Category Archives: Fall 2021 Project Teams

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A TREErific Day in West Reading

  By cvg5649 • April 27, 2022 , , ,

 

We Speak for the Trees Group is the name of our service group. The members are Jenn Wilson, Abby Mattis, Juliana Manieri, and Christina Galvin. Each member served as a vital part of our project. Our group teamed up with Citizens’ Climate Lobby Reading to research/do service for and observe different tree species in the West Reading, Pennsylvania area to look at the different roles these tree species play in our ecosystem. We hypothesized that regardless of the tree species, each tree will play the same role in the ecosystem, giving the same benefits, in relation to the deforestation and restoration of trees. Our goal is to compare the different trees, with their different sizes, species, and areas, and ultimately see how they all give off the same ecological benefits. As a team, we have gathered multiple times in the past month or so, and discussed how we will get this project organized and developed in the most efficient way to present to our community. We have accomplished gaining knowledge on our service group, all the different tree species in the world, let alone West Reading, and finding data to gather and share with our group and school. Our next steps in our service consists of organizing what we found and how we are going to share it with the community. We gathered the data and made them into graphs, where we were able to see what each tree species brought to the community ecologically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learned a great deal and gained a ton of knowledge throughout this whole process that I think we can all agree, are really grateful for. Trees are such a huge part of and necessity for our ecosystem. Without them, other plants, animals, humans, and living things in general, would not be able to thrive and survive. So doing this research is extremely important to basically show that every single tree species is important and brings some ecological benefit to our planet, therefore maintaining and growing them throughout our communities are vital.

 <<One of our team meetings:)

 

 

 

 

Our Service Video: For our serve video we decided to show exactly how we researched and got our information. We were given a website to use that allows is to see all the different tree species in a certain area, in this case we studied West Reading. We were able to see the amount of each type of tree in the area, the size of each individual tree, and well has all of the ecological and environmental benefits.

 

Screen Recording 2022-04-26 at 9.00.26 PM

In addition, we also created a brochure pamphlet that is super engaging and informs the community about our research regarding Habitat Destruction and Restoration: (unfortunately the screenshots of the brochure were very blurry and can’t be read so I put a link do the document so it can still be viewed)

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XICSZ1y62hW87-99a7ESo1syKjngcnpef4BYen7CMu8/edit?usp=sharing

Our Reflection:

Using the database allowed us to gain concrete information based on the benefits of the different types of tree species in the area around us. Researching habitat destruction in relation to our service on tree species helped us gather a clear understanding of just how important trees are in our environment. Both the service and research gave us a new perspective on just how important trees are to the environment and the many benefits that these species have. We all really enjoyed this project knowing we got to help the community and an organization that is so devoted to helping the planet. 

 

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Solving the “Case” of Industrial Waste

  By Abigail Schaeffer • December 8, 2021 , ,

We are the Case Crew and our members are Bryan Vanho, Abby Schaeffer, Donovan Remp, and Chloe Costello. For our EACAP (Environmental Awareness & Community Action Project), we researched industrial waste and identified it’s causes, consequences and solutions. See our industrial waste brochure for that information. The industrial waste definition and sustainable development goals are also included on the brochure. For our service component, we worked with Scot Case to research ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) reports to learn more about sustainability in businesses that we shop. Bryan researched Walmart and Target, Abby researched AT&T and Verizon, Donovan researched Cabela’s and REI, and Chloe researched Coca Cola and PepsiCo. We also created a brochure for Mr. Case to provide him with the information we found on each of these companies. Overall, we found that this project was very eye-opening. We personally were unaware of the many factors that go into disposing of industrial waste as well as the different types of waste. We think that the time spent on this project was extremely beneficial to how we will view this topic from now on. As for the community service component, a lot was learned in this component too. We had never heard of ESG reports prior to this project, and had no idea of the importance of them. Spending time on this project was also seen as a big takeaway and it will change how we will view these companies in the future.

 

 

See our attached service video:

Service Video

 

 

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How the G-Men stand up to illegal dumping

  By Aadithya Sreeprakash • December 8, 2021 , , ,

Our names are Dennis Morales, Jacob Sugrim, and Aadithya Sreeprakash and we are the G-Men for the BISC3 EACAP Project! Our name is inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero team The X-Men. Our project is focused in illegal dumping. For our project, we worked with Bethany Fisher in order to put a spotlight on illegal dumping.

What is illegal dumping?

Illegal dumping is when items are thrown in areas that are not designated for trashing nor recycling. Some examples are: throwing litter out of your car, throwing trash into an illegal landfill, and not throwing away waste.

Our Service

For our service, we made a comic using the Marvel Method. We used our team name as the name of a superhero group and used them to teach about illegal dumping.

This is the link for the video on our topic and comic: https://youtu.be/BtdciaerL_E

Reflection

We feel like by doing this project, we really learned a lot about illegal dumping and its effects on the environment. We wish we had more time so that our comic could be colored and have an extended ending.

Here is our Brochure:

 

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The Lettuce Leagues Promotes Realistic Ways to be Sustainable

  By jre5367 • December 2, 2021 , , ,

Welcome to the Lettuce League, we are Jamie, Jocelyn, and Madie! We are all second-years and have a passion for helping our environment. Jamie is a Business Management major, Jocelyn is a Psychology major, and Madie is a Rehabilitation and Human Services major.

For our service project, we worked with Bethany Ayers-Fisher from the City of Reading’s Public Works: Sustainability and Solid Waste Department. We created public service announcements to spread awareness about the sustainability plan that they are trying to promote. We made 3 Instagram/Facebook posts in both English and Spanish along with a Tiktok. We have attached our posts to this post. Social Media Posts TikTok

Our research portion was the environmental impact that meat production has on the Earth. We found that 15-25% of our greenhouse emissions are caused by meat production practices. Our brochure goes into more detail about how changing our diets will decrease our environmental footprint. Future generations may look back at our era of food production and wonder how any of it was acceptable. Raising awareness and educating others is one of the most effective ways to create change.

Reflecting on the past few months, we have gained a greater understanding of how we are able to make a difference even in the smallest of ways. Even just by shifting one meal away from a typically meat-based entrée, we are lessening our personal effect on the Earth. We appreciate the opportunity given to us to be more involved in our community. Whether it is by creating PSA’s, as we did, or by volunteering to clean up trash, we are thankful that this plan was brought to our attention. One thing that we want to leave the public with, is to stay open-minded to different ideas and plans. It may seem out of the ordinary, but the positive ramifications may outweigh the difficult transitional period. Service Video

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HWMR Making the Environment Better One Day at a Time!

  By Mason Fontana • November 30, 2021 , , , ,

Introduction we are HWMR Environmental

HWMR Environmental is a collaborative ground consisting of Mason Fontana, Hassan Koroma, Robert Yeaney, and Wyatt Zeigler. Our project consisted of two viewpoints of pollution that negatively affects our environment. Specifically, we will be discussing E-Waste pollution and Non-point Source Pollution. E-Waste comprises technological devices such as cell phones, computers, microwaves, and more that are disposed of inappropriately in our environment. Non-point source pollution is pollution that does not come from a single source such as a pipe and comes from multiple sources including precipitation, smokestacks, pesticides, motor oil, and many more man-made/human-made products and public disposal.

Research Component 

Electronic-Waste (E-Waste)

Electronic Waste also known as E-Waste is the discarding of any device or high tech products such as a smartphone or a computer. These devices are made out of substances that are toxic to the environment, for example most contain lead or flame retardants. Substances such as these being released into the environment are not a good thing especially because in recent years E-Waste rates have increased dramatically. Roughly about 80% of  these devices ends up in dumps or landfills which raises it’s own health risks. Only 20 percent of the e-waste generated was documented as collected and properly recycled. China, Ghana, India, and Nigeria are among the countries that have become major destinations for e-waste shipments, both legal and illegal. The high tech devices contain very valuable metals that can be repurposed and reused but this can be a very difficult process causing the recycling rates to be below standards. If we cannot control these rising rates or find a solution to combat the E-Waste issue we could become a global problem. In 2019, PACE and the WEF publish a report predicting that by 2050 some 120 million tonnes (132.3 million tons) of e-waste will be generated annually.

For our topic of E-Waste we conducted lots of research regarding the background, history, statistics, causes, consequences, and solutions to combat this issue. Then with our research we created a PowerPoint which captures all of our research as well as important things having to deal with E-Waste. We then had to present this in front of our peers and professor at Penn State Berks for roughly 12 minutes. The PowerPoint also contains information about our service component Non-Point Source pollution which we used our research and worksheets to help create.  (below our PowerPoint is attached)

Also for our topic of E-Waste we created a brochure as sort of a brief overview of what Non-Source Pollution is. We wanted to create it in a way so it wasn’t a lot of information coming at you at once instead we made it so it was to the point and detailed. Our goal with this was that if someone was to pick this up they would learn something from it and be able to retain the knowledge from it since it wasn’t clustered with information. In the brochure we used our research we conducted and divided it into headings such as the causes, consequences, solutions, and sustainable development goals. (attached below)

PowerPoint:

EACAP Presentation

Brochure:

