Author: rmuslim1

Wrapping Up

by rmuslim1

My work with the Dunwoody Nature Center has been an enlightening experience overall. I mainly helped them prepare for their programs in terms of organization. I also helped during field trips and the Fairytale Forest Festival. The most satisfying experience was removing knots from bird houses in preparation for the festival. Holly wanted the bird houses to look more like fairy houses, so she also widened their doors with a small saw.

The most shocking experience was witnessing the behavior of five-year-olds during a recent field trip. While I know that kids fight each other for no particular reason, I was still shocked when they did so during one of our field trips. This was a filed trip for kids around five years of age (basically, babies). There was an indoors component where the kids colored cut-outs of snakes and played with toys. The outdoors portion was more or less a hike because there was no educational component, it was full of site-seeing and playing “The Floor is Lava”. I was not interested in playing “The Floor is Lava”, but the kids kept yelling at me out of concern that I was standing in lava, so I started to play along. At some point we made it to the Tarzan swing that had a platform on either side. The kids stood in line waiting for their turns, but one kid skipped line which caused a fight to break out and the kids started pushing each other. This made me nervous because anyone could have fallen off the platform and gotten extremely hurt. The teacher did not seem phased with their behavior. Besides that incident, I witnessed the kids bullying each other and one even got bitten. It is important to state that all the kids were sweet, even the ones that were fighting. Out of the thirteen kids, only two caused trouble, and one of them had just turned five.

I do believe that I played a part on furthering Dunwoody Nature Center’s mission. Not only did I help prepare for programs, I also gave Holly feedback on how to improve them next year. I also believe that the final project will be useful to the organization because they can use our product to enhance their advertisements.

Dunwoody Nature Center and Environmental Education

by rmuslim1

The Dunwoody Nature Center focuses on educating the public about nature and encouraging environmental stewardship. On my first volunteer day, I was told to follow a group of students on their school field trip. At first, I was disappointed by this because I thought it would be boring. I imagined that school field trips were not that insightful for kids or adults, nonetheless. Claire, a volunteer from a high school, seemed excited at this prospect. Her enthusiasm about the field trip made me wonder if it would be worth it after all.

Contrary to my preconceived notions, school field trips are fun and educational. The field trip was split up into an indoor portion, where the kids were introduced to animal furs, an owl’s wing, and a live snake to learn about animal groups, and an outdoor portion where the kids were shown a live toad and tadpoles and learned about watersheds. It was interesting to see how easily they got excited about the live animals. When the instructor showed them the tadpoles and toad, they huddled around him in awe. The funniest thing about the experience was their reaction to the animal furs and the owl wing because the kids were concerned that the instructor had just stolen the fur and wing from the animals to teach the course. At some point the instructor had to clarify that “no animals were harmed in the making of this program”.

That field trip is a highlight of my experience with Dunwoody Nature Center. I thought it was nice that the kids were learning about watersheds because I only recently learned about them in another seminar. The Dunwoody Nature Center has a variety of programs that enable children and adults to interact with nature. Through these programs they promote environmental awareness and stewardship. Recently we have been preparing for the Fairytale Forest Festival which takes place this weekend. As the name suggