Tag Archives: eacap

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Men in Green take on Reading’s Weeds & More

  By Jaedon Mast • December 4, 2022 , , ,

Hello everyone, we are the Men In Green, a team of four strangers turned best friends who had no idea what they were getting into at the beginning of the year. From left to right our names are Abhilash Menon, Jayden Tomlinson, Jaedon Mast, and Luke Collins. We were very hesitant going into this project but we were thoroughly excited to make a genuine impact on the environment. Rather than simply learning about what’s wrong with the environment through textbooks or presentations, we enjoyed positively impacting the environment through hands-on learning and service. Our mentors were Veronica Erenberg and Doug Reigle. This is an experience that has educated us in many ways and we’re going to use this project as a way of spreading awareness and a reminder to always stay involved in the betterment of the environment.

Our Service Project: Weeding Out The Bad Habits

We were assigned to the Berks County Conservation District and worked alongside Veronica Erenberg and Doug. We worked in the city of Reading at a homeless shelter called Opportunity House. The shelter had about half an acre of land next door that their residents could use to get some fresh air. Part of that area contained a little garden that was used in order to help provide fresh produce to the shelter. However, due to the Covid pandemic the garden had fallen into ruin and Wire Weed had taken over. Wire Weed is one of the hardest weeds to combat because it can’t be killed with pesticides, you have to actually dig them out and pull the weed out by hand. We then covered the dirt with hay to help protect it from the elements. We spent about 3 weeks doing this task with Veronica educating us about the goals the Conservation District has for the city, how they want to bring awareness to everyone and teach people some basic gardening principles.  Before we left, we also worked on raking leaves and other menial tasks to clean up the area after fall and prep it for the winter. Then due to some technical issues that were out of control we had to transfer our service to something on the Berks campus. For our last two hours, we worked at the green house, which is adjacent to campus. They were conducting an experiment about the best way to kill Lantern Flies, so we got to learn about experiments and see the viability of different solutions. We unwrapped and cleaned up since the experiments were mostly finished since it was getting cold. There were several other petty tasks that we completed but it was another fruitful experience as we were able to get involved in current issues and learn about ways to fix them.

Before and After at Opportunity House 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Research: Food Waste 

Due to another mishap and miscommunication our service project didn’t correlate directly with our research, but our research component was done on food waste. Looks unimportant right? There’s unlimited food, nothing harmful with a little waste, right? Wrong. There are two types of food waste, there’s the waste that comes directly from producers due to the inability to pass the tests allowing for the items to be sold in stores. Secondly, there’s the waste that comes from the consumer, due to various reasons such as expiry and just simple carelessness and indifference. In the U.S, 40% of all food produced goes to waste. And 95% of the waste ends up in landfills… That’s easy to say, but what ends up in the landfill’s releases greenhouse gasses, especially methane, that are extremely harmful to the atmosphere, which is already in a deteriorating state. There are plenty of solutions to this issue but what’s stopping us is the financial aspect. It’s super expensive to make the necessary changes and many manufacturers will suffer terrible losses if they dial back the rate of production. Farms need to produce less and adjust their supply to the demand rather than release excessively. The standards are also extremely high for foods that aren’t necessarily bad but just look a certain way. On top of this, store standards are also extremely high, so they only put out the best of the best, the consumers also only pick out what’s most visually appealing from the batch. You see how this domino effect just tarnishes possibilities of reducing food waste? A verbally miniscule issue but in reality, something that needs strict, decisive action. There are many solutions currently available; donating to food shelters, to the homeless, and the main environmental use, using the waste to fertilize soil. Once these options become more mainstream, we can finally start taking bigger steps toward a world with little to no food waste.

View our narrated research presentation: food waste presentation 

MSU Collaboration 

Another aspect of our EACAP project that we got to experience was working with a team from Moscow State University in Russia. It was a very interesting and unexpected collaboration especially with everything going on in the world right now, but I think it was a good experience for the most part. We did numerous “zoom” calls talking about our research and projects. On their end they were researching the effects of a nearby cement plant on the soil in the area. Even though are project and research weren’t the same as the MSU team we still got a lot of meaningful conversation done. It wasn’t the easiest collaboration because there is such a big time difference between our two countries but overall I think everyone in both groups got some positive things out of this collaboration.

