The
APES Scavenger Hunt Summer Assignment was designed to get students thinking about Environmental Science in general and specifically in the local area.
Objects to collect:
Finding five pieces of trash was very easy. Even in what appears to be a clear field used for overflow parking during a teacher workshop at
LaVilla School of the Arts (see right), numerous items of trash were found in under a minute (see below).
[As an aside, I chose to throw out all the trash I found, with the exception of the tire, which was both too heavy and too big for the trash can.]
Eco-related signs are readily displayed at the St Johns Town Center. Irrigation by reclaimed, non-potable water is clearly labeled right at the entrance.
LUSH allows you to refill your water bottles inside the store (and will even provide ice). [Note, there are other environmentally friendly practices inside LUSH, including their knot-wraps for wrapping gifts, which are made from recycled plastic bottles.]
The Town Center also provides free charging for electric cars. There is parking for two electric cars at this charging station. It is not clear if you would be allowed to park there only while charging, but I think it's a great start to making charging stations more accessible. [Most other charging stations I could locate via an internet search were at Nissan dealers and one at an airport parking company. These may or may not be free - it was not specified.]
I have been using a pen made from recycled plastic bottles (
Pilot B2P) this summer. I also regularly use recycled paper notebooks and folders. Several of the reusable bags I have for grocery shopping are from recycled plastic shopping bags.
Things to identify:
I felt like taking a picture of the live oak trees with acorns that grow just off my balcony would be a cop-out, even though I know acorns can be made into a flour. I did find this agave plant in bloom (that 20 ft tall stalk in the middle), and it may be edible, although I have not determined the species, nor do I think my neighbor would appreciate me completely taking his plant.
Taking a short walk, I discovered
wild cucumbers growing over one of the hedges just a few blocks from my apartment complex.
I also found banana plants in the over-grown front yard of a nearby house.
This Smart car was spotted at the St Johns Town Center. [It was not at the charging station, however. Either it did not need to charge, or the owner wanted to be at this end of the mall. The charging station is at the front behind the Jos. A. Banks store (near Cheesecake Factory).]
My environmentally positive site is the
Native plants park in Avondale maintained by
Ixia, the local chapter of Florida Native Plants Society. The site is well maintained and most of the beds are labeled for identification. Native plants are adapted to this climate; therefore, they need less water and up-keep than typical ornamentals. I noticed
passionflower vines growing in several places, which are both beautiful and edible. I would like to try to get the passionflower back on campus somewhere, but need to decide the best location, for it to thrive, for people to appreciate it, and for it to avoid clearing by well-meaning, uninformed people.
Places to go:
I stopped by the
Jacksonville Arboretum to see the changes that have occurred since I moved to the Westside and stopped visiting regularly.
On Saturday, I went to
Riverside Arts Market and made sure to carefully check out the stalls along the farmers market aisle, including
Reed's Groves. I also was able to pick up my favorite vegetable samosa and baklava from
The Bread Company and added mango habanero pepper jelly from
MY Pepper Jelly to my purchases.
Although I could have used some of the produce from Reed Groves for a locally produced item, I choose instead to see what was lurking in the produce aisles of Publix. I found these three juices available, all of which are from Florida grown oranges. I cannot promise that all the oranges were grown within 200 miles, but I do know that I have passed some of
Florida's Natural's processing houses in the Orlando area. Also, Indian River county, the southern portion of the Indian River fruit area, is right at the 200 mile distance.
I also found Mayport shrimp available in the seafood case! Definitely locally produced seafood - I double checked with the fish monger.
Reflective Summary:
One of hardest items for me was the local produced food. I knew I could use the farmers' market for local food, but wanted to look in stores. Everything in Publix is labeled with country of origin, and sometimes state (California being the most common), but even when it would say USA, that did not help me determine a 200 mile limit. The orange juice was a bit of a stretch, but the Mayport shrimp was serendipity. Even at the farmers' market, much of the produce is from elsewhere, as clarified for me by one of the Reeds. So, therefore, you
can use something from your visit to a farmers' market, but be certain to talk with the people there before assuming all the produce is local. I think I want to do a quick "where in the world" project for produce when we get to the agriculture section of class after carefully looking at the produce in Publix for this assignment. I think it will be especially eye-opening to realize the distance many of our regular foods travel before getting to us, even the perishable ones.
Finding an environmentally positive sight was also slightly time consuming for me only because I wanted it to be something clearly "good". Eventually, I settled on the native plants garden that is part of the Jacksonville Parks system. Native plants help support a healthy pollinators population, without which we would not have many of our foods. Native plants are also adapted to their environment, so they neither "take over" nor do they need constant care.
The edible item growing in my neighborhood was relatively easy because I had just taken a weekend class on wild edible plants from
Green Deane. His website contains a wealth of information. I did not know about the wild cucumbers until that class, but already knew about the acorns, agave, and bananas. I would love to have a guest lecture from Green Deane about wild edibles, but don't know about the feasibility of that, since he is located in Orando.
I also wanted to complete this assignment both as an example and for my own reference for difficulty. I began with the pictures at LaVilla on Friday morning. Friday evening I was at the Town Center, stopping by the Arboretum on the way. I had planned to go to
Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park on the Westside, but decided to take advantage of my sojourn in Arlington and the Southside of Jacksonville. Both of these options are free, so only the cost of gas was required. Finally, I was able to finish the entire project, from search, to pictures, to summary, by Sunday evening, or in
3 days. If a student did not begin this "summer assignment" until returning to school and determining from me in class the first day that I really was going to expect and grade it, two weeks (including two weekends) is plenty of time if motivated.
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