Author: Dr. Laura Guertin

Creating a virtual podcast discussion club for nature-themed education

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Tyler Arboretum

When the pandemic shut down the in-person educational opportunities at both Penn State Brandywine and Tyler Arboretum in March 2020, the Sustainovation Team leaders stepped in to keep the connections going between both communities. With the assistance of undergraduate student researcher Dallas Barber, Sustainovation Team co-leaders Laura Guertin and Karen Theveny rolled out a program for April through July that provided an online option for learning about nature.

Penn State Brandywine coordinated with Tyler Arboretum to form a virtual podcast discussion club, called Listen To This! Every two weeks, a new nature-themed topic was selected with a list of pre-selected podcasts for individuals to explore. Topics included World Bee Day, Water, World Biomes, National Forest Week, and more. After listening to the 5-7 podcasts, everyone logged in to Zoom for a one-hour discussion of the content. The discussions were enriched by the participation of Penn State students, alumni, and research scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) and 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod. The final discussion addressed how participants could make a difference for nature with education and advocacy.

See this Penn State News article from April 15, 2020, titled Brandywine, Tyler Arboretum offer online discussion group during pandemic.

To view the playlists and questions we discussed, visit: https://tinyurl.com/onlinepodcastclub

 

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Multilingual Storytime in February 2020 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Multilingual Storytime for International Mother Language Day 2020

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum

In celebration of International Mother Language Day, two student clubs from Penn State Brandywine visited Tyler Arboretum to lead a Saturday morning storytime. But this wasn’t like a typical storytime – the Sustainovation Club and Multicultural Student Club added their linguistic knowledge and read books in a variety of languages.

These are the books and languages the students shared with Tyler’s visitors young and old:

  • The Apple Tree by Jane Thai (a dual language book – English and Mandarin Chinese)
  • I Like Pickles by Jane Thai (a dual language book – English and Mandarin Chinese)
  • Das Schweinchen Mit Dem Ringelschwanz by Alexandra Dannenmann (German)
  • The Hungry Little Catipillar/Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt by Eric Carle (German)
  • The Giraffe that Ate the Moon/La Girafe Qui a Mange La Lune by Aralie Rangel (a dual language book – English and French)
  • Goodnight, Panda!/Bonne nuit Petit Panda! (a dual language book – English and French)
  • Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Korean)
  • Diez manzanas en la cabeza! by Dr. Seuss (Spanish)
  • La Luz de Lucia by Margarita del Mazo and Silvia Alvarez (Spanish)
  • Banana for Two by Ellen Mayer (a dual language book – English and Hindi)
  • Sleep Tight, Little Wolf by Barbara Brinkmann (a dual language book – English and Japanese)
  • Lily’s Surprise/La sorpresa di Lilli by Madhumita Mocharla (a dual language book – English and Italian)
  • Jojo’s Playful Day/Una giornata di giochi con Jojo by Sujatha Lalgudi (a dual language book – English and Italian)
  • One Rainy Day/Um Dia Chuvoso by Valeri Gorbachev (a dual language book – English and Portuguese)
  • My Snow Day/Meu Dia de Neve by Ally Nathaniel (a dual language book – English and Portuguese)
  • The Rainbow Fish (a dual language book – English and Vietnamese)
  • One Rainy Day by Valeri Gorbachev (a dual language book – English and Vietnamese)

Students also had bookmarks available for kids to color, as well as blank books where they could write their own story with stickers and color stamps. We utilized SCC grant funding to purchase 75 new carpet squares made of recycled carpet fibers for Tyler to use for future programming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Multilingual Storytime in February 2020 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Teacher Workshop – Air Quality Flag Program

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Tyler Arboretum

The Sustainovation Team worked with Tyler Arboretum in assisting them with expanding their teacher programming by offering a half-day workshop to help teachers learn about the EPA’s Air Quality Flag Program for schools. SCC funds were used to purchase flags for the schools to bring back and implement with their students.

