Tag Archives: Projects

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Follow The Green Footprints At Southwest Middle School

  By Hanna Mohn • November 8, 2022 , , ,

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.

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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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One Last Word: The Green Goblin’s Final Reflection

  By Daniel Gombar • December 9, 2019 , ,

After completing this project, we found out that the characteristics of a water source are extremely important. A simple stream or creek is not just a lifeless body of water, it has the ability to tell a person so much about the world. What was largely ignored for most of our lives has become a storybook of nature that illustrates the narrative of a surrounding community. By preforming tests such as conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and nitrate, we were able to make key inferences about a community many of us weren’t familiar with at the beginning thus opening our eyes to problems in nature that would not have manifested themselves to us without these tests. This project has taught us to value water in many different facets, from health to science. Water has such a profound effect on our lives and we need to do our best to nurture it so it can continue to provide for our communities. Although this project taught us to value water more readily, it also taught to value other aspects of the scientific process. As many say, patience is a virtue. This was one value that had to be exercised on a regular basis throughout the process because, on countless occasions, we ran into roadblocks that inhibited our ability to get our testing finished in a timely manner. We could’ve caved in and let the frustration take its toll, but we held our composure and stayed strong in the face of adversity. Errors were a commonplace and they only got better as we exercised patience and allowed the trial-and-error process to take hold. We also learned that team work is tantamount to success in scientific research. Since our testing had multiple facets to it, we needed everyone to be on the same page when compiling the results.  Although coordination was difficult initially, we quickly learned to cooperate with one another which led to an effective execution of garnering results in an efficient manner. We also learned to communicate effectively throughout the project. We exercised an open-ended style in our group where everyone had a say in the final decision and everyone’s input was valued. This averted all potential conflict and it gave us relative ease when it came to delegating responsibility to each member.  Overall, this project was both rewarding and fun; we learned a great deal of enriching information on our waterways. We’d like to thank the good folks at Berks Nature for allowing us to have this great opportunity. We’d also like to thank Dr. K and you guys for being a great audience for both of our presentations!

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The Grand Finale: The Green Goblins Research and Service Presentation

  By Daniel Gombar • December 6, 2019 , ,

The Green Goblins had lots of fun presenting our findings to our fellow students, the faculty, and one or two curious observers! Many people asked very in-depth and prevalent questions that made us think about our work. We learned a lot about the various issues that inflict our environment around us by learning from the many presentations of our fellow peers. Lots of great research and displays that showed us that these issues are much larger than what the media portrays them to be. Overall the day was a very informative and rewarding, congrats to all! 

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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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Service Project Fair 11/28

  By jfm5621 • December 4, 2016 , ,

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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.

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Our Next Stepping Stone at Glenside

  By mef5500 • November 17, 2016 , ,

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.