Community Project Report- Guanzhong Chen

Guanzhong Chen's Community Project

The community service that I did is helping Dr. Mu at the Earth Week Event. I went to the Earth Week Event held on campus on April 17, 2018 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. It was for joining the earth science club and being educated in environmental and sustainable goals. I helped Dr. Mu to set up the table, display and present her products, which were windmills and solar panels.

This event was held by Earth Science major students, including Earth Science Club. They learned knowledge about the earth and sustainability, including geochemistry, geology and earth science technology, oceanography and marine conservation and atmospheric science, and they held this event and river cleaning activity to show their achievement on inventions and products, and raise people’s awareness of sustainability as well.

The purpose of this display is informing more students about the renewable energies. Using the natural power, like water power, wind power and solar, to create energy and electricity is important for achieving sustainable goals. The conventional power generation method, which is firing coal, polluted the environment and speeded up running out of natural resources. Other than that, we wanted to appeal visitors to using clean resources, and attracted students to the Earth Science minor program, and advertise the Environmental Science at Wenzhou-Kean University in this summer.

I chose this project because sustainability is a hot topic these days, and I thought I could learn more knowledge about sustainability out of class.

There were many tables showing different aspects involving the Earth, like organic food, soilless culture plants, eco-friendly plastic making, wasting food warning lesson and insects display.

I went to Dr. Mu’s office and helped her assemble components together to make three different windmills. We connected two solar panels to create more electricity for lights due to the weather was cloudy, which means we lacked light. We also brought an extra lamp to create more light. After that, we moved the cart to the Patio Area in front of the Miron Student Center, and we set the table. However, the lamp needs outlet for electricity, so we moved twice and electrified the lamp.

Three Windmills on the Cart

That day was super cold and windy, but the wind gave more power for the windmills. The windmills rotated so fast and lit up the LED bulb. The solar panels were more sensitive than we thought, even though on a cloudy day, and they lit up the LED bulb as well. We didn’t use the lamp at all. At first, Dr. Mu left to meet her students and check other tables, so I stood behind the table and introduced the two products about sustainability to visitors. Some of them never saw the windmills, and some of them were curious about how it worked. They thought using natural power to create energy is a cool idea, and we also made them interested in the Earth Science minor program and join the environmental science summer program. After Dr. Mu came back, she said I could walk around and see other tables’ things. I saw students making plastic in the pot, tried the organic food from the Whole Food, ate the sales culture plants which were planted by students themselves. The most impressive thing for me was using wasted food and making soil. I was shocked that food wasting was so serious even on the campus. There were lots of pizza slides and broccoli filled in many buckets, which reminded me of those skinny kids from poor countries. My mom always teaches me to not waste food and respect food, so I always finish my food or pack it as leftovers. The food wasting situation was so bad even in a small restaurant, then for the whole country, it will be worse. At last, I went back to Dr. Mu’s table and kept doing my explanation to visitors. It was so sweet that the Earth Science Club found some hand-warmers from the student government and handed out due to the cold and windy day.

Dr. Mu talking to students

Dr. Mu said this year’s Earth Week Event was so cold, and she remembered it was sunny and warm last year, and everyone was in short-sleeve shirts and sundresses. However, only one year pasted, the climate had changed so much. Climate change made the weather fickle. Meanwhile, winter became colder and longer, and summer became hotter and longer. Spring and Autumn became shorter, so the temperature changed so quickly. I feel protecting the environment is so urgent. Even we were aware and started control the pollution and damage of the earth, the vicious cycle made it harder to stop or slow down the damage to the earth. Earth Week Event is for informing more people to protect the earth and achieve sustainable goals, but in the daily life, everyone should behave based on sustainability from saving water, stopping waste food, separating garbage and reuse plastic bags. Many a little makes a mickle. Sustainability is not only a big topic for companies, but also for everyone. Everyone’s contribution would make the environment and society better.