All Posters

Year: 2018

Student: Kaley Crawford

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, Timucuan Parks Foundation

Year: 2019

Student: Kaley Crawford

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, Timucuan Parks Foundation, The Preservation Project

The purpose of this oral history research project is to record and preserve the history of the Preservation Project through first-hand accounts of the struggles and challenges the city faced in acquiring these lands that residents and visitors now enjoys as public parks. While the paperwork and legal writings are available to the public, the historical narrative of these parks have not been recorded. Through interviews with those individuals pertinent to the creation of these parks, we learn the true story behind what it took to preserve these “special places” in Jacksonville.

Year: 2019

Student: kyle Kenney

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, Groundwork Jacksonville, Hydro Flask

Year: 2018

Student: Kyle Kenney

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, Timucuan Parks Foundation, Outdoor Nation

In its 2nd year, Preserve Ambassadors continues to work toward increasing the overall campus-wide use and awareness of UNF’s Sawmill Slough Preserve. Receiving two consecutive grants from Outdoor Nation has enabled the program to expand its presence, by working with community partners, to create another core group of “Preserve Ambassadors” to host events that continue to attract diverse student populations to our local parks and preserves.

Year: 2017

Student: Kyle Kenney

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, Jax Paddle Sports, Outdoor Nation, UNF Eco Adventure

A pilot project created to increase overall campus-wide use and awareness of UNF’s Sawmill Slough Preserve. Through a variety of events, new students learned about the preserve’s flora, fauna, eco-functions, and value. The program included two components: 1) creating a core group of volunteers known as “Preserve Ambassadors;” and, 2) hosting events to attract a diverse student population into the preserve and other natural areas within our community, with a focus on social interaction and enjoyment so participants could garner their own value for these natural areas.

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: 2022

Student: April Thomas

Community Partner: Duval Soil and Water Conservation District

This goal of this project was to assist the Duval Soil and Water Conservation District in their development of Regeneration Park. Regeneration Park is a grant-funded park located in Jacksonville’s west side urban core along the S-line trail. It will eventually encompass native biodiversity, as well as other herbs and fruits to benefit the local community. The park’s main goal is to become a place to curate environmental stewards from the local community, and to give back to underrepresented communities in this area of Jacksonville.

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: 2022

Student: Alexia Maier

Community Partner: Groundwork Jacksonville

The S-Line Biodiversity Field Guide was developed with the intention of creating an outdoor classroom for the community to enjoy the outdoors, grow, and learn. Now part of the Emerald Trail, the S-Line Urban Greenway has been transformed from a former railroad’s brownfield to a lively trail. The S-Line Biodiversity Corridor is composed of an herb and spice garden, a bioswale, a pollinator garden, and a stormwater retention pond.

Year: 2022

Student: Ashlynn Kemp

Community Partner: South-East Zoo Alliance for Reproduction & Conservation

To educate the public on and advocate for the importance of artificial reefs for sand tiger shark habitat on the Atlantic coast by creating a threedimensional model of the USS Tarpon to display at North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island.

Year: 2016

Student: Matt Groth

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, UNF Sawmill Slough Preserve

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: 2022

Student: Logan Larochelle

Community Partner: Native Jax

The original planned project was to do a small harvest festival designed for the community of Springfield in urban Jacksonville. We got all the way to the stage where our materials were made, but at the last moment logistical issues made the event impossible for us to do. Due to these issues, we were not able to plan a new event in time. We then decided to help market our Community Partner’s non-toxic lawn application.

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 […]

Year: 2022

Student: Samantha Surratt

Community Partner: Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens

This project is to teach younger generations about the harmful effects that single use plastics have on the environment. The kids will be about how it is a tedious task it is to take plastic waste out of the ocean. As well as some fun ways to reduce plastic waste. I produced this project idea because I am in love with the environment and all things in it. So, when I moved to Jacksonville, I wanted to learn how to do my part of keeping the environment safe. Sadly, once I moved to Jacksonville. Jacksonville had gotten rid of their recycling program. At that time, I knew I had to do something to make a change. I wanted to teach people of Jacksonville that just […]

Year: 2017

Student: Haley Camp

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Nemours,

Creating a connection to the St. Johns River through inspiring crafts, interactive displays, and educational facts related to the river for the patients and families of Nemours Children’s Specialty Care.

Year: 2016

Student: Madison Masters, Daniel Norez, Kelly Rhoden

Community Partner: North Florida Land Trust, Groundwork Jacksonville, Greenscape

There are many positive benefits to trees in an urban environment. Not only do trees contribute to cleaning our air and water, planting trees can promote public health, save energy, and reduce crime rates. The central research question of this project is what trees can be planted in the urban environment to help improve community issues. By creating an urban forestry plan, we are able to determine the “right tree for the right place.” An undergraduate anthropology student is utilizing ArcGIS software to create multiple maps to assess the many known benefits of trees and develop a planting strategy for the Historic Springfield and Eastside neighborhood in Jacksonville, FL. Two undergraduate public health students are researching past studies and health-based databases in order to find […]

Year: 2017

Student: Nikki Adams

Community Partner: Outdoor Nation

Outdoor Nation is a partnership between the National Park Service and the Outdoor Foundation that aims to connect millennials with the outdoors and local National Parks through recreation. Outdoor Nation’s Outdoor Ambassador grant provides a valuable leadership opportunity for students interested in honing their outdoor leadership abilities through direct experience. I applied for this nation-wide competitive grant, which involved a thorough application process, including a video application. Once I was chosen as UNF’s Outdoor Ambassador, I began planning my six events: Two on campus and two National Park events celebrating Earth Day and National Public Lands Day.

Year: 2018

Student: Thoren Perego

Community Partner: North Florida Land Trust, UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education

With the understanding that public outreach is critical in any organization’s effectiveness, NFLT and UNF partnered together to create a series of immersive and relevant outreach events to engage faculty, staff, and students. The events successfully did so, offering real-life examples of many academic principles taught to the students while also engaging the students through fun activities.

Year: 2018

Student: Thoren Perego

Community Partner: UNF Institute of Environmental Research and Education, North Florida Land Trust

With the understanding that public outreach is critical in any organization’s effectiveness, NFLT and UNF partnered together to create a series of immersive and relevant outreach events to engage faculty, staff, and students. The events successfully did so, offering real–life examples of many academic principles taught to the students while also engaging the students through fun activities.