Events

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.

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

 

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 Un-Canny Challenge at Penn State Brandywine

aus206 Events, Media Food Bank, Sustainovation Club

Following 2018’s successful Canstruction event, the Sustainovation Team put together another competition to benefit Media Food Bank. Students were challenged to design and build a structure along a sustainability theme – only this year, we honored the suggestion of our community partner, Media Food Bank, to not use canned food but instead require structures to be built from items they need most but rarely see donated: ketchup, mustard, pasta, cereal, etc. We were able to host this competition thanks to the funding and support provided by the Pepsi Challenge Mini-Grants, which focused on expanding the Sustainable Communities Collaborative at The Pennsylvania State University.

Registration for this event began November 29th, 2018 and ended January 25, 2019. Also, we set up a table at the Involvement Fair, which gave us an opportunity to speak with students directly about the contest and the wider benefit to our local community partner, Media Food Bank.

During the months that followed, student teams submitted their structure’s title, a summary, a description of the design, and a draft of their poster, which would be displayed next to their structure. Seven teams entered the competition with total of 44 students.

Students did not have to acquire items on their own. Instead, food was ordered and delivered directly to the campus where students were able to view the item list and find the items they needed. In addition to funding from the sustainability grant, we received food donations from Kellogg’s, McCormick, Smucker’s, Starbucks, French’s and Frank’s RedHot. The Penn State Housing and Food Services purchasing office and Neil LaGreca, manager of housing and food services at Brandywine, coordinated food donations from campus vendors.

During a “shopping” spree event on February 11th, all items were displayed in the Tomeszko Lounge. Teams were able to grab what they needed and build out a model of their structure in order to be sure their design worked before the big event!

For the competition, structures had to be built on March 15th in the Lower Level of the Student Union Building. Judging and voting took place from Saturday, March 16th at 9AM to Monday, March 18th at 5PM. Awards – enough for each member of a winning team – were designed and produced by Dr. Maria Evans’ engineering students.

During the award ceremony, Keynote speaker Peter Boger, assistant director of outreach and engagement at Penn State’s Sustainability Institute, discussed the meaning of sustainability and how Penn State, in particular, serves the local community, the state, the country, and the world.

For pictures of the structures, the awards, and more information, click here.

The award-winning teams were:

• Structural Ingenuity: Castle on the Hill
• Jurors Favorite: Let Them Bee
• Best Use of Labels: Money on My Mind
• Library Literacy: MarComm City
• Sustainability: Spills That Kill
• People’s Choice: Money on My Mind

When the award ceremony concluded, team members disassembled the structures, placed the items in boxes, and carried them to the Media Food Bank’s truck.

Approximately 1,200 items were donated and notably they included items the Media Food Bank does not often receive. This competition provided awareness about food insecurity in our own neighborhood and provided students with a way to combat this issue and become more involved with our community partners.

The Un-Canny event held on campus at Penn State Brandywine during Spring 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 – Zero Hunger and Goal #10 – Reduced Inequalities

Pancake Breakfast and Maple Sugaring Celebration at Tyler Arboretum

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Sustainovation Club, Tyler Arboretum

A full summary of Sustainovation activities at Tyler Arboretum for the Pancake Breakfast can be found on this Adobe Spark page.

At Tyler Arboretum’s annual Pancake Breakfast and Maple Sugaring Celebration, the Sustainovation Team and students came out to assist in a unique way. Tapping in to Tyler’s 75th anniversary as an arboretum, Sustainovation Team member Adrienne Showalter worked on a survey, database, and website to compile a list of the favorite nature-related books from Tyler members. Check out the website, along with member quotes for their choices at the website https://sites.psu.edu/tylercreative/greatnaturereads/. During the celebration on February 23, 2019, visitors to Tyler could view the listing of book choices and explore a display of copies of the books. Adrienne also had information for Pennsylvania residents to learn how to find electronic versions of these books through libraries, especially the availability of Penn State’s library system.

In addition, Sustainovation Team member Dr. Laura Guertin had a poster and spoke to visitors about the impacts of climate change on maple trees and the production of maple syrup. A copy of the poster can be viewed here: The changing taste of maple syrup

We had tables set up where kids visiting the event could color their own bookmarks, and even create their own book on nature to take home with them – thanks to the efforts of the Penn State Brandywine student volunteers for their assistance in working with the kids and families that morning.

One final piece to our program at Pancake Breakfast was a nature story time, led by Penn State Brandywine librarian Annie Jansen. We happened to have some children’s nature-themed books written in English and Spanish, so Sustainovation Team member Dr. Ivan Esparragoza jumped in and co-read some of the books with Annie. This part of our event was so popular that we’ll be doing an International Nature Story Time next year at Tyler, involving more of our international students to read in their native languages.

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Pancake Breakfast in spring 2019 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #14 – Life Below Water, Goal #15 – Life On Land, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

 

EarthEcho Water Challenge at Tyler Arboretum

Dr. Laura Guertin Events, Tyler Arboretum ,

On October 6, 2018, members of the Penn State Brandywine community hosted a hands-on outreach event at Tyler Arboretum for its members. Brandywine faculty and members of two student clubs, Sustainovation and Civic Engagement, led an information session and provided guidance on how to test the health of our local waters. Each participating Tyler family received a free water testing kit from EarthEcho International and instruction on how to test water from four locations across the Arboretum. Participants were encouraged to continue testing waters at the Arboretum and in the local community, then enter their data on the EarthEcho website for scientists and others to use for research and monitoring. A fun morning was had by everyone!

Student volunteers from the EarthEcho Water Challenge program. Students are members of the Sustainovation Club and Civic Engagement Club.

 

See Penn State News article on this event: Brandywine, Tyler Arboretum host World Water Day celebration

The EarthEcho Water Challenge held at Tyler Arboretum in fall 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #6 – Clean Water and Sanitation and Goal #14 – Life Below Water.

Screening of documentary “The Human Element”

Dr. Laura Guertin Activities, Events, Sustainovation Club , ,

Each fall semester, the Sustainovation Team, Sustainovation Club, and Sustainability Committee come together and host a screening of a scientific documentary for the campus and public. This time, the screening was of James Balog’s The Human Element, addressing water, air, land, and fire – the basic elements of human life, and the impacts humans are having on these elements.

Here is a preview of the film. After the viewing, Dr. Laura Guertin (Earth Science) and Dr. Mark Boudreau (Biology) hosted a Q&A session for audience questions about climate science.

See Penn State News article on this event, “Open to the public: Free screening of ‘The Human Element’ at Brandywine”

The campus screening of The Human Element held in fall 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal #11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal #13 – Climate Action, Goal #15 – Life on Land, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.

Brandywine part of 2018 AASHE Conference

Dr. Laura Guertin Events

Prof. Karen Theveny and Dr. Laura Guertin, co-chairs of the Sustainovation Team, presented at the 2018 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference & Expo in Pittsburgh, PA. They presented on Penn State Brandywine’s efforts working with community partners in the first year of the PepsiCo mini-grant/Sustainable Communities Collaborative program at The Pennsylvania State University.

Prof. Theveny (left) and Dr. Guertin present during the poster session. As part of a year-long effort to develop sustainability-themed community partnerships, Penn State Brandywine connected with local partner, Media Food Bank, to address their challenges for addressing local hunger. The culmination of the efforts was a CanstructionU competition during spring semester 2018 in which eight teams of club and class members collaborated to build UN SDG themed structures. At the end of the
competition, Media Food Bank received 2,275 cans estimated at $2,135.

Dr. Guertin and Prof. Theveny gave a 30-minute presentation describing the sustainability awareness and assessment data generated by the Fall ’17 campus activities including: adding an educational component to Tyler Arboretum’s fall festival, bringing mobile technology to update a tree biodiversity quiz at Ridley Creek State Park and students’ essays addressing the SDGs as a resource for a statewide teacher organization. The changes in student attitudes towards sustainable development was documented by participation in a Biasutti & Frate (2017) validated survey conducted before the activities and then again upon their completion. The presentation also included a showing of the 2017 Tyler Arboretum film produced by students in a multi media production class that documented the educational activity conducted during Tyler Arboretum’s Pumpkin Days.

This collaborative poster is an overview of the Penn State Brandywine efforts along with the other campuses that are members of the Penn State Sustainable Communities Collaborative (SCC) network.