Posters from 2021

Year: 2021

Student: Emma Sheridan

Community Partner: Beaches Go Green

The Beaches Go Green Team’s project consisted of cultivating sustainability awareness videos on both a micro and macro scale and hosting an in-person beach clean-up. On a micro-scale, the team discussed going green in the North Florida Florida area by being knowledgeable of the recycling guidelines put in place by Jacksonville, thus being able to follow them. On a macro scale, the Beaches Go Green Team has created a plethora of videos. One of the videos created was about the negative health and environmental effects of the use of q-tips. The video exemplified that the use of q-tips is not recommended by ear doctors, thus making them an unnecessarily purchased good and a waste of resources. Another macro-level awareness video was centered around the negative […]

Year: 2021

Student: Sophia Bertolino

Community Partner: Timucuan Parks Foundation

The main goal of these projects is to have students engage, educate, and appreciate the parks here in the city of Jacksonville. Many students here at the University of North Florida are not Jacksonville natives. With these projects it allows students here at the university to go out and learn about the historical and cultural stories the parks here in North Florida have to offer.

Year: 2021

Student: Anastasia Utley

Community Partner: Jacksonville Zoo and Garden

Plant conservation is essential to the survival of all species as they improve soil, water, and air quality and serve as a food source and shelter. Currently the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens (JZG) has limited information for the use of the education center about the variety of plant species that they host. Many of the plants in the zoo’s collection are representative species that play important roles in their environments from all around the world. Jacksonville Zoo and Garden’s education center has several volumes of books that contain information about all the animals in the zoo. These books are used by volunteers, educators, and exhibit guides for the purpose of programming and interacting with guests. However, no books exist for the plants in the gardens. […]

Year: 2021

Student: Adremae Alotaya

Community Partner: UNF Center for Nutrition and Food Security

Food insecurity is an inconsistent access or inability to prepare nutritious foods. In the United States, about 1 in every 6 adults lack the access to nutritious foods. In Duval County, 20.1% of adults suffer from Food Insecurity. Causes of food insecurity is multifactorial and can have a negative effect on an individual’s mental and physical health. The Center for Nutrition and Food Security at the University of North Florida (UNF) is working to address the food insecurity in Northeast Florida by creating a Hunger Map. The Hunger Map consists of four levels. Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 is supply, demand, health information and availability and affordability, respectively. Level 1 (supply) is a master list of food pantries in Northeast Florida. Level 2 (demand) […]

Year: 2021

Student: Waheed Khalili

Community Partner: UNF Environmental Center

As part of the Environmental Center Leadership Program at the University of North Florida, I would get the opportunity to assist on a federally funded research project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This project primarily dealt with identifying and limiting the effects of plastic pollution on the environment in Jacksonville, Florida. Plastic pollution in recent years has become a growing epidemic in Jacksonville and all over the world. With more rivers and oceans being polluted with single-use plastic each year, it is not long before there is a significant impact on human health and the ecosystem. As part of this project, I would be responsible for the organization of clean-ups, administration of surveys, and presentation of the amount of plastic collected. Through […]

Year: 2021

Student: Elena Pellumbi

Community Partner: UNF Environmental Center

For this project I was part of the Environmental Center Leadership Program partnering with the Environmental Center to plan, execute and lead three community cleanups. The Environmental Center is working with a grant from the NOAA Marine Debris Program to reduce single-use plastic consumption and foster long-term pro-environmental behaviors among undergraduate students in coastal communities. This project aimed to create education and outreach activities to raise awareness about marine debris, facilitate understanding of the connections between actions and impacts in the marine environment, and encourage behavior change. The first cleanup took place at Palmetto Leaves Reginal Park where we removed 12 bags of trash with approximately 25 lbs. of plastic. The second community cleanup took place at the Northbank Riverwalk where we removed 10 bags […]

Year: 2021

Student: Lexi Lindsley

Community Partner: Duval Audubon Society

In partnership with the Duval Audubon Society, over 280 trees were identified and virtually tagged within their diverse 510-acre property known as the Crosby Sanctuary. A basic survey was performed that included plants >25 feet in height and within 25 inches from the ~1.5 miles of trails winding through the entire sanctuary. In addition, the locations and names of the identified plant species were input onto an online map of the Crosby Sanctuary. The updated map also contains the location of the pre-existing trails, rivers, and other features within the property. Due to the map being created via Google Maps software, it is currently available to the public via website link. Major tree species that were identified within the survey include Laurel Oak, Water Oak, […]

Year: 2021

Student: Lena Elemam

Community Partner: UNF Center for Nutrition and Food Security

This project is being done and monitored under the Center for nutrition and food security in Brooks college of health at the University of North Florida. Its goal is to have all of the food pantries around Florida sorted out and organized in a list. It Ensures that the list includes the pantry’s website contact information, updated days and times for food distribution, and the correct address. The data is collected by looking up information about the food pantries on their websites and then calling the pantry to ensure that everything on the website is up to date. We are also working on taking surveys at the food pantries to collect data about the individuals using the food pantries trying to satisfy their needs. Working […]

