Service Reflection Paper
During this semester, we’ve done two protects that related to the environment. We’ve learned a lot about some environmental knowledge. This is a great experience about the environment that we have ever had.
In the first part of our project, we went to Glenside Elementary School to paint the garden. It left us a really interesting and meaningful experience. Three of us had distributed our job evenly and started painting with passion. We started by painting the two birdhouses in the garden and thought to add color to those birdhouses will attract attention from birds and children. We painted them with light blue and dark brown. After, we found so many things in the garden that was in need of a refresh. We painted the board with the name of Glenside with a green background and red color for the words. Then, we painted the wood fence in the garden with different color. We also painted those stepping woods with different colors. The whole team was focusing on how to make the garden more beautiful and attractive, so maybe it would get attention from students, and draw more attention to our nature.
After we’ve done the Glenside project, we went to Penn State Berks greenhouse to do some work. The first project we did in the Penn State Berks campus greenhouse was to build a hive for bumble bees. Mr.Rost taught us to build the hive by stacking rocks and create living space for the bumblebees. Mr.Rost managed to guide us to the back forest by driving a truck to find and pick up the stones as building materials. It was a very meaningful experience. That was the first time we are experiencing driving the small truck to carry stuff. We learned that bumblebees need a humid place as home during winter to live through the season. We stepped into the forest to find stones even the stones are usually appear deep inside the forest. We ran back forth three times to get enough stones to build up the hive. And then, We stacked up to the stones by circling them under the birdhouse and leaving small gaps in between stones for bees in and out. While we were doing stuff that helps other spices and the environment, we were also learning new things. It was an amazing experience we had during the service. Although the weather of those days was pretty windy, we still learned a lot.
We helped Mr.Rost to build a rock house for bumblebees, we carried mud to cover the greenhouse garden, and we set up some steel net on the bottom side of houses. I think the most interesting part is the greenhouse garden refreshing. During the time we do this work, we were driving a small truck to carry the mud. During the winter season, there is not enough soil on the surface of a lot of lands. What we are doing here is to use some new mud to cover and protect the surface of greenhouse garden lands. Lightly cover the beds with the old mulch to help suppress weeds and protect the soil without insulating the beds. Many diseases and pests are killed when the soil freezes in winter. Mulching the beds too thickly could prevent the soil from freezing completely. It was a great experience because we had never done anything like it before. I also learned a lot of new knowledge about the environment from it.
This meaningful experience provides the opportunity with better communication to the team; it helps us to communicate in a different, personal language. We laugh, socialize, learn something new, feel motivated to finish what we start, appreciate nature and feel passion for something good.
