Here is a link to our final EACAP presentation.
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Category Archives: The Environmentalist
Culiminating Thoughts on EACAP Project
This project ended up being a huge success for myself, Derek, and Ben. We had expressed uncertainties with how to go about what our goal was (and sometimes did not even know what we were aiming for), but we were able to get it together and create a successful sustainability website that will eventually have its content copied to the official Penn State Berks Sustainability website. I think this will end up being very successful in terms of getting people aware because there are a lot of people out there that care about creating a better environment in which to live, and I would venture to guess that people would view information from a world-renowned university’s web page more than just a personal web page like the one we created, however we have seen the site pick up some views over the course of doing the project.
For now, the web page can be seen HERE. (https://eacapenvironmentalist.wordpress.com/). Eventually, it will be linked on the Penn State Berks website and much more accessible and much easier to locate for the average person who is looking up sustainability topics.
Also successful was our research on deforestation. We were able to tie that in with our service project of creating the web page quite well, and the great amount of information we were able to get on the topic will hopefully help everyone who stopped by our poster and everyone who saw the presentation in class.
Our poster presentation and our slide show presentation were both very successful in terms of relaying the large amounts of information we gathered to the public. In total, 11 people stopped by our poster, and over 20 students were in attendance at our slide show presentation. If every person shared our website (or eventually the PSU Berks Sustainability web site) with someone, and they shared it with someone, the site should accumulate hundreds or even thousands of views, at which point people would likely be acting on the issues at hand.
This project was worth the time and effort we put into it. We got out of it what we put into it, and based on what we got out of it, all three of us can tell that the great amount of effort we put into it has paid off.
Wrapping Up the Process
We have put together teasers and articles regarding six topics related to sustainability. Those topics are as follows: Bee Hives, Rain Barrels, Bat Houses, MOBIUS Recycling, Paper Waste Reduction, and the Food Recovery Network. Eventually, these short blurbs and articles will go on the Penn State Berks Sustainability webpage. In the mean time, we set up our own personal website titled EACAP Environmentalist, which you can access HERE, to get a good idea of the work we have done in making people more aware of the importance of sustainability and how it affects various aspects of the environment.
Our poster is almost done. We still plan on adding some facts about our research paper, which was on a totally separate topic: deforestation. The research paper itself is pretty much done. We are also going to present images of our personal webpage (not the official Penn State one) on our poster so people can get a feel for what we were able to accomplish.
In terms of our plan to issue a recycling survey to people to see what they actually recycle out of the recyclable materials that they use, we did not see how this would relate to any aspect of our project and our end goal. We may still do it since it does relate to sustainability, but it will be done on a much smaller scale and as a much smaller portion of our project since it is not the main goal of the EACAP project.
Update on Service (Collab)
The Green to Extreme is at it again. We are continuing our progress on the project. We completed all of our birdhouses and hope to deliver them the week of December 3rd to Glenside Elementary. The Green to Extreme team has also been working on our research and creating a poster for our community event on the 28th of November. This event will help our team present ideas to the campus both during our normal class time and common hour. Common Hour is between 12:15- 1:15pm if you don’t know. Looking forward to seeing people there to show you our hard work/ determination. Some of the features our research entails include
- Food Waste World Wide
- Food Waste in Berks County and Other Surrounding Locations
- Zero Waster Project- A young lady who fits all her trash in a 12 oz mason jar over a period of 2 years.
- Our Plans on Helping the Environment
- Food Waste Film Presented on November the 16th. This film included a couple who survived on only food waste for 6 months (half a year).
Here are some picture of our progress: There is more to come in later posts!
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Ready, Set….
As a group, we further discussed our plan about how we are going to go about the EACAP project and broke it up into more specific parts.
