Hey, everyone. Unfortunately, this week I do not have any major updates. The previous week, Kayla and I discovered that the director, Denise, was sick, so we could only take measurements from the weather station. Also, this week I could not go to the preserve due to conflicting obligations, so I have no personal updates. However, Kayla told me that she once again recorded measurements from the weather stations. Even though these past two weeks have not been ideal in terms of what we were able to do, I am looking forward to our remaining time with Blue Heron Nature Preserve and creating our presentation, which will include our i-Tree Canopy survey, weather station results, and what these results could mean for protection against climate change.
Author: kmelton6
Blog Post #5
Hello, everyone on the blog post. Since this is my first post, I will introduce myself. My name is Kaden Melton and I was partnered with the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, along with Kayla. For the past couple of weeks, our main objective has been completing a weather station for the preserve. As part of our community project, we built a wooden weather station that would measure various aspects of the environment, such as rain level, humidity, temperature, and CO2, in two different ecosystems, allowing us to compare them to each other and their potential effect against climate change.
To build this weather station, we went through various phases. The first and easiest phase was planning the design and layout of the station. We completed this in under 20 minutes and decided that we would make a station with a front-facing sign and a shelf on top to hold some of the measuring instruments. The face of the sign would also contain descriptions of the purpose of the various instruments attached to the station, as well as both the GSU and Blue Heron Nature Preserve logos. The second phase of the project was to build it. I was responsible for actually assembling the structure, so I went stumbling around Home Depot trying to find the right type of wood and screws to buy. After getting the proper materials, I went home and assembled the structure. After finishing the structure, I gave it to Kayla to paint the sign, including writing the descriptions and painting the logos. Once the signs were finished, we returned to our partner next week to put the stakes on the station and put them in the ground, but we ran into difficulties.
We didn’t have the proper tools to drill the screws into the stakes, resulting in the screws getting excessively hot and starting to smoke, eventually leading to the drill dying on us completely. Since we could not finish the signs that day, I took the signs and the stakes home and finished them over the weekend. We came back the following week, aka this week, and we were able to successfully install the stations in the ground and take our first measurements. After all the time we invested into the stations, finally being able to successfully install them was an extremely satisfying feeling, and I’m excited to begin the other half of our project.
Introduction: Kaden Melton
My name is Kaden Melton and I’m a sophomore majoring in finance. I selected this course because I enjoy doing volunteer service and wanted to be more involved, so I thought taking a class designed to do volunteer service was an ideal situation for me. So far in the class, I have become a lot more aware of the impacts of pollution outside of its negative impacts on the planet. I learned that the damage done to the environment is a lot more intertwined with the harm done to other people who live alongside the impacted natural spaces than I originally considered. The harm inflicted on these individuals can last longer than the individuals originally impacted, and health impairments can become hereditary traits passed down for generations, even if the future generations are far removed from the polluted environment in which their parent or grandparent originally inhabited.
After reading the different literature this semester, I am even more excited to begin my volunteer work. The organization that I’ve been assigned to work with is the Blue Heron Nature Preserve. The Blue Heron Nature Preserve is an organization that is dedicated to maintaining the 30 acres of natural habitat under their care, which includes meadows, woodlands, wetlands, riparian, and all the organisms involved in the ecosystem. I was interested in joining this organization because their efforts concentrate on physically interacting with nature and the land and that is an aspect of volunteer work that I highly value. I want to be in intimate contact with the community that I’m serving, essentially I want to get my hands dirty. Through this volunteer experience, I’m hoping to get a better understanding of the different ecosystems at the preserve and walk away with a more profound appreciation for nature and all that it has to offer and experience.