Last Words…

We are truly grateful to have had this opportunity to make a genuinely positive impact on the world, no matter how little it may be. It will be an experience that we never forget as we had no idea what we were signing up for when we first chose this course. We will be forever grateful to our professor Dr. Mahsa Kazempour, for allowing us to use her connections to interact with communities around us and find ways in which we can engage in work that helps provide a cleaner, safer environment.

Thank you

 

Miscellaneous Pictures 

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The Happy Little Trees had fun with Southwest Middle School!

  By Arial Charles • October 24, 2022 , , ,

The Happy Little Trees

Hello, we are the Happy Little Trees! Our group is composed of four first-year students named Fay, Arial, Maddie, and Molly. We all enjoy shopping, hanging out with friends, and painting! Fay is doing a double major in Risk Management and Entrepreneurship. She loves to play volleyball, cook, and play with her dog. Maddie is majoring in Business marketing. She enjoys spending time with her family, boating and traveling. Arial is majoring in business marketing. She loves cats and being creative. Molly is undecided. She enjoys taking naps and painting and loves dogs.

 

Research

While figuring out our research topic, we aimed for a topic that is related to both teams’ service projects. After hearing the MSU students were focusing on composting, we decided to research the issue of food waste today in the United States and Russia. We worked with students from MSU to compare and contrast the food waste in the US and the food waste in Russia. We went further to investigate our own cafeteria right here at Penn State Berks, and conducted an interview with Head Chef, Joseph Ertel. After many zoom meetings with the MSU students and continuing our research, we created a narrated presentation summing up all of our findings and comparisons. 

Food Waste Research Presentation Link

Service

For our service project, we decided to paint ceiling tiles for the Southwest Middle School right in Reading. We worked with Shana Holler, head of their science department to plan on painting the tiles for the science hallways. We focused our painting on the environment and sustainability. We painted two tiles each and created paintings that would showcase the importance of our planet and conserve its unique beauty. It was very fun to create art while also educating such a young group of students at the middle school. We created a video showing our progress and experience with this portion of our project.

Service Project Video (Ceiling Tiles)

Outcome

As a whole, we all worked well together and enjoyed both portions of this project. Although finding the right times to meet with MSU students was difficult, we still enjoyed getting to speak with them and collaborate on this project. It was great to grasp a different perspective of the world and be able to work with international students. We worked hard on our paintings as well and hope the students at Southwest Middle School enjoy them and make an impact on their views of their environment. It was a great experience and we were very glad that through this experience we were able to make new friends!

 

 

 

 

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The E-Team’s Invasion on Invasive Species

  By smp7039 • March 30, 2022 , ,

Who We Are and Who We Worked With:

The E-Team, comprised of Julian Justiniano, Jacob Lavigna, Nicholas Morgan, and Sam Pickwoad. We have been working with Brianna Treichler at Blue Marsh Lake to help get rid of the invasive species that live among that area. At Blue Marsh Lake there are specific invasive species that are an issue to this artificial lake and recreational area. It is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District. Our group focused on the habitat destruction that invasive species can cause where they live.

What are Invasive Species:

The invasive species that live at Blue Marsh Lake (that we focused on) are the Oriental Bittersweet, Japanese Honeysuckle, Wineberry, and the Spotted Lanternfly. It’s important we focused on these species because species like the Oriental Bittersweet are destroying the plant life along the trails and this only helps bring destruction to the general recreational. This plant has deadly vines that go up a tree and choke it out, killing it. This can spread too quickly to all trees and can be so deadly that the trees will fall and cause damage to the surrounding area. The Japanese Honeysuckle and Wineberry operate in a similar manner. All of these outcompete with other species growing near them and suppresses them from further growth. 

Working with Invasive Species:

When working our group met at the Great Oak trail. On the trail our group focused on ridding the Bittersweet, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Wineberry. Spotted Lanternfly’s weren’t an issue because of the time of the year. While on the trail our group was provided power tools among other manual tools to help rid the area of said species. We worked as a group using these tools to clear the area not only to make the area look more appealing, but to help the non-invasive plants thrive as well. Other things we did included pulling out invasive garlic mustard along other trails Blue Marsh has. This was a tedious task albeit a fun one as well.

