We pick up some rocks by driving TORO to set up a house for bees so that they can go through the winter season.
Category: Fall 2018 Teams
Final Boo Crew Post- Service Reflection
Service Reflection
On October 31st, the Boo Crew forged ahead in helping Nolde Forest prepare for their third annual Day of the Dead celebration that would take place on November 3rd. The festival in these woods is comprised of several events, such as comparing the bones of different animals, learning about extinct/endangered species, and creating glow-in-the-dark masks. Food trucks selling authentic Spanish cuisine were also at the celebration.
We all had a spectacular time helping to set up decorations and props in different areas of the main house. Our group showed up at ten thirty in the morning and, after Rachel (who was one of the people in charge of the event) gave us a tour of the main house and told us which rooms we needed to decorate, we were quick to get to work. Tori and Tessa set off to hang multi-colored streamers from the handrail of a spiral staircase leading upstairs while Brianne and Kaila taped 2D masks, objects, and speech bubbles onto sticks that would later be used as props for the festival’s “selfie station.” The Boo Crew took many selfies themselves once these props were completed, and we were even allowed to take a few of the objects home!
Next, while Tessa went down into the basement to hang paper banners and set an array of tiny toy skeletons on top of the mantle of a fireplace, the others decorated both the up and down stairwells with posters of partying skeletons and colorful paper flowers. After a quick lunch break, we all went back into the basement to hang more banners, flowers, and other nifty objects. Once we deemed that all of the rooms were properly adorned with spooky Day of the Dead decorations, we joined Rachel in setting up activities for the kids. This included cutting tissue paper and pipe cleaners that the children would be able to use to make their own decorative flowers, creating examples of color-your-own-skull (Tessa was quite excited by the array of professional-grade markers provided to make the examples), and setting up Frita, the Nolde Day- of-the-Dead ghost bride.
While we helped Rachel set up the children’s activities, she told us a bit about the property and its history. It was interesting to learn about the Nolde family who built the various buildings on the property and what remaining family members are doing now. Once everything was complete and properly set up, we said our farewells and headed on home.
It was a truly wonderful experience helping the Nolde team prepare for their Day of the Dead celebration. Being able to help out an organization that hosts free and fun educational activities like these for everyone to attend was a wonderful experience. The Boo Crew took great pride in their aid, helping to prepare for the celebration that hundreds of people in the local community would come out to enjoy.
We hope that Nolde Forest continues to be an organization that this class works with for the EACAP project, as they are highly deserving of our volunteer work and a blast to participate with. We also encourage other teens and young adults to do similar volunteer work and attend the events these organizations put on in order to support their causes and the preservation of their sites.
Service Reflection
At the beginning of the year, we were given a project to complete that will help and make our community a better place to live. Looking through the list there were many great options. One that really stood out to us was a project called “Kittatinny Sierra club”. We knew right away that this project was the right fit for us. It was time to help our water and make them cleaner. A couple of classes later the four of us got together and were eager to get started, so we started doing some research that may help us. Our first task was to come up with a name to call ourselves. After some brainstorming and little google searches, I finally suggested a name to Jamie and as usual, she got excited to use this name “ Achievable Stream”. After we all got to know each other we decided to assign each member with a role that best fit their strengths to make the project run smoothly. Dan was team leader making sure the team stayed on task and got assignments done on time. Jamie was team liaison communicating with the Sierra Club, the team, and Dr. Kazempour. Myles and Aarchi kept track of our progress logs taking notes of when we met and what we completed when we met. Aarchi was in charge of proofreading all assignments and posting on the EACAP webpage.
We then got started looking for ideas to base our potential pollution sources. After some time we all got together and did some water testing near Penn State. One at Tulpehocken road, gring mill springs and one near Schuylkill river near industrial plywood. The water testing included five major test Nitrate test in which we had to measure pH level of water, Phosphate test were we were actually testing how much phosphate does the river have and some probe test like temperature test and conductivity test with the calibrated device and the major one we performed was the dissolved oxygen test which is to measure amount of oxygen present in the water. After all of our testing, we hosted a film screening with collaboration with Penn State and Sierra club. This film “ What lies Upstream” is based on water pollution and politics over it. After the screening, we hosted a panel presentation and panel discussion, where we had some people who came from some environmental organization, local community, and some Penn State professor. Finally, we presented a poster of our service and the final class presentation of our service.
