Sustainability Research Station at Pumpkin Days 2019

photo of Sustainovation Club membersDue to the efforts of the Sustainovation Club and other campus volunteers, on October 12 Penn State Brandywine held its third annual Sustainability Research Station at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days fall festival! Over the past three years, the campus has collaborated with Tyler’s Director of Public Programs Amy Mawby to create new and innovative activities in order to help extend Tyler Arboretum’s education mission into its fun, family-focused events like Pumpkin Days.

During the first year, the Sustainability Research Station focused on the concept of paper versus plastic straws, while the second year’s station educated visitors on conserving energy at home and learning about renewable energy sources. This year, the research station found a new location at the Arboretum and combined many different activities. Student volunteers engaged visitors on their knowledge of recycling and its importance. Young visitors were encouraged to demonstrate their ability to identify whether items were paper, plastic, or aluminum and place them in the correct recycling bin.

Club member helping young Tyler visitor with craft

Visitors were also invited to participate in several crafts. With the help of campus volunteers, kids created beautiful flowers using donated coffee filters (some dyed beautiful colors using food coloring), pipe cleaners, and paper straws. Also, they were invited to write or draw their own stories about nature, using pictures of animals and other objects in nature as prompts, which led into another important part of the research station: the Short Edition machine. Penn State Brandywine’s own short story dispensing machine made an appearance in order to help inform Tyler visitors of the Nature Narratives contest, which is co-sponsored by Sustainovation, University Libraries, and Tyler Arboretum. More information can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/naturenarratives

students assisting children with recyling activityEvery year, the station’s mission, beyond entertaining visitors and creating amazing crafts, is to help families reflect upon how they could change personal behaviors and possible encourage others to do so as well in order to make choices that are sustainable and beneficial to the environment. Overall, this annual event has helped student volunteers and visitors connect, discuss important issues facing our world today, and create beautiful arts and crafts.

 


The Sustainability Research Station held at Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days festival in fall 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development  Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *