become more involved in our community through community service and volunteer work. This year we have done and are currently doing a drive for our community, we call it “Hygiene for the Homeless”. Our goal is to give back to our community by gathering supplies. We look for small travel sized hygiene products (Mini shampoo bottles, soap bars, razors, tooth brushes, etc.) and collect them in order to give them to the homeless. In the future we also plan on having a drive for kids where we will gather coloring books, crayons, etc., and will take them down to St. Jude’s and spend time with the children there.
19. Recycling on Campus – Where are the Recycling Bins? Presenter: Keri Winser Faculty Mentor: Judy King, Earth Sciences For fall semester 2013, GEO 357 Urban Environmental Geography did a Service Learning Project focused on the recycling on campus. Students broke into different groups: Research, Awareness, and the Traffic group. The Research group talked with Jose Robledo the Recycling Coordinator, compared our recycling program with other sister schools, and found prices for recycling bins we proposed to add on campus. The awareness group created a survey for students to see how they felt about the recycling on campus: where there enough recycling bins and how actively would they recycle? The Awareness group also created and presented an educational poster informing students what could and could not be recycling on two days they had a booth on the East walk way. The Traffic group broke down into groups of two. These people chose prime locations on campus and certain times and were to count with clickers how many people walked past that location. They allotted the parking lots and each pair was to survey the recycling bins: say how full they were, what the ratio was between trash and recycling in the bin, the condition of the bin, and if it was near a trash can or not. We put all our information into an excel sheet and posted things on a Discussion Board on BlackBoard. With that information a student used GIS to make a map of our data using ArcMap. Our hopes were to find areas where people walked the most so we could put recycling bins in these areas. We also wanted to see how efficient our students were recycling by looking at the ratio of trash and recyclables and we found that people still put trash in recycling bins even when there was a trash can right next to it. But the surveys concluded that students do feel there are not enough recycling bins on campus. Jose Robledo was happy to receive the data that the students of GEO 357 were able to provide for him. Our project has impacted our campus community because Physical Plant is able to use the GIS map that was created to plan out where they want to put new recycling bins or where they want to convert trash cans into recycling bins. We also gave our school a general idea of the recycling status of our campus and how it can be improved. The impact this project has had on me has been very positive. It was great seeing how much people, like Jose Robledo, appreciated the maps that I did. It was hard work that was well rewarded through positive feedback. It did not feel like just a class project, but instead it was meaningful, and I felt like I was doing something important. When I was surveying the bins, I felt like someone out in the field collecting data that may have been something someone else may not have wanted to do but still important. When I made the map, I felt like a GIS technician and was doing an actual job for a purpose rather than just a class exercise. It was a good real world experience.
20. NSM Building Energy Audit Presenter: Mindee Justesen Faculty Mentors: Judy King, Earth Sciences; Kenneth Seeton, Central Plant In collaboration with Physical Plant, Earth Science students conduct an energy audit on campus buildings, analyze the data, and make recommendation for more sustainable practices.