 

 

Electronic Waste Brochure-combined

Service Component 

Non-Point Source Pollution

 

 

 

 

Non-Point Source can be identified as land runoff , precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification. Some examples of this can be fertilizers, oil, grease, salt from irrigation, acid drainage, or Bacteria and nutrients from livestock, pet waste, septic systems. How does Non-Source Pollution occur? Well this can happen from a number of different ways or reasons for example some are agriculture, forestry, mining, marine, industry, and urban environment. Agriculture causes can range from pesticides, fertilizers, or the improper clean up of animal waste. Forestry non-source causes can be excessive cutting down of tree’s or improper use of chemicals or equipment. When it comes to mining this occurs from abandoned mine shafts that were used for metal extraction or acid drainage. For Marine this type is the dumping of pollutants into oceans, lakes, or rivers or not properly cleaning boats in the designated areas. In Industry, this happens when the burning of coal exposes chemicals or materials are dumped into places or areas they should not. Lastly Urban Environment, can be the irresponsible disposal of things such as motor oil or antifreeze as well as debris in the streets. Non-Point Source Pollution can play a major role in effecting our environment all over the world, it is crucial that we have things put in place to combat these issues. In the United States we have the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act that help and continue to aid in limiting non-point source pollution. Due to these two types of legislative acts that have been in effect for roughly 50 years America’s air as well as water are cleaner today than they were for the majority of the 20th Century. 

For our topic of Non-Point Source Pollution we did about 8 hours community service for the Schuylkill River National Heritage Area’s students in which we created several worksheets regarding our topic. We had conducted research to find information to put inside/create these worksheets that would encapsulate the most important things about Non-Point Source Pollution. These worksheets ranged from crossword puzzle, fill in the blank, word scramble, and true and false. We also created informational flyers to go along with the worksheets as well as to help students with them and so they can learn in a fun interesting way. There was an answer key we created to go along with every worksheet so their teacher knows the answers if they cannot figure it out. (attached below)

Worksheets:

Service Worksheets

Service Video:

IMG 12852 – YouTube

 

Project’s Goals

Our main goal of this project was to learn more about the environment and most importantly learn what is it specifically that is hurting/causing damage to the environment. We also wanted to then be able to take that and show to the younger generation (the kids we did worksheets for) that we need to preserve and keep the environment clean. We think it’s very vital that the younger generation is aware of how people and things interact with the environment whether that’s good or bad.

Reflection 

 

 

 

 

After doing this project I have to say that we are very happy that we did this. We went into this thinking it was going to be an ordinary project that we get just for any class but it was far from that. This project we completely took a hold of and made it our own and enjoyed doing it that way. We honestly did not know much before but now you could almost consider us experts on these topics! Looking at all of the time and effort we put into this we are without a question glad that we did it and took this class in order to get the chance to be a part of something like this. Most people do not know much about the environment and that was our crucial decision in deciding to make worksheets for kids and making it fun as well as interactive. It all starts with the younger generation and we never understood that until we did this project. We all want to be here for as long as we possibly can be but it has to start with our environment and playing our roles so play yours!

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The Green Teams fight against public waste

  By Essa Iqbal • November 17, 2021 , ,

We are the Green Team and our group members are Essa Iqbal, Aditya Venkat, and Cesar Campos.

The project we have decided to work on is the public waste in the city of Reading which focuses on raising awareness across the community to properly dispose of waste. We have contacted and have been working with the City of Reading Public Works. In the past weeks we have been trying to create a PSA on social media for them that will help them get their message across while also grabbing the attention of community. The goal of our PSA is grab the attention of the minorities in the community as well as grab the attention of the younger generation by using social media to educate them and teach them about this issue. The City of Reading Public Works wants us to make a viral video for them that encapsulates everything they are about while making it fun aswell.

Brochure 

PSA Video

The PSA Video that we made was centered around the plastic waste and public waste that takes place in the city of Reading. The goal of our PSA video was to educate the public of the incentives of recycling aswell as inform the community of the current situation in Reading. Our thought process while making our video was to make sure we catered to all the audiences in Reading and also make it fun and short enough that it was enjoyable just as much as it was informative.

The links for each of our videos are provided below:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM87hnNAJ/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM87hwmWL/

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protect the bees

  By Megan Cooper • November 10, 2021 , ,

our team name is MNM, the group members are Natalie Donatelli, Merinda porter, and Megan cooper. our goal is to teach people about the danger that pollinators are facing. our service project was done with Diana maher, where we created a variety of worksheets for students. these worksheets include 4 word searches that included 24 different species of bees, and  other pollinators. two different learning activities, and coloring sheets. we as a group learned a lot about the purpose bees and other pollinators have on the environment and what threats they face day to day. we think that this is very important and that the younger generation should be informed about.  

