Edgewood Weed Warriors (the final visits)

Sara Brockman
June 17, 2016 9:00-12:00AM
Edgewood Weed Warriors
Drew Shell

nature@dshell.oddotter.org

Now, I have been working sporadically at Edgewood for over a year and I really do enjoy the work that I'm doing.  I have realized the passion that I have for taking care of the environment, and that it is something that I want to dedicate my life to.  Something that teenagers, and young adults, often struggle with is deciding what they want to do with their lives, and I think that my work with Edgewood Weed Warriors has helped me in that sense.  I want to major in environmental studies and use my education to make a true change in the world, because while I think the work that I did at Edgewood was important, I don’t think that habitat restoration is the most effective way to preserve the future of the world.  Through my many visits to Edgewood and other parks around the bay, I believe that there needs to be a better way to help both smaller ecosystems and the greater world, and I think that furthering my education in this field is what is going to help me find those solutions.  What frustrates me the most about my work is that all of these people put in many hours of work to get rid of invasive species, but they come back a year later and have to weed out the same species.  The solution now is not permeant, and I want to discover a permeant solution just as I discovered my true passions.

Edgewood Weed Warriors (1-3)

Sara Brockman
March 15, 2015 5:30-7:30
Edgewood Weed Warriors
Drew Shell
nature@dshell.oddotter.org

Before arriving at Edgewood, I believed that I was going to be doing something like Save The Bay where you work in a greenhouse to grow native California plants and then go plant in the same general area.  But, through Edgewood's Weed Warrior program I have learned so much about botany and the impact that the world has on the organisms that live in Edgewood.  I did not realize that I was going to be immersed in such a complicated and beautiful ecosystem that I have grown to admire and deeply respect.  I have been working at Edgewood along with my mother, as minor are not allowed unaccompanied, and I have been surprised by her attitude about the laborious and mentally tedious work.  We have both found the experiences at Edgewood to be interesting and somewhat meditative. We have been learning about the formation of Edgewood and how the county was going to turn it into a golf course but then endangered species were found.  We have also learned that Edgewood is covered in the rare serpentine rock that allows for a lot of native species to thrive.  Unfortunately, with my three visits, I have not made much of an impact.  The only way to fully eliminate non-native species is to uproot every plant and make it so they will not disperse next season.  The only thing that the weed warriors do is manage the problem and try to minimize the number of non-natives every year and allow for the native species to grow.

Taft Robotics Workshop - Final Post

I enjoyed continuing teaching these students in my last 3 visits. We began teaching these students the programming side of robotics, which motivated the students even more. I’ve been glad that I have been able to leave a lasting interest for many of the students. Specifically, there was one girl who was very intelligent and had a quick understanding of the topics. Each meeting she would come with her math homework done or finish it in 5-10 minutes and then would move on to the robotics. By the end of the 6 visits she had successfully built her own robot and had gotten the furthest in her programming. Her passion for the subject reminded me of my own interest and I was always excited to teach her new things and spend time with her. Every week she would ask me if I was coming back next week and questioned me about what we would be learning the next week. All in all, I am grateful that I was able to teach all the students the basics of robotics and give them the baseline understanding of what the field is about. I hope to continue coming back and teaching more workshops this coming year. I know that these students would definitely be interested in continuing and I want to facilitate that. I’m happy that I was able to volunteer in an area that I’m passionate about and I would like to thank Mr. McCullough and Ms. Brugos for letting Lauren and I introduce robotics to the students at the math workshops.

Taft Robotics Workshop - 3rd Visit Post

For my PACT project, I decided to work in the Taft Tuesday math workshops with Lauren Yang, where we started teaching lego robotics. We spend the first 15-30 minutes helping the 5th grade students with their math homework and then after they are done, we teach them about building and programming in lego robotics. Before we started teaching the robotics, I was worried that the students might not be interested in learning the subject, especially since it's so new, but I was surprised to find that after the first meeting, the students were very motivated to complete their math homework as soon as possible so that they could work on their robots. I was also unsure of how much these students were going to understand of what we were teaching because some of the topics can be difficult, but many of the students were very intelligent and intuitive in building their robots and were able to quickly grasp the material. I have always taken for granted my ability to pursue robotics, but teaching these workshops opened my eyes to the fact that there are many students who don’t have the opportunity to do so. There were many students that were very interested in the subject and expressed interest in continuing in the future. Every meeting the students would ask us if we were coming back next week and continuously asserted their enthusiasm. I am excited to continue working with the students in the future.

Blog Instructiosn

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR PACT ENTRIES

Please write TWO blog entries (approx. 250 words each) about your PACT service work. You will write one entry after you’ve completed your first THREE visits to your site and the other entry after you’ve completed all SIX visits. Post your entries to your advocacy’s blog so that your peers can see and comment on what you’ve done.

ENTRY CONTENT

1. Do not waste your 250 words describing how you got to the site or listing inconsequential details about every action you performed while there. Give us the information that matters. Analyze what was going on below the surface of your actions or interactions. Keep in mind the social issue(s) you are trying to solve. Surface-level entries will not receive full credit.

2. Consider incorporating answers to the following questions:

• Before beginning your PACT, you probably had preconceptions about your organization, your issue, and/or the population you were going to serve. What were they, and how did your PACT work challenge those preconceptions?
• Did you discover anything about yourself through your service work? Were you at all surprised by your emotional reactions over the course of your service?
• Do you believe you had an impact through your service? If so, what did you accomplish?

ENTRY FORMAT

At the top of each entry, list the following information. Then, skip a space and begin writing.

Your Name

Date and Time of PACT Visit

Organization Name

Supervisor’s Name

Supervisor’s Contact Information