EcoReach put on two of their monthly Library Events for November and December! These events are open to elementary school-aged students around Athens-Clarke County. They involve an easy, interactive science project geared towards some aspect of ecology.

November 2019

November’s library event was ran by PhD student Izzy Ragonese, and it was all about butterflies! There were half a dozen students that attended the event. During the presentation, they talked about the life-stages of butterflies and other fun facts about monarchs. Later in the talk, Ragonese and fellow EcoReach member Kelsey Solomon brought out live monarch butterflies for the students to observe!

Following the live butterfly demonstration, students learned how to make origami butterflies! By the end of the event, the students had gotten to enjoy butterflies and take home a “butterfly” of their own.

December 2019

At EcoReach’s December library event, we had another turnout of about a half-dozen students! December’s event was a lively challenge-type activity. Students had sheets of tinfoil and various weights. Their challenge was to make a tinfoil boat that could hold the largest amount of weight. They tested their boats in a tub of water, and watched to see which boat floated the longest!

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EcoReach got a jumpstart into 2020 at the ACC Science Fair!

On January 11th, EcoReach sent six booths to present different ecology-related topics to the ACC Science Fair. We also had the honor of presenting the EcoReach Ecology and Environmental Science award to two middle school students!

Each booth featured a specific presentation or activity for students to participate in. At “The Wonderful World of Diatoms”, students were able to look at an actual diatom through a light microscope. Other booths let students play fun and educational games!

Mia Rochford’s booth, “Seed Fight Club”, taught students about seed dispersal in a competitive atmosphere! They used craft materials to create wind-dispersed seeds. Overall, EcoReach saw over 50 students visit the booths!

Finally, EcoReach was proud to present two students with the Ecology and Environmental Science award! They won for their presentation about Human Impacts on the Environment. This was the second year EcoReach gave out the award.

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After UGA’s classes ended and its graduations commenced, EcoReach stayed busy! Most public K-12 school remain in session beyond UGA’s calendar, so EcoReach had several opportunities to work in some different classrooms. This May 14th, EcoReach visited South Jackson Elementary School in Jackson County and presented a lesson on microorganisms to their 5th graders!

These 5th graders had learned about microorganisms earlier in the year, and EcoReachers Ashley and Kaylee were brought to campus to review this topic and to play some activities with the kids. We went over bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and reminded the students that not all microbes are bad! Both Kaylee and Ashley study bacteria in their own research, and they were able to explain all the different ways to research microbes, and how microbes can be both harmful and beneficial!

After the review session, we played a game to see if the kids knew which types of microbes are good, bad, or both! The students were great and we hope to return again next year!

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When people hear the word “ecology,” it often sparks a traditional idea of the term— they are perhaps reminded of their early science classes and think of food webs or producers and consumers. According to Merriam-Webster, ecology is defined as “a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments.” This broad definition widens the scope of what people typically think ecology is comprised of and reveals its interdisciplinary nature. It is this very nature that allows ecology to have many applications, including examining the interrelations between human beings and their environments, as Lawrence Green, Lucie Richard, and Louise Potvin imply in their 1996 paper “The Ecological Foundations of Health Promotion.”

As we enter this field thinking of human beings, their environments, and their behavior, we tread on the territory of health promotion and public health. These disciplines have long been influenced by ecology. There is even theory based in an ecological approach to health promotion, which has foundations as far back as Darwin’s concepts for the web of life, the role of the environment, adaptation, and survival (Green et al. 1996).

The application of these traditional ecological concepts to human communities is so important because of how dependent public health is on one’s ecosystem. In fact, Green et al. (1996) frames public health as “a product of interdependence between individual and subsystems of ecosystem” including health influences like family, community, culture, and physical or social environments. This means that there must be enough resources within a community for conditions to be conducive for a healthy lifestyle, including information, education, and the ability to make choices about health, and that health promotion professionals must advocate for this culture change.

There are many ecological concepts which inform public health and health promotion as well—including reciprocal determinism, which mirrors one of the core missions of public health: to “empower individuals by giving them control over determinants of health” (Green et al. 1996). There is also environmental specificity, which plays an important role in behavior theory and tells health promotion specialists that people behave differently in different environments.

Some health promotion specialists struggle to embrace this ecological model of public health because it is complex and all-encompassing. Ecological approaches to health promotion are oftentimes passed over for easier or cheaper strategies which are typically media-based and individually oriented. It is simpler to root for small changes in individual health behavior over time than for a shift in an entire community’s culture. However, in a Western society that puts so much emphasis on individual achievement, it is important to remember our foundations as social creatures and to remember how crucial a supportive and productive environment is to public health and to life in general.

For health promotion specialists, this means working on creating sustainable systems and communities that encourage people to take part in health behaviors, rather than just urging them to find their own willpower and discipline to do it all independently. The idea of seeing things as communities or united systems is a powerful thought that is well-established in ecology and public health; it is a lesson to be learned from the scientific community, something which can and should transcend all disciplines.

References: Green, Lawrence, et al. “The Ecological Foundations of Health Promotion.” The American Journal of Health Promotion, vol. 10, no. 4, 1996, pp. 270-281.

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