     

Reflection:

Before our group went to Blue Marsh Lake it was evident (either from common knowledge or in class) that invasive species had existed.  Though we had felt that the species were mainly predominant as bugs especially since the SLF (spotted lanternfly) is a major issue on the eastern coast of America. However, once we were affiliated the USACE and Brianna Treichler it had become evidently clear to us that plants were  also apart of the invasive species issue that Pennsylvania is facing. We were educated on the plants that affect the trail/area in which we were to clean up. It was a truly immersive experience to see areas overridden with species of plants that didn’t belong go from overtaking the area to barely being noticeable.

Our brochure:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAE87hppOQc/qX7AnJJyhS7obWM8DODbBw/view?utm_content=DAE87hppOQc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Our Team:

     

 

Untitled presentation

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Team Outfall Over and Out

  By rmw5588 • April 28, 2019 , , ,

And just like that the semester is over. Since our last post we have presented our project to Penn State Berks, presented our research and outfall net options to the City of Reading, and presented our semester’s worth of work to our Bisci class. These recent events saw us finishing up our work and showing several different audiences the dangers of water pollution and how outfall nets can help solve this problem.

This semester, our team has learned a lot as a group, but also as individuals. Here are some of our thoughts on our work. Dillon Giadosh: I think it was interesting to work on a project of this scale. I have been a part of a lot of projects throughout the past few years through my time in Scouts and in college, but this one was definitely different. It was intriguing to figure out all the details required for our project, and how we progressed throughout the semester was fun to be a part of. There were a lot of elements involved and something new to always be found throughout the process. It all comes down to the fact that we could do something so small, yet so big to help the environment by just researching possibilities. I enjoyed working with my group and doing something different than the typical grind of classes and tests we all face throughout each semester. I would certainly be interested in finding out if our research warrants a project to come in the fall semester. Ryan Wentzel: For me this project was interesting because it shows how a simple project can help solve world problems. Usually, environmental issues feel like they are global problems and that there is little local communities can make to help solve world crises. However, from the research we conducted and the city officials we talked too, I now see the impact local projects can make. Companies like StormX and StormTrap prove that local projects to protect streams with outflows can collect hundreds of pounds of trash per year and this significantly cuts down on local water pollution and helps reduce ocean pollution as a whole. All in all, everyone needs to do their part to help the environment. Alfonso Rivera: This project was really insightful in regards to just learning and monitoring the amount of trash there is in distinctive area and working on a project that will directly affect the environment for the better on a long run. I gained a lot of perspective and awareness through this project, as we were tasked to create a net that will capture trash and gross pollutants of all shapes and sizes, and one wouldn’t really think that the littlest of trash matters, but it all piles up at some point. My message to the youth would be just for them to be mindful of your trash as the smallest negative contribution to the environment goes a long way, but the same thing can be said when doing something positive for the environment so play your part and the net will become lighter. Forrest Willman: I am thankful that I participated in a college class that is dedicated to preserving our local environment. We often overlook the negative impacts that we make on our community. We choose to value comfort and productivity over sustainable practices. EACAP has taught me about the current state of the earth and I realize now that we must globally come together to protect the remaining ecosystems from extinction. Our community project involved researching outfall nets in hopes that we would capture trash from the streets of Reading. This project posed many challenges that required creativity and problem solving to accomplish our goals. At the end of our presentation, a city official commended us on our efforts and appreciated the do-it-yourself model. I realize now that many community projects are hard to complete without the necessary funding. I hope that they fabricate a do-it-yourself outfall net in the fall semester. Eventually this idea could be implemented onto other outfalls in Reading and beyond, allowing for an affordable solution to water pollution.

All in all, this semester has been very insightful and worthwhile for our whole team. We hope our work can inspire future students and help the City of Reading cut down on pollution.