Year: 2021

Student: Anjelica DaSilva

Community Partner: Beaches Go Green

As a part of the Environmental Center Leadership Program, I was fortunate to be partnered with community partner Beaches Go Green to help unfold their mission in educating the youth on building a sustainable and eco-friendly planet. Specifically, the main impact Beaches Go Green ensures is the pandemic of plastic waste pollution and its damaging effects of our oceans. 275 million metric tons of plastic waste is produced and less than 9% are recycled or composted. 8 million metric tons of the 275 million metric tons of non-recycled plastic enters the oceans. The outcome participating in beach clean-ups within the Jacksonville Beaches ensured 1,097 volunteers, 30 bags of trash, 10 recycled bags, and 22,159 cigarette butts were collected. During the beach clean-up, cigarette butts contain […]

Year: 2021

Student: Kristin Gonzalez

Community Partner: Feeding Northeast Florida

Food insecurity is generally defined as not having easy access to a grocery store or supermarket with fresh food and produce. The mission for working with Feeding NorthEast Florida is to give back to our community and help eliminate food insecurity in Jacksonville, one of the ways that Feeding NorthEast Florida does this is through the Mobile Corner Market. The Mobile Corner Market is a mobile truck that is located in different locations in order to implement this mission statement. The Mobile Corner Market offers a place for those in need to have an entire shopping experience, with a personal shopper. The goal of the Mobile Corner Market is to improve the quality of life of Northeast Florida by addressing food insecurity by providing nutritious […]

Year: 2021

Student: Cassandra Cleland

Community Partner: Jacksonville Zoo and Garden

Abstract: Several studies have shown that currently more plants than ever are going extinct, and humans are the culprits. Plants are an important resource in our ecosystem whom without we would not survive. This is important to recognize because people’s actions on our environment can have a large-scale impact. Environmental stewardship refers to taking responsibility for the environment to improve its quality. The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens values this and goes to great lengths in fostering it by educating their guests and instilling passion to the next generation, while simultaneously funding a wide variety of conservation efforts. I partnered with the zoo to help further educate their guests by creating a resourceful book that goes into detail about the different plant species they have in […]

Year: 2021

Student: Hannah Kim

Community Partner: My Green Doctor

According to researchers at Northeastern University and Yale, the U.S medical facilities are nearly responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these institutions require significant amount of resources such as water, paper, plastic, and electricity but they are at often at a high cost, inefficient, and wasteful when inspecting at them closer. My project will provide a purchasing guide that will encourage to adopt environmentally, sustainable products that will save money and create a healthier environment. The main goal is to encourage offices to foster environmentally friendly products at an affordable cost. Through the collaboration of The My Green Doctor, a free nonprofit service whose main’s goals is to include environmental sustainability in offices & homes, I will create an essay and a […]

Year: 2021

Student: M. Ryan Nugent

Community Partner: Duval Audubon Society

Artificial light poses as an extreme threat to migratory birds. When migrating at night, birds use the stars and moon to navigate to their destination. However, because birds are attracted to artificial light, they frequently find themselves trapped in areas with a high density of artificial light such as major industrialized cities. Flying in a city with large artificially lit skyscrapers is terribly dangerous for migratory birds and, a majority of the time, results in the birds hitting buildings or exhausting themselves—both of which can be fatal. Each year, about one billion birds die from the effects of artificial light. Lights Out Northeast Florida is a program in Jacksonville aiming to curtail the issue of artificial light by advocating for building and household owners to […]

Year: 2021

Student: Madison Woodson

Community Partner: Beaches Go Green

In the 2020-2021 school year, the University of North Florida’s Environmental Center Leadership Program had students partnered with local community partners. This year, I was partnered with Beaches Go Green in Jacksonville, Florida. Beaches Go Greens’ mission was to inform the younger generation how to “go green” and practice core values of the 4R’s. The 4R’s are to refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. The project that was implemented were videos advertising how to practice better habits to make Earth a cleaner place. These videos were around two-three minutes long. When creating these videos, modern and kid-friendly content was vital in incorporating information about topics on different environmental issues. One environmental issue that was brought to light was grocery store waste. This video educated students on […]

Year: 2021

Student: Erin DelGrosso

Community Partner: Dr. Josh Gellers

The project is a digitally interactive map of environmental justice in Jacksonville. It consolidates 19 case studies gathered from lawsuits, protests, citizen complaints, cleanups, restoration projects, and more. Map components include: case study title, location, timeline, environmental justice pillar, type of issue, summary, and links to references. The map shows which areas experience environmental justice and which types of issues are most prevalent. The data is published on BatchGeo and can be accessed at: https://batchgeo.com/map/ea79b6e381fd1b28f23e92612a7e8d4a  

