancake Breakfast in spring 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #14 – Life Below Water, Goal #15 – Life On Land, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

 

Sustainability Research Station at Pumpkin Days 2018

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum , ,

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.

EarthEcho Water Challenge at Tyler Arboretum

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Tyler Arboretum ,

On October 6, 2018, members of the Penn State Brandywine community hosted a hands-on outreach event at Tyler Arboretum for its members. Brandywine faculty and members of two student clubs, Sustainovation and Civic Engagement, led an information session and provided guidance on how to test the health of our local waters. Each participating Tyler family received a free water testing kit from EarthEcho International and instruction on how to test water from four locations across the Arboretum. Participants were encouraged to continue testing waters at the Arboretum and in the local community, then enter their data on the EarthEcho website for scientists and others to use for research and monitoring. A fun morning was had by everyone!

Student volunteers from the EarthEcho Water Challenge program. Students are members of the Sustainovation Club and Civic Engagement Club.

 

See Penn State News article on this event: Brandywine, Tyler Arboretum host World Water Day celebration

The EarthEcho Water Challenge held at Tyler Arboretum in fall 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #6 – Clean Water and Sanitation and Goal #14 – Life Below Water.

Social Media Marketing assistance for SCC partners

Dr. Laura Guertin Media Food Bank, Tyler Arboretum , , ,

Professor Lori Reno teaches MKTG 480: Intermediate Social Media Marketing. In this course, Prof. Reno has students work with actual clients with an identified need – assistance with strategies and ideas for improvement in their social media presence. Two of the student teams from Spring 2018 worked with two of the SCC community partners.

Media Food Bank

Student researchers included: Khoi Ha, Justin Moderski, Anik Saha, Michael Zoltowski

Tyler Arboretum Public Programs

Student researchers included: Patrick O’Dea, Matthew Masi, Eric McCann, Tyler Michaels, William Scott-Norris

Director of Tyler Arboretum’s Public Programs Amy Mawby poses with her MKTG 480 student social media marketing team.

Library pass now available for Tyler Arboretum

Dr. Laura Guertin Tyler Arboretum ,

We’re thrilled to share that Penn State Brandywine’s Vairo Library now has a library pass to Tyler Arboretum!

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of Reference Librarian Mary Fran McLaughlin and Tyler’s Membership & Annual Giving Manager Caitlin Anello, Vairo Library became the first library to become a “member” and part of Tyler’s new program for libraries.

Anyone with a Penn State ID card can borrow the pass from the library circulation desk. The pass will permit admission to any Penn State student or employee, as well as three guests. The guests do not need to be affiliated with Penn State.

The pass will circulate for three days at a time. This will enable those who might take the pass on Friday to use it during the weekend, with return expected by Monday.

Vairo Library’s goal is to inspire more of the campus community to take advantage of this beautiful arboretum just across the way.