Overall we discovered how important it is to work together to help the environment and teach or remind others to do the same. We gained knowledge and appreciation on the water testing. It is very important that we teach the community about the major issues chemicals and other pollution brings to earth’s water when not disposed of correctly. This project showed us how easy it is to work with others to do something as simple as making plastic water bottles into a pot for a flower. We gained the importance of the environment through this project. Our message to the youth would be to love the world around you. We would tell them to plant more grass around the factories and waste treatment plants help the environment as much as possible. We would express how important it is to work with others and to learn new ways to help our planet out.
Poster
On this Wednesday, November 28th, we did a poster in Gaige Building. We basically posted some pictures of our service, like what kinds of seeds we planted. Also, we introduced our research topic —— air pollution. For example, the causes of air pollution and solutions to it.
EACAP Poster Day-Nov. 28th
Today, we had the opportunity to present our EACAP project as well as our research paper to students in Gaige. There was plenty of foot traffic, and we had a few students stop by & say hi. It was nice giving an overview of what our project entailed, and the direction we took with it. 
NOV 28 Poster
We created a poster that is related to our research topic and Glenside projects and set it up in the Gaige lobby. We explain our project and research topic to people walk by.
Service Reflection
At the beginning of the year, our class was given a task to complete a project that will help better our community. Looking through the list there were many great options. One that really stood out to us was a project called “classroom plants”. We knew right away that this project was the right fit for us. It was time to help younger children understand how to reuse items to make something beautiful. A couple of classes later the four of us got together and were eager to get started. Our first task was to come up with a name to call ourselves. After many google searches, we finally got inspiration. Together we came up with Forget Me Nots. Forget Me Nots are a type of flower which tied in perfectly with our classroom plant project theme. After we all got to know each other we decided to assign each member with a role that best fit their strengths to make the project run smoothly. Caitlyn was team leader making sure the team stayed on task and got assignments done on time. Sabrina was team liaison communicating with the school principal, the team, and Dr. Kazempour. Belle kept track of our progress logs taking notes of when we met and what we completed when we met. Courtney was in charge of proofreading all assignments and posting on the EACAP webpage.
We then got started looking for ideas to base our plants on. We knew we wanted to do something eco friendly because of all the things we have been learning in glass. Our plan was to take water bottles and cut them in half. The bottom half of the water bottle would be used as the pot for the flowers. After we had our idea we came up with an action plan on how to complete this project. We went to Glenside to meet with the principal, after that we had the OK to start our project. This project took place in the fall so we had limited options when it came to the plants we wanted to use. We originally wanted to use the Forget Me Not flowers which inspired our team name, but unfortunately they were out of season. We found flowers called Paperwhites that grow through the winter. Our hope was that the children will get to see them planted and when they return from their Holiday break the plants will be in full bloom. Our team met several times to complete our task like, painting the bottles, getting the flowers, adding the stones into the bottles, and creating motivational quotes. We hope that the children of Glenside won’t forget about this lesson.
Overall we discovered how important it is to work together to help the environment and teach or remind others to do the same. We gained knowledge and appreciation on the plastic waste. It is very important that we teach the youth about the major issues plastic brings to earth when not disposed of correctly. This project showed us how easy it is to work with others to do something as simple as making plastic water bottles into a pot for a flower. We gained the importance of the environment through this project. Our message to the youth would be to love the world around you. We would tell them to plant flowers, pick up the trash that you find on the trails, help the environment as much as possible. We would express how important it is to work with others and to learn new ways to help our planet out. There is no planet B so we need to teach the youth that they can make a change.
Nov 12 EACAP report
We were trying to rebuild the greenhouse and it needs more time to finish it up.
Plants have been bought
On Friday, we went out on a mission to buy plants. First we tried Home Depot, but unfortunately, there was not a good selection of plants to choose from. Thankfully, the second store, Lowes, had a bit more of a selection to choose from. We picked out seven plants and seven pots to go with them. The next step is going to be decorating the pots and actually planting the plants. Each pot is going to have a different presidential fact on it as well as a guide to take care of the plant. Harmeet, Kyle, and Jakob took home 2 pots, whereas Patrick took home one pot. We are planning to have the decorations and facts done before Friday. Patrick took all 7 plants home, and he will bring them back in when we are done with pots and ready to plant.