More information about the EPA Air Quality Flag Program is available at: https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=flag_program.index

An excellent StoryMap describing the program is available at: https://gispub.epa.gov/OAR_OAQPS/FlagProgram/

International Podcast Day 2019

Dr. Laura Guertin Events

International Podcast Day is celebrated annually on September 30. Penn State Brandywine took the opportunity to come together this day to recognize the power of our voices to not only celebrate audio but how our voices can be used to make a difference – and a difference for a sustainable future. We had a keynote speaker, and one of the presenters was Penn State Drawdown REU student Anna Nguyen who shared one of her podcasts on efforts to reverse global warming in Pennsylvania.

The event was organized by The Sustainovation Team, The Lion’s Eye (campus newspaper), and Media Commons.

Climate Impact Teach-In

Dr. Laura Guertin Events

During Climate Week NYC, the campus hosted a full-day and evening Climate Impact Teach-In. The Sustainovation Team organized the event, led some sessions, and sponsored the lunch.

Summaries of the event can be viewed at the following sites:

http://bit.ly/climateimpact2019

https://news.psu.edu/story/589160/2019/09/20/impact/brandywine-hosts-daylong-event-highlighting-climate-science-education

Organizing a Climate Impact Teach-In

 

Subaru Loves Learning – so do we!

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Sustainovation Club ,

We learned about this initiative from our local Subaru dealer, and we knew this would be the perfect project during our first week of the semester!

We grabbed a bunch of bookmarks and book plates from Rafferty Subaru, and we camped out at a table in Vairo Library for day. We invited the campus to come out and decorate these items that would then be inserted into award-winning science books to local children. Thanks to everyone’s help, we completed 20 bookmarks and 39 book plates. We’re happy to do our part in helping Subaru and AAAS with this amazing project!

 

The Subaru Loves Learning event in Vairo Library during the first week of the semester in fall 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #10 – Reduced Inequalities, and Goal #17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

 

Summer 2019 collection drive for Media Food Bank

Dr. Laura Guertin Media Food Bank ,

We thank everyone for their participation in our third annual campus collection drive for Media Food Bank. For our community partner under our PSU Sustainable Communities Collaborative/PepsiCo Mini-Grant, we are pleased to continue working with them a third year and assisting them with collecting some of their highest-priority need items – coffee, tea, and manual can openers. Check out the summaries from our Summer 2017 and Summer 2018 efforts.

In Summer 2019, we collected 21 manual can openers, 29 containers of coffee, and 20 boxes of tea. This translates to 2,160 cups of coffee and 1,012 cups of tea!

Thank you all for your generous donations! We look forward to continuing our conversations and collaborations with Media Food Bank this academic year and beyond.

The food drive for Media Food Bank in summer 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 – Zero Hunger and Goal #10 – Reduced Inequalities and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Earth Week – Postcards for Pollinators

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Events , ,

Postcards for Pollinators!

For Earth Day/Earth Week, Sustainovation Team member Dr. Laura Guertin joined forces with the Vairo Library for a week-long campaign for protecting our pollinators. The Earth Day Network theme for 2019 was Protect Our Species, and the campus decided to focus specifically on the plight of our threatened pollinators.

Students were allowed to submit their names to online petitions or to write postcards to the EPA to encourage the ban on neonic pesticides that kill pollinators, to write postcards to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to encourage Amazon to stop selling these chemicals, and to write our Pennsylvania Senators to encourage them to support the Pollinator Recovery Act. The Library also hosted a book display on pollinators.

The Postcards for Pollinators event in Vairo Library during Earth Day/Earth Week in spring 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal #15 – Life On Land, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

2019 Student Leadership Recognition Night

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Recognition, Sustainovation Club ,

Penn State Brandywine students who have impacted the campus through their leadership and service were honored at the student leadership recognition night on April 10. The annual ceremony highlights the achievements of students involved with clubs, student government and campus programs.

Congratulations to Sustainovation Club Secretary Subaita Ahmed, this year’s winner of the Outstanding Service to Campus and Community Award, which recognizes a student who has volunteered their time to assist others. She is involved with the Sustainovation Club, the Multicultural Student Club and service projects. Congratulations, Subaita!