Year: 2021

Student: Ivan Korostenskij

Community Partner: UNF Frederick and Ophelia Tate Ogier Gardens

Greenery and plant life have been shown to increase the quality of life and overall wellness in the classroom (Erzsebet et al. 7) and work (Pitts 2) environments. Specifically, many ornamental plants have unique roles in filtering toxic chemicals from ambient air (Erzsebet et al. 3). With a recent push to increase student involvement in a greener environment, in conjunction with the University of North Florida’s Ogier Gardens, we focus here to determine and describe the most optimal plants to propagate and increase student engagement with. We chose Dracaena trifasciata, Chlorophytum comosum, and Philodendron hederaceum to research. Initially selecting these three popular ornamental plants based on their simple processes of water propagation (Damiano et al. 6) and a non demanding upkeep routine (Gilman 1; Damiano […]

Year: 2021

Student: Rory Hampson

Community Partner: Springfield Preservation and Revitalization

The purpose of this project was to walk the beloved historic Jacksonville neighborhood, Springfield, and notate which sidewalks were broken or otherwise needed repairments. This is critical for a small community such as Springfield as it is easily walkable for the residents and town travelers who come to tour the area. Broken sidewalks not only are incompliant with ADA guidelines but are unsafe for the general biker and walker, creating a key issue for community members. Rory Hampson was tasked with collecting and analyzing data to create a documentation of where the walkways that need fixing are in order to improve the redevelopment and restoration of the area. Though the project is not yet complete, an entire quadrant of the neighborhood has been notated on […]

Year: 2021

Student: Alec Gunn

Community Partner: North Florida Land Trust

In the coming decades the energy sector will have to face three major transformations concerned with climate change, security of supply and energy poverty. The first two have been extensively analysed, but less attention has been paid to the third, even though it has a great influence on the lives of millions of people. This paper presents an overview on energy poverty, different ways of measuring it and its implications. According to the WHO, indoor pollution causes an estimated 1.3 million deaths per annum in low income countries associated with the use of biomass in inadequate cookstoves. Although energy poverty cannot be delinked from the broader, more complex problem of poverty in general, access to energy infrastructures would avoid its most serious consequences and would […]

Year: 2021

Student: Aida Washburn

Community Partner: UF IFAS

Amelia Island is home to many beautiful native plants, but some invasive species have taken residence in the beach area and caused issues to the ecological system. The invasive plants outcompete our native species and can disrupt the shore bird and sea turtle nesting sites. Invasive plants also destabilize our dunes. A native plant is identified as a species that has naturally existed in each place for an extended length of time. Whereas an invasive species displaces and prevents native species from establishing. The goal of this project was to remove invasive plant species on Amelia Island and create accessible information for the public to advocate awareness of invasive species in Nassau County. The project included removing Asparagus Fern from the South end Beach access […]

Year: 2021

Student: Alexandra Marshall

Community Partner: St. Johns Riverkeeper

Rising Tides is an organization for young professional and community-minded advocates who want to help support the St. Johns River through membership and participation in a range of social activities such as monthly clean-up on Hogan and McCovey creek. Rising Tides wants to make a bigger difference on their monthly clean-up on Jacksonville mainstream. Rising Tides want to implement one or two litter captures on St. Johns’ mainstream, Trout River, McCoy’s Creek, and Hogan’s Creek. Watergoats are a floating buoy structure that helps capture litter before it can be carried through our waterways. Rising Tides can collect any additional trash on their monthly clean-up. Rising Tides are weighed the pros and cons of watergoat applies to Jacksonville waterways.

Year: 2021

Student: Maria Pugliese

Community Partner: UNF Frederick and Ophelia Tate Ogier Gardens

The UNF Ogier Gardens exists to create a healthier UNF community through nature contact by growing crops, demonstrating sustainability and biodiversity, and nourishing people with local, fresh, and delicious food. The appropriate watering of the Ogier Garden’s crops is pivotal to providing healthy options for the local community. Watering crops typically falls solely on the farmer, but proper watering is sometimes based on intuition and the working memory of the responsible party. Luckily, irrigation controllers provide a convenient and reliable method of watering for homeowners and farmers alike. A fully automatic sprinkler system means the user can establish various settings related to the garden and let the controller take care of the yard without supervision. Since UNF is installing high-speed internet at the Ogier Gardens […]

Year: 2021

Student: Laurel Dalton

Community Partner: Arlington Community Garden, Dr. Closmann

In a project for the Environmental Center Leadership Program, Laurel Dalton investigates the importance of community gardens, the issues they often face, and some possible solutions which were utilized for the benefit of the Arlington Community Garden at the Tree Hill Nature Center. Community gardens are a valuable resource to build community, allow participants to connect to nature, and help alleviate food insecurity. The foremost issues for the sustainability of community gardens are the lack of a sufficient, continuous workforce of paid workers and volunteers, and a lack of funding. To alleviate this issue for the Arlington Community Garden, extra activities were arranged to promote greater excitement for the garden, and flyers were created to be distributed around the community to increase awareness of the […]