Tag: Penn State Berks Sustainability

Green Tree Peas Add a Splash of Color to Southwest Middle School

Alana BanguraFall 2022 Project Teams

Hello, We are the Green Tree Peas and we currently consist of three members. 

These members are Alana, Kimberly, and Gaetcha.

Alana Bangura

  • Hello, I am Alana currently completing my senior year at PSU Berks campus. Some quick and fun facts about me are that I enjoy music in my free time, I have my own event decor business, and I was on two different step teams at two different times in my life. 

Kimberly

  • Hi! My name is Kimberly Nicholas. I am a 3rd year student here at Penn State Berks. A couple fun facts about me are that I love horror movies, listening to music, and playing video games. My computer – my pc, is my LOVE and my LIFE I even built it myself. One of the things I achieved and own that I’m proud of.

Gaetcha

  • Hi, My name is Gaetcha Denis. I am a 2nd year student at Penn State Berks. Here’s some fun facts about me. I love to edit videos in my free time, paint and listen to music. I am a big fan of fantasy novels and anything that’s non fiction as well. I’m proud to have interned in a hospital during my last year of High School and getting to work in customer service after graduating truly changed my outlook on customer care.

 

Our research issue

Our research topic centered around Food waste and its contribution to greenhouse gasses on a National level and we decided that the best sustainable development goal to focus on with our research would be goal 13, Climate Action. During our research we gathered much information on the ways that food waste has contributed to the substantial amount of greenhouse gases being released into the environment. We also have come up with many solutions in which we could work toward eradicating or at least lowering some of these contributing factors.

EACAP Research Powerpoint

Our Service Plan

For our service component as a team we collaborated with Southwest Middle School in order to create colorful topic related tiles that would be given back to the school and placed in different rooms for the students to be able to see. Our ideas for the designs came from what we believed would be most suitable in a school environment but also covered different components of our research. We focused on food, energy, and natural resources because we believed these topics would symbolize or closely link to the research we were able to collect. 

Our Tiles

 

Final Thoughts/ Reflection

Summary: Overall, despite a couple obstacles and difficulties, we really enjoyed being a part of this project. Through collaboration with not only our PSU (Penn State University) counterparts but also with the MSU (Moscow University) students we learned how to work together with other people who share similar goals. We also appreciate how this project offered us a lens to look at environmentalism. This panel project was very important to us because the three of us love art, and it gives us an opportunity to go out into the world, starting with a middle school in our own community. This project assisted us in being able to make small changes happen and educate young people through art about the beauty of the environment and how to maintain it all while trying to make a difference.

To the Youth: Take the time to get creative and join in helping your community! There are plenty of things you could do that may be of interest to you! Take our team for example, we all love art and this was a great way for us to dig into our own passions while playing a crucial role in giving back. 

Follow The Green Footprints At Southwest Middle School

Hanna MohnFall 2022 Project Teams

Greetings, we are The Green Footprints! This fall of 2022, our EACAP team focused on sustainability in grades K-12 in order to bring awareness to the negative effects of implausible building sites for America’s youth. We had the honor of partnering with Southwest Middle School in Reading, PA, in order to spread knowledge and create pieces of art on ceiling tiles inspired by environmental topics.

Team Members: Haili Baxter (Front Right), from Florida, takes an interest in playing Volleyball and watching TV in her free time while majoring in Criminal Justice. Lauren Burisky (Back Left), from Pennsylvania, is majoring in Hospitality and likes to spend time with friends and family. Paige Barrineau (Front Left), from Pennsylvania, spends her free time drawing and watching Netflix and plans to major in accounting, and Hanna Mohn (Front Middle), from Pennsylvania, is majoring in Criminal Justice and works/studies in her free time.

