2012 Environmental community projects

 

2012 ENST 411 community projects. Eight groups of environmental studies seniors (and one geography major) -- 33 students in all -- designed and executed their own community projects, focused on Sunbury, PA.   The goal of the course is to provide useful services to a nearby community to help students understand 1) that environmental sustainability needs to be embedded in actual communities with existing strengths and assets, 2) that solutions to environmental issues rely on collaborative efforts, 3) that sustainability is a multifaceted issue.   We are indebted to the excellent encouragement and support that the projects got from the people of Sunbury and the city government -- especially Mayor David Persing, Kristin McLaughlin, Terry Sprecht, and Jim Eister.

 

1. Historic Walking Tour of Sunbury

Our group created a self-guided historical walking tour through Sunbury in order to enlighten residents and visitors on the rich history of the city. It is our hope that an awareness of Sunbury's history will encourage new and old residents of the city to invest  themselves in its future. Our tour reflects the changes undergone in the city over the past 250 years.  

Jump to the Historic walking tour

2. Park Opportunity Plan

Our group looked into park utilization and accessibility in the city of Sunbury. We conducted a park inventory and surveyed residents to evaluate the assets and needs of the existing city parks. We then created a park opportunity plan to suggest ways the Sunbury park system can better serve its community

Jump to the Park Opportunity Plan

3, Sunbury Community Garden

 In just a few months later we came together and created a functioning community garden in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. It took a lot of effort and the contributions of many people as well as the city of Sunbury, but the end result is very promising and has a lot of potential for the future. We believe that we have set a strong foundation, and the garden will be in good hands.

Jump to the Sunbury Community Garden

4. Weatherization demonstration project

For our senior project we decided we wanted to invite Sunbury residents to consider how to implement easy, cost effective, do-it-yourself strategies for creating a more energy efficient household. To do this, we organized a series of videos which take us through a home in Sunbury Pennsylvania. Each video focuses on a room in the home and has four steps. First, we document a walk through and professional audit, next our group's assessment of the cost and benefits, third us purchasing supplies, and last, us implementing the improvements.

Jump to the Weatherization demonstration project

5. "Live Active Sunbury!"

The overall goal of our project is to provide a comprehensive web-based inventory of the recreational assets in the Sunbury area. We hope that our website will provide a fast and easy way for community members to
explore opportunities that they may not have otherwise known existed. We hope that community members will find an activity that interests them and that they become more involved with their community while living healthier lives.

Jump to the 'Live Active' Page

6. Environmental education guidebook

Over the course of this semester our group worked to create an Environmental Education Guidebook specific to the Lower Susquehanna Valley Region. Our goal in creating this guidebook was to help teachers connect broad, abstract environmental issues with specific local examples. We felt that this was an important project because from our experiences and research, the high school environmental science curriculum  does not always localize the environmental problem it is discussing.

Jump to the Environmental education page

7. Food access inventory

 Food access is a health issue -- Is healthy food available to all? -- and it's a social justice issue -- Are disadvantaged population more likely to have poor food access?This group examined how available food is in Sunbury.  Sunbury turns out to have very good food access compared to other towns in central Pennsylvania, as a legacy of Weis Foods being headquartered in the town and supporting two grocery stores in the city.

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8. Health assets inventory

This group set out to collect, catalog, and map the wide variety of community health assets in Sunbury.  We first completed an assets inventory listing name, address, contact info and a general description of over 100 healthcare assets throughout Sunbury. 

Jump to the Health access inventory page