We still plan to distribute to about 10 people a list, where they will write down a large amount of things that they use, what they use that can be recycled, and what they actually recycle. This list will be formatted in the form of three columns, and was made today. The columns will consist of one of each thing listed above: what people use, what recyclable products they use, and what they actually recycle. We will then construct a graph for the 10 people with three lines: one with total things that they use, another with total recyclable things that they use, and another with things that they actually recycle. We will note how much larger the overall usage of recyclable materials is in comparison to the overall recycling to better understand how important it is that we make people aware that waste reduction needs to take place.
We will then write blurbs/short articles about each of the six initiatives (Bee Hives, MOBIUS Recycling, Food Recovery Network, Rain Barrels, Paper Waste Reduction, and Bat Houses) on the Sustainability website providing an overview of each initiative and adding an appropriate image to each. The images were all gathered this morning.
Knowing that our graphs will most likely show that not everything that needs to be recycled gets recycled by the people we survey, we will also mention how improvements in terms of increased recycling and waste reduction will help each of the initiatives be more successful not only at Penn State Berks, but anywhere.
The Environmentalist Stirs Up Plan A
Loads of cans have been recycled by consumers and are ready to be hauled away to be remade into new and more useful products.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Our first plan to increase the awareness of the need for recycling involves having a couple of randomly selected individuals record everything that they use on a daily basis that are recyclable. This could be anything and everything that at some point in time can be recycled. It will also include a section of the things that they totally use up that are recyclable, and whether or not that person actually took the time and effort to recycle them or not (things like aluminum cans, paper, etc.)
This plan could turn out very successfully, or it could be flawed, as people could purposely just give us the best possible more “environmentally friendly” answer we could ask for just to gt the project done with, so the plan is to not make it long or boring. Hopefully this will not be the case, and we can make it interesting enough for people to actually want to participate, but we will see what we can do.
Newsletter Update: Planning Stages
On Friday September 23, 2016 at around 10:45, the EACAP groups working on the newsletter met to discuss the project. The meeting was led by Dr. Kazempour, who described the newsletter as a vehicle for reaching the study body on the topic of sustainability. Among the topics, the groups discussed spotlighting members from the Penn State Berks Sustainability Team, faculty and staff making efforts toward greater environmental awareness, writing articles gauging student interest in recycling, looking at issues in the community, and initiatives taken up by departments around campus. The newsletter will be a collaborative effort between the three teams, Thrive and Survive. Length and serial publication dates will be discussed at a later meeting.
The Environmentalist Begins to Take Action
Photo Credit: Penn State Photographer
Real life photo of the carelessness of college students on campus in terms of recycling
We met with the Sustainability Team and talked about how the lack of recycling on the Penn State Berks campus is disturbing and students are not doing their part to help the environment and recycle even though there are a lot of efforts being made by the people on campus to allow recycling to happen and to make it easy to do so.
We decided that our project would revolve around a web page that intends to give incentive to students around campus and around the world to put in the little effort that is needed to recycle materials, and it is meant to teach those students that that little effort can go a long way in protecting the environment and, in turn, making their lives better as well as the lives of those around them. We want to try to get students to recycle recyclable materials and throw true waste in trash cans and make sure nothing ever gets littered.
-Asher Fair, Ben Straka, Derek Dewald
The Environmentalist Takes on the Issues
From left: Asher Fair, Derek Dewald, Ben Straka
Asher Fair- I am majoring in accounting and am a freshman. I graduated from Muhlenberg High School. In addition to being a full-time student at Penn State Berks, I am also employed at Slick Willy’s Karts and Eats.
Derek Dewald- I am undecided about my major and am a freshman. I graduated from Schuylkill Valley High School. In addition to being a full-time student at Penn State Berks, I am also employed by my father making boat propeller molds.
Ben Straka- I am majoring in business and am a freshman. I graduated from Exeter High School. In addition to being a full-time student at Penn State Berks, I am also employed at McDonald’s.
We will be working with the Penn State Berks Sustainability Team to complete this project, and we will be doing so by working on a sustainability newsletter and web page. We are interested in enhancing our knowledge about sustainability and the environmental issues surrounding it. Also, we hope to spread knowledge around to the world regarding the many environmental issues that we face today by posting on the web page that we create.