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Gaige Day And Reflections

  By jap6300 • April 28, 2019 , , , ,

We presented our presentation at the Gaige building to our fellow classmates along with those who visited the building. We talked about our research we did and our EACAP project. On the left side and the middle of our poster we presented our EACAP project. On the right side of the poster we gave a summary of our research we did. For our EACAP project, we went to Glenside Elementary School. We did decorations for their Reading Night which was inspired by The Lorax and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We decorated part of the cafeteria and the hallway that leads into the cafeteria. In total, we spent over 8 hours decorating, including the time we spent buying the decorations and actually decorating our 2 sections. We also helped the farm stand they had during the event where fresh produce was sold to local residents/families. Our reflection as a group is that in the beginning we didn’t know any of each other (for the most part). We all got along together and worked together as a team pretty good. All of us enjoyed walking around and listening to the others present their projects to us in Gaige. Some of them were really good and interesting. As a final thought, by working together we can really make a positive change in the world, even if it’s something small.

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Starting the Progress

  By jap6300 • April 16, 2019 , , ,

We started to set our project up and prepared it before the event was going to occur. We made all of our cutouts which included things from The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (Oh The Places You’ll Go), Horton Hears a Who and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We had to prepare different stations and decorations around each corner of the cafeteria, along with the hallway that led to the cafeteria, all of which had different themes. The event lasted around 2:30 to 3 hours during which the elementary students along with families came to visit and enjoy the event. During the time of the event, there were different stands that we attended, one of them being a fresh produce stand where we sold fresh produce to nearby families and residents. This was to help raise money as a fundraiser.

20190327_164417.jpg

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Scraping and Taping!

  By jmm8167 • March 21, 2019 , ,

3/14/2019

Today, we started the actual physical work of our EACAP project.  We all met up to scrape lanternfly eggs and then tape the trees.  The taping of the trees is for any eggs we may have missed and some that were too high to reach.  This way, when the eggs hatch the full grown lanternflies will be stuck to the sticky adhesive.  It was actually a good time working together.

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Brain Storming & Progress

  By Esmeralda Rivera • March 17, 2019 , , ,
This past week The Clean Team continued brainstorming ideas for our upcoming Reading Night at Glenside Elementary School! By putting our creative thoughts and saving our favorite Pinterest DIYs we’ve come up with four general themes so far for Glenside’s Reading Night for the school’s young children. The themes include: The Lorax, Dr. Seuss (Oh The Places You’ll Go), Horton Hears a Who and The Very Hungry Caterpillar as each of these have a garden-themed aspect to them. For each of these themes, we will be creating a reading corner/nook for the children to read books and eat snacks in and overall enjoy each others company in a safe space for the night.

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Crossing Streams

  By jmm8167 • January 24, 2019 ,

left to right : Nathan, Kyle, Jimmy, Jaeden

We are Crossing Streams, we are all from Berks County and we all love the outdoors.  This project is going to be a lot of fun for us and a nice way for us to give back to the area.  We are all sophomores in college at Penn State Berks and we all plan to transfer to University Park next semester.

I am Jaeden Mathias and I graduated from Tulpehocken Junior Senior High School in 2017.  I enjoy playing soccer and spending time hiking. I plan to major in Geography and graduate in 2021.  

I am Kyle Lanshe and I graduated from Schuylkill Valley High School in 2017. I always love spending most of my time in nature. I really enjoy mountain biking and snowboarding. I plan to major in Economics in 2021.

I am Jimmy Lanshe and I graduated from Schuylkill Valley in 2017. I love being outside and spending time in the outdoors. My interests are mountain biking, snowboarding, and fly fishing. I am an Economics major and plan to graduate in 2021.

I am Nathan Strause, a graduate of Schuylkill Valley High School in 2017. Some interests include mountain biking, snowboarding, and other outdoor activities. I plan on transferring to University Park and major in business at Smeal. 

 

2/13/2019

Ms. Boyer asked us to look into the tape used on trees.  She wants us to scrape the eggs off of the trees on the property.  She also wants us to then look at preventative techniques like wrapping the trees in the protective tape.  She also would appreciate us to create a visual aid to help explain to the kids why the tape is there and what the life cycle of a spotted lanternfly is like.  She said we could use this visual aid for our presentation and then give it to her after the completion of our presentation.  She said we may also come in to teach a little bit to her kids in garden club and that would be helpful.

