Environmental Awareness & Community Action Project
Each semester for the past 10 years, students in Dr. Mahsa Kazempour’s BiSC3 Environmental Science course work in small teams to complete a community-based service learning project called the Environmental Awareness & Community Action Project (EACAP). This project allows students the opportunity to research an environmental issue of their choice (local, national, or global) and take action to support community initiatives to address sustainability related issues. Over the years, students have been involved in a variety of projects with partner organizations. To view previous years’ projects, click on each ‘partner organization’ under ‘Community Impact’ in the right panel or scroll all the way down the page and click on various team names under each semester.
- Video Playlist: Selected Service Projects (Spring 2021)
- Video Playlist: Selected Projects (Spring 2021)
Despite COVID restrictions and the new online format of the course, the EACAP project remained an integral part of the course this academic year. During the fall 2020 semester, approximately 34 students worked individually or in pairs to complete sustainability related projects for Glenside Elementary School and the City of Reading Public Works. This spring, more than 100 students, across three sections of the course, worked individually or in pairs to complete either sustainability related projects for Glenside Elementary School, Schuylkill River Greenways Natural Heritage Area, Berks Nature, and 10th & Penn Elementary school or came up with their own community-based service projects.
In the past, students would present their research and service components of the project during in-class sessions and a poster session open to the public. Due to the online format of the course this year and the existing COVID restrictions, students created narrated presentations about their projects and shared them on the course Canvas ‘Media Gallery’ for their peers to view and provide feedback on. Some sample ‘research’ and ‘service’ presentations are included below for everyone to view and comment on the wonderful work our students put into this project.