Vermiculture is so cool!

I chose vermiculture as my research proposal, I have seen the worms box on campus with a class and I feel so impressed to see the great power generated by those little worms. A research should be related to something interesting or the whole research project will just be way too boring. Actually there are so many interesting articles on the internet about vermiculture, but most of them are about the good points of it. But I know it has some problems too, so I shift to twitter and some blog post about the people who really keep a worms box in their home. I found the advantage of the vermiculture -- using biology to decompose, takes less time and cause less pollution. The problem is that it is hard to control the amount of food putting in or it will generate odor.

And it is my first time doing educational piece. It is not hard to do the research but it is hard to have an educational piece related to the research as I want to make it more understandable. I used pictures and some really easy sentences to explain it. And I know a lot of my friends speaks Chinese, and during my research, I found that there is not technique about worms box in China. China, as a country with the second large population in the world, really need that technique. I checked on the internet, and learned that the worms in the box are red worms and about how to DIY a worm box.

Hopefully my education piece based on my research will help creating a better world.

Get Reusable Containers!

Blog Post 2

Anqi Zu

The sustainability related event that I chose to attend this quarter was held by my friend Rebecca, called the Bulk Foods Event. It combined both the elements I liked -- sustainability and food. They asked others to bring their own reusable container and offered free food in return. I went there when they were almost finished as I have a class before that. Luckily, I got early dismissal. The chocolate they offered is really nice and putting them in a cup with W on it is really cool!

And I know they want to prompt using reusable containers and using plastic containers have really huge impact to the environment. Plastic stuff gets dumped in the landfill, and piles up to being trash mountains. Even using paper bags consume a great amount of wood which is made by trees. Actually using reusable containers will cause little impact to the environment as if we used and store them properly, it can be used for decades. And actually if we consider the cost, using reusable containers are a lot cheaper than the one time options.

Hopefully there will be more events like that on our campus and make more people know about our sustainable related daily activity.

Marine Debris Education

For my community based learning and research I spent my time with the Campus Sustainability Educators. My experience went well and I was able to learn a lot on my own time. The program we followed took several weeks and was split into different sections by tasks. The first few weeks we worked on finding a topic of interest and then expanded upon the topic by finding a few pages of research to widen our knowledge on an issue. Examples of topics could come from a series of sustainability issues such as waste, transportation, water, energy, or even social issues such as food. For my topic I stayed focused on waste and pollution specifically in the ocean.  The weeks after that were spent creating ways to educate our campus on the issue. I made infographics to post throughout campus in places where students like to spend time such as the library, the food centers, and most areas near vending machines.

I enjoyed doing the work because I was able to choose the topic and it was actually a topic of interest. If there was a second chance for me to go back and do things differently, there isn’t much I would have changed except for how I managed my time by being more proactive. I got to learn a lot about a topic that most people won’t think of as an issue but contribute to it daily. Did you know the average U.S. citizen throws away 185 lbs. of plastic each year? Findings like this are important for us to identify real issues to be able to solve systemic problems. It was an interesting topic and I still believe we all need to familiarize more often with the issues of sustainability we create. 

Earth Week Sustainability Fair

On April 20^th 2017, the UW Bothell Campus Events Board and Cascadia College Cascadia Activities Board hosted a sustainability concert and community celebration on the sports field located near the wetlands. On this bright and sunny day, the event took place from 12-3pm and had a large turnout of organizations, vendors, and info booths. These groups involve, inform, and interact with anybody willing to attend, about how they include sustainability in their individual contributory ways. There was a stage for the live music performed by a sustainability-activist alternative rock band called Trapdoor Social! which was fun and kept it all lively. Going into the event I had no clue who would be there, but I went instead because somebody recommended it’d be better to at least check it out.

            In the end I found out there should have been no question about going. This event had relatability for anybody across all ends of the spectrum. From climbing to gardening, and from cycling to summer camps for kids, this was an all-inclusive meeting for anybody interested in making friends and learning how to create a better lifestyle for everyone. Although every booth I had stopped at was more than worthwhile, I had a couple favorites that I found I could relate to best. The first booth I really liked was the Campus Grounds and Maintenance booth. I had done some volunteer work with them and they were busy teaching listeners how they compost with worms, why they plant how/what they plant, and even were giving out free samples of campus grown Elder Tea. The actually had a small box of soil and worms on the side to show what composting looks like in action. Another booth I liked, which I hadn’t anticipated would be there was The Mountaineers booth. I talked to their representative for a while about what they do and what they are about. I found out that this is a great network to become involved in for anybody looking to pursue serious climbing because of all the benefits they provide; from discounts on gear to accessibility of guided mountain touring, this was something I would recommend people to check out. If this event happens again with the same outcome as this round did, I would recommend that everybody should at least give it a thorough walkthrough.  

Educating about Salmon Safe

My CBLR Educating About Salmon Safe

            My Community Based Learning experience started from taking BIS 240. While taking the Introduction to Sustainability class I worked with the Alexa and Cassie in the Sustainability offices to educate people about a sustainability related issue. The topic I choose to focus on was the endangerment of the wild Salmon population in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, I educated about the University of Washington’s Salmon Safe certification and the impacts we on campus can have on the endangered species such as not driving leaking cars on campus, not dumping waste into storm drains, and refraining from pesticide and fertilizers. The runoff and storm drains wash into North Creek which is a tributary of the Sammamish River where the Salmon migrate through. Connecting these impacts from where the pollution begins and following it through where it goes and its impacts has been a really interesting part of educating because often times we feel disconnected with our impacts and waste and where it might end up.

            My educating task was to make an informational video to present to a class about my topic. I was excited at using a video to educate because it is hard to attract attention to a topic using posters or flyers on campus. However, I had never made a video before nor did I have any experience in film making. Luckily, I had a friend who was able to film me using their Surface Pro and we downloaded editing software to edit all the mistakes out. Even though the filming ended up being mediocre I was really excited when the final product came out and all the educational and informational points came out really well. Overall, my CBLR experience was very interesting as I saw correlations between what I was learning in class and the topics I was talking about in my educational video as well as gaining new video making skills which I had never done before.

Earth Week Garbage Sort

During Earth Week, I had the opportunity to participate on a campus Garbage Sort. After learning about what specific materials go in compost, recycling, or landfill, I was shocked to see the amount of contamination in each bag. Recycling and composting is an important step to becoming more sustainable in our practices. However, many people don’t know how to recycle or compost. Personally, I was unaware of where to put what specific items and the myths of recycling. For example, an item containing plastic has an indicator of what plastic type it is (exemplified by a number inside an arrow triangle). Many people assume this means the plastic is recyclable when it indicates what type of plastic it is, and based on the local recycling plant, whether you can or cannot recycle it.

Another issue we found while doing the garbage sort is a large amount of liquids or food in the recycling bin. Unfortunately, when recyclable materials are contaminated with food and liquids many recycling centers will refuse to recycle them. Contamination in paper recycling has become a major issue because food and beverages decompose the paper and it can no longer be recycled and instead must be composted. The contamination of one beverage thrown into the recycling makes the whole bin un-recyclable which is why it is important to dump liquids into a liquids bin, or if the liquids bin is unavailable, flush the liquid in the toilet or down a drain.

 It’s also important to know that many receipts including the University of Washington Bothell parking receipts contain BPA (Disphenol A). This organic syntmanyhetic compound has been known to have many harmful effects on people and the environment. So where do these receipts belong then? Unfortunately, the receipts cannot be recycled nor composted so they must go to landfill where they will be buried in many layers of trash and dirt. Although sorting through peoples’ trash isn’t the most fun Earth Week Event to attend, I feel like I learned very important sustainability skills which have helped myself and the environment.

After the event when Professor Rebecca Rivera weighed and totaled the percent of contamination in each bag I was shocked by the large percent of material that is in the wrong bag. There are many different types of packaging and compound material items it is hard to keep track of what is recycle, compost, or landfill. Therefore, participating in the event really helped me have hands on knowledge about the importance and complexity in recycling and composting. Luckily before the Garbage Sort my class had a quiz on sorting garbage so I was prepared. Even with learning many students including myself still weren’t sure on certain items like straws and dirty napkins. Thanks to the help of Cassie and Alexa in the Sustainability Office explaining why what goes where myself and many students have a deeper understanding of the process in recycling and composting. Do you know how to properly sort waste? Chances are, you are sorting some things wrong. 

Promoting isn't easy!

(DRAFT) Blog Post #2

 

     Jasmine Velasquez again! Here to tell you about my CBLR experience. I was so nervous to go to my orientation because I did not know what to expect or what I would be doing. At the orientation there was a lot said that had to be done for Earth Week, but I knew I could do it. After all, it was awesome experiencing my first internship at the Sustainability Office with Cassie and Alexa. Throughout I learned a lot, from doing a garbage sort with a class to learning how to create posters using Canva (online design website). I created my first poster for the Food Forest event where students were invited to go and plant a variety of different vegetables.

(This was the poster)

      During the promotional event for Earth Week, my poster was one of the posters that were picked up by students the most. At this event, it was a lot of advertising for each event that would be going on during Earth Week. It was difficult because to begin with there weren’t many students and it was raining. Having tea, coffee, and hot chocolate helped us because students started coming towards our table and we were able to promote each event. After talking to a few students it became a lot easier for me to interact with other students. As a result, this was really beneficial because a lot of students visited our Sustainability Office booth.

 

This was my CBLR experience, stay tuned to see what other CBLR students did!