Research: Our research project focused on sustainability within schools across the U.S. as well as internationally. Since school is essential for educational purposes and students’ learning development, they will not be leaving anytime soon. In return, we wanted to research different ways we could improve the quality of schools and their effect on the environment. Linked above is our narrated presentation, which reviews our project. We looked at schools in recent years that have been in the spotlight for making greener choices, as well as the timeline of environmentalism itself. We discussed how widespread this problem is, what factors are most brought up when environmentalism is looked at in schools, and the problems schools can cause for the environment. Lastly, we discuss solutions that faculty and students can use to create a more sustainable environment while on campus.

Our Service Project Summary: In October we were tasked with visiting Southwest Middle School and obtaining two tiles per group member to turn into environmental paintings that related to chemical science as well as physical science. Lauren chose to paint the food web (physical) and Nitrogen element (chemical), Hanna chose to paint the energy pyramid (physical) and Oxygen element (chemical), Paige chose to paint photosynthesis (physical) and the Sulfur element (chemical), and Haili chose to paint the moon phases (physical) and Carbon element (chemical).

EACAP Service Video

Hanna’s Progress and Finished Tiles:

Paige’s Progress and Finished Tiles:


Lauren’s Progress and Finished Tiles:

 

 

 

Haili’s Progress and Finished Tiles:

Reflection: As our EACAP project is coming to an end, along with our collaboration with MSU team Rumechi Uni, we have learned some valuable lessons that will be useful to us throughout our lives. We became more comfortable talking to a variety of students, including those out of the country. We gained social skills by learning how to communicate in critical situations in order to solve problems, and we realized we would not have been able to complete such a large project without each other’s help and insight. We had trouble with the time difference and making progress when the other teams hadn’t, but we overcame these problems by setting a weekly time frame that worked for all of us in order to be on a google meet, and focused on our progress so we weren’t held back.

The E-Team’s Invasion on Invasive Species

smp7039Blue Marsh

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

Thrive to Survive Reflects

Amelia Elaine SeelyPenn State Berks Sustainability Team

This semester has been a great semester for our team and our project turned out very well! We loved working together and broadening our horizons on these very important subjects. Many important lessons have been learned on waste and about the garbage patch and will effect our lives forever. Every time I drink a bottle of something from now on, I am going to assure it returns to a place that will break it down effectively and safely. This project really helped us with our teamwork and communication skills as it required a lot of outside of classroom work and effort. This semester has been very valuable to our whole team and we have all bonded in a great way!

Culiminating Thoughts on EACAP Project

Asher Charles FairFall 2016 Teams

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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.

Service Project Fair 11/28

jfm5621Glenside School

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For class on Monday November 28, we did a service project fair in the Gaige lobby. Here we brought in our finished posters and 2 samples of the different types of stepping stones we are taking to Glenside Elementary are. On our poster we talked about our research topic which was ocean pollution and the different aspects of that as well as our service project with Glenside in thier garden. The two different stepping stones that we brought for the display was one grade level stone and one greeting stone. For the different grade levels, 1st-5th, we decided to do two stepping stones for each grade level. Then for the greeting stepping stones we found six different ways to say hello in six different languages since we already speak English. So we decided to do hello, hola, aloha, guten tag, konnichiwa, ciao, and bonjour. These all are painted either red or blue and then w added a design to these stones.

The Last Stretch!

Malama ChibweFall 2016 Teams

Everything is winding down so we are working diligently on the poster for the upcoming community day after we get back from break. We have a lot of shocking statistics and photos to present to everyone which have definitely changed our perspective on plastics waste and how much a negative impact our negligence has had on our oceans for decades which is getting worse with each passing year.

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Wrapping Up the Process

Asher Charles FairFall 2016 Teams

eacap-website

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.

Our Next Stepping Stone at Glenside

mef5500Glenside School

Our Squash is certainly working with Glenside Elementary to create stepping stones for each grade level to put in their garden. We have discussed that we are using bigger stones for the grade levels and that we will be doing 2 stones for each grade. Then we decided that we were going to use smaller stones that will have greetings from different languages, which will bring more diversity to Glenside. Each stone will be painted with colors that match the color scheme that is already in the garden. We figured that this would be a great addition to their garden so the students can learn how to say hello in different languages.