Service Learning, 21 Acres

To complete Service Learning for Biology, I participated in, “21 Acres Facility Tour” on 2017 March 10. The organizer was Ekaterina Rar ekaterina.rar@email.edcc.edu and I volunteered for 6 hours. This relates to Biology because we took a tour of building that keeps use of energy, electricity and water to only necessary amounts, which helps out the environment. The tour guide explained to us a lot of examples for how they keep 21 Acres very efficient. He showed us, room that would turn off ventilation if its sensor dedicated no CO2 emission and a toilet that was fully compostable.  When we finished tour, Nick brought us to farm to dig up “Himalayan Blueberries”. These are known as, “invasive specie” because their thorn can prevent other plant from growing and endangering local animals too. Nick gave us job to dig up blueberries with thorns to help native plant to grow and live better.

Here are “Himalayan Blackberry” (Rubus armeniacus) that we were picking for most of the volunteer day.

During lunch break, our chef educated the volunteers on how 21 Acres uses food and ingredients that is healthy for environment. For example, their ingredients come no farther than 100 mile radius and no pesticides and “genetically modified organisms” were used while making the food.

21 Acres educated me about how I can make my actions in daily life more healthy for the natural environment. We can use advantages we learn from science to maintain good condition of living for our surroundings. If not for Biology, we would not learn about benefit from these sustainability activities and dangers of blackberries. Blackberry can be reason for speciation to occur in plants and animals in nearby environment. The possibility of “splitting event” is high because animals and plants have to move to new environment to get away from blackberries. I hope my work made this process happen more slowly! I came up with four questions during my visit to 21 Acres.

Can I bring compostable toilet and ventilation sensors into my own home?

Do Himalayan Blackberries provide any positive to plant or animal?

What is growth rate of Himalayan Blackberry?

Is it possible for invasive plant to come back after we completely remove them?