 

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The Streams Are Overflowing With Knowledge

  By ble5110 • December 9, 2018 ,

 9 December 2018

It is no secret that Pennsylvania has had a pretty wet summer. The overflow of rivers and streams are seen heavily in the Reading area; the Schuylkill river being one of them. But what does all this rain mean for the conditions of the rivers? Pennsylvania State University Students Brooke Eveland, Kellen Redcay, and CJ Carty made there way up stream to see if they could find out more about the Schuylkill river.

The three have come together, from different educational backgrounds, to find different point and nonpoint sources of contaminants along the Schuylkill river. Just like the overflow in the rivers this summer these 3 students have become overflowing with knowledge on the topic of water pollution.

To aid in the educational aspect of the project, the Kittany Sierra club took the time to help the students organize the project, provide information on how to go about testing and also answer any questions along the way. The team worked with the Berks County Schuylkill branch team members Darree and Jonathan. The club has over 900 volunteers to help in aiding local environmental concerns. The Clean Stream Team worked alongside the Sierra club to help with there ongoing investigation of what lies upstream.

“The quest to find point source solutions was not an easy one”, mentioned Carty, a Junior at Penn State Berks. The team, who call themselves the Clean Stream Team, located point and nonpoint solutions along the schuylkill river from Reading, PA all the way up to Pottsville, PA. Many of these points included electrical plants, wastewater treatment plants, steel and aluminum manufacturing plants, iron casting facilities, bio-medication facilities, and farms.

The team’s main goal was to find possible pollutants that could have been in the water based on all of these point sources. Although, it was not possible to test all potential contaminants due to the expense of high quality and specialized testing kits, it was still valuable research to know before setting out to test the water. Eveland informed us, “Without knowing different possible contaminants, being able to test for them or not, is important so that we could understand if the nitrate levels were high/low or the PH was off due to these point sources.”

After being trained on how to use water testing kits the team set out on a cold rainy day to test the river. The team drove to Laureldale, an area closer to Reading. Upon arrival, the team observed the river and wrote down some of the physical descriptors in order to get an overall idea of what the quality of the water might be. Accompanied by Penn State Berks professor, Dr. Jayne’ Park-Martinez, the team was then able to test the oxygen, phosphate, PH, and nitrate levels of the water. They also were able to use a probe to test the water’s conductivity. Although the team was unable to test more locations along the Schuylkill river, they were able to gain insight on how to use the testing equipment and what factors to look for in a body of water.

The Clean Stream Team is incredibly grateful to have had this unique opportunity. As this experiment did not necessarily pertain to their majors or future careers, they came to the realization that it does pertain to their lifestyle. “The Kittatinny Sierra Club showed us the film “What Lies Upstream” and it gave me a new perspective on our environment and the kind of toxins we might be putting into our bodies” stated Redcay, a Senior. Part of the project entailed watching the film “What Lies Upstream” as well as organizing a panel discussion that was open to the public. The film is a documentary that not only speaks about the importance of making sure drinking water is clean, but it also showed corruption within companies and how sometimes, the public is not always receiving valid information about what they are truly consuming. After watching the film, the team had the opportunity to present their project to the public, and then later to the campus during a poster presentation.

Feeling inspired, the team then moved on to their research paper which delved deeper into the topic of water pollution, its effects on humans and several simple solutions that everyone can do to ensure clean drinking water. The team discovered that their are billions of deaths annually due to unsafe or contaminated drinking water. There are also various fatal illnesses that humans can contract if they are consuming contaminated water or even bathing in it. Fortunately, everyone can do their part and do their best to reduce the amount of waste that is produced and utilize more natural alternatives when it comes to household products.

Even though the team completed their work for the semester, this is not the end of this project. The team will be passing down their information to following semesters so that more locations can be tested along the river and more information can be gained. “This task was not an easy one, but it was definitely rewarding.” mentioned Eveland ,”our team went from being a group of strangers to a group of friends. We had the opportunity to make so many connections with people we would not typically interact with.” The team then went on to say that their main message to everyone is to never stop questioning or researching what is taking place in their environment because no matter what your future aspirations are, everyone can be a citizen scientist.Together, we can create an environment with less pollution and more clean drinking water.