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The Greenhouse Pack spreads a sustainability plan!

Image

  By aql5749 • November 10, 2021 , ,

Hola!

We are the Greenhouse Pack!

A team of first and second year students that are working on the EACAP Project for the Fall of 2021.

Meet the members of the Greenhouse Pack!

Nicole, our Team Researcher

Ayaan, our Team Liaison

Alejandra, our Team Leader

Vidda, our Team Secretary

We are excited to share our project and findings with you all!

Research Component

The environmental issue we chose to do research on is the butterfly population decline.

Here is what we learned…

Over the years, 450 species of butterflies have been at a declining rate of almost 2 percent per year. In the past few years, the number of butterflies that migrated to California during the winter has declined 99%. In addition, the butterfly population has dropped to below 2,000 which is a very sudden change in a short  amount time. It is evident that the butterfly population is currently facing a crisis. So what are some things that could possibly be causing this decline?

  • Climate change has caused warmer fall temperatures which leads to physiological stress on the butterflies because they are sensitive to slight changes in the temperature 
  • Warmer fall temperatures reduce the available food butterflies need to survive 
  • Warmer fall temperatures prolong the amount of time the butterflies’ predators are active

Although it may seem as if there are no options for us to help reduce this decline, we have found some solutions to the issue. Some of these solutions include…

  • Reduce our use of mosquito repellent because it is toxic to butterflies
  • Planting milkweed to attract more butterflies 
  • Creating your own Butterfly sanctuaries in your own backyard or creating botanical gardens 

Butterflies are essential to our environment. They are seen as a sign that any environment they are seen in is not filled with pollution, industrial waste, etc. We can each do our part in helping their population be restored!

Here is the brochure we created for our research component:

Service Component

We are currently working on a Sustainability and Resiliency Plan for the city of Reading, PA. Our group is working with the City of Reading Public Works Sustainability & Solid Waste Department. The goal with our service was to create content to share their new Quadruple Bottom Line as well as their sustainability venn diagram.

What is the Quadruple Bottom Line?

The Quadruple Bottom Line works by adding governance to the environmental, social, and financial well-being of the city of Reading. This governance includes involving the public in the different processes of action being taken within the communities, being transparent with the public about how money is being spent, what projects are being done, and involving all stakeholders and constituents in the decision-making process. The Quadruple Bottom line essentially holds the government of the city of Reading accountable to the constituents in order to avoid conflict but also holds the constituents accountable to the government.

Our service

Our service consisted of creating Tiktok content about the Quadruple Bottom Line as well as ways we can all be more sustainable in our own personal lives. We also completely redesigned the sustainability venn diagram for a more youthful look. Our goal with our content was to create something that would attract people in our age group since they were the main targeted audience. For this reason we used trendy songs in our TikTok videos that are currently popular and we also used a more modern design for the venn diagram.

Here is the venn diagram we redesigned (our TikTok videos are posted on our YouTube channel, link is at the end of this post!) :

Previous design versus our new design!

Reflecting on our experience as the Greenhouse Pack

Overall, this project allowed each of us to learn how to put a meaningful message out into the world and make an impact even within a short video clip or a simple post. We learned that it is not about what you say but how you say it. We also learned how much impact we each truly have in our environment and the importance of sharing what we learned with others around us. When it comes to our service component, we truly valued that the city of Reading genuinely cares about its communities especially the younger generations because they want to make sure that we are provided with a healthy and sustainable environment even as we grow older. We also valued that they want to be more transparent and they value our opinions on future decisions. Our research component not only opened our eyes about the decline in the butterfly population but it also made us realize that there are many more issues that we may not even be aware of. We now want to place importance on the issues we learned about but also search for new issues that may not have been heard of yet. Nonetheless, our journey as the Greenhouse Pack was truly enjoyable. We learned a variety of things about our issue, about the communities of Reading, and most importantly, about ourselves and our impact on this world.

Link to our socials!

Here is a link to our YouTube channel so that you too can watch our journey as the Greenhouse pack as well as our content!

Lastly, here is the link to our official TikTok account!

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

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On the green dream team

  By Anthony Ferretti • November 10, 2021 , ,

On the Green consists of Anthony Ferretti, Ben Wickizer, Doug Hinton, Tobi Ogunleye, and Dom Hutt. We are working to find new and more sturdy green house panels that will have long longevity. We are working with Bethany on the city green house panel in Reading Pa and trying to get the green house back in commission. We know what they are looking for and it is or job to do research on something for them.

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