Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Crosby Sanctuary Tree Survey, Lexi Lindsley

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Arlington Community Garden: The Benefits Of Community Gardens And Keeping Them Sustainable, Laurel Dalton

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Educating The Youth On Building A Sustinable And Eco-Friendly Planet, Anjelica Dasilva

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project As a part of the Environmental Center Leadership Program, I was fortunate to be partnered with community partner Beaches Go Green. Our mission was held on educating the youth on the importance of creating a sustainable and eco-friendly planet. Specifically, the main impact of Beaches Go Green is to diminish the pandemic of plastic waste pollution and its damaging effects on the oceans. 275 million metric tons of plastic waste is produced each year and less than 9% are recycled or composted. 8 million metric tons of non-recycled plastic enters our oceans. I participated in …

Making Earth A Cleaner Place With Educational Videos, Madison Woodson

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project 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 …

Sustainable Irrigation At The Ogier Gardens, Maria Pugliese

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Beaches Go Green Helps Jax Stay Clean, Emma Sheridan

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Green Purchasing Guide In Health Care Offices And Clinics, Hannah Kim

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Community Cleanups And Plastic Reduction, Waheed Khalili

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project 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 …

Eliminating Hunger In North East Florida, Kristin Gonzalez

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Rideout Point Nature Preserve & Observation Tower, Alec Gunn

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project Rideout Point is a 578 acre nature preserve being constructed by the North Florida Land Trust, abbreviated NFLT. The preserve will consist of walking trails, kayak launches, picnic spaces, and a three-story observation tower for visitors to enjoy an elevated view above the preserve’s beautiful cypress swampland. The NFLT tasked the Osprey Engineering team with designing the observation tower in accordance with specified requirements and the towers intended use. The goal for the Osprey Engineering team was to design an aesthetically pleasing, safe, and accessible tower with multiple features that ensure …

Community Cleanups And Plastic Reduction, Elena Pellumbi

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Fostering Environmental Stewardship And Education At The Jacksonville Zoo And Gardens, Cassandra Cleland

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Bringing Awareness To Plant Conservation At The Jacksonville Zoo And Gardens, Anastasia Utley

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

St.John’S Riverkeepers Litter Capture, Alexandra Marshall

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …

Beyond The Trail: Exploring Our Timucuan Parks And Preserves, Sophia Bertolino

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project Abstract: The UNF environmental center has been helping students live a life of sustainability along with educating students on what they can be doing to help the environment. Working with the UNF environmental center has been a great experience. I personally got to work with Felicia Boyd who is the program and outreach director of the Timucuan parks Foundation. As a student who is not a Jacksonville native, I was so surprised when I found out that there are so many parks here in the city of Jacksonville. After working with Felicia I have found …

Lights Out Northeast Florida Documentary, M. Ryan Nugent

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

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 …