Category Archives: Storm Callers

Storm_Callers-Presentation

Our final presentation has been made, and we are very proud of the research and work with Glenside to help the environment and spread the word about the chemicals going into it. So many people think pesticides are a problem only found on farms, but this is far from the truth. They are everywhere, and ironic twist is that they are harming the very plants we are attempting to protect by using the pesticides. What we really need are biological solutions that due not use toxic chemicals, such as using specific fungi or ant colonies to kill the bugs eating away at our produce. These solutions, and more information about our research and organization work, can be found in our presentation presented here. We hope the information is useful for anyone viewing it, and that you take a moment to think the next time you go shopping for insecticide.

This was our main event presentation day when all EACAP teams were present to show our research and organization work. Our team was present from 12pm-2pm, showing any passerby what we did with Glenside and our research on the adverse effects of pesticides. We had a good turnout of people that seemed interested in our topic, not realizing that pesticides are in a lot more things than we realize. While it is hard to tell people that things they thought were safe actually aren’t, it’s better than letting them keep living in ignorance. If people don’t know what is wrong, then the problem can never be solved, just as a storm will never end until the imbalance is fixed. We felt very proud of ourselves towards the information we were providing, and can only hope more people will spread the information and change can occur from the knowledge that we initiated.

The Second Festival we participated in was the Math/Science Fest. We were instructed to find an activity relating to the environment and incorporate a form of math or science learning adaptation to it. In this case, we created a game using ‘lily pads’ and numbers. The nature of the game was that the child was the frog trying to get to the other side of the river, but there were certain lily pads that were not safe to cross. It was their job to find the proper lily pad numbers that would lead to the correct solution at the end. We had three different levels of math: Simple addition, addition and subtraction, and multiplication. The kids found this game to be incredibly engaging and would stay, wanting to try another problem or go to the next level. We were very happy with the turnout and reaction from the kids, feeling we made a positive impact on their desire to learn more about how math is everywhere.

We have partaken in the first activity fair with Glenside Elementary School. On 10/28, the school hosted their Fall Festival, and our station allowed the kids to create leaf rubbings and figure out which tree their leaf came from. We used tracing paper, crayons, and 4 different leaves from trees near Penn State Berks and our own neighborhoods. It was a very rewarding experience interacting with the children and teaching them about trees. Seeing a kids eyes light up with wonder when they hear how old trees are was very gratifying to know they took in what we were showing them. We look forward to the second festival that will be held on 11/19, three weeks from now. For the time being, we will begin researching on the adverse effects of pesticides on our environment and the creatures that live in them. Hopefully, we can make a difference not only in teaching a younger generation, but teaching the ignorant generations that we live with already.

Today, we have met to discuss the future plans we will be making with Glenside Elementary School; we will soon be gathering supplies to prepare for the Fall Fest on 10/28. We hope to provide a lot of enlightening and informative learning for the kids and show them the importance of the trees around them. We have decided on a proper research topic and will begin working on it ASAP. We will be researching the adverse effects pesticides have on both animals and plants around them. One of the major consequences are the effects these pesticides are having on the bee population; without the bees, many plants will not receive the proper pollination and eventually die off. Many more plants will wither from over exposure if alternative methods are not being made. Hopefully, we can inform many people about this issue and show them what can be done.

We are the Glenside Storm Callers, culminating with Brandon Hatt, Cassie Cormier, and Edward Thomer. As a team we are very diverse in creativity, planning, and collaborative thinking. We intend to create a fun and educative activity involving mathematics for the various elementary kids. We have all had different experience in educating children about various aspects in life, and have worked with them to provide a fun environment. The basic rule of storms is that they last until the imbalance that created them is corrected; therefore, we will strive as hard and as long as we are needed in order to help the Glenside children become more familiar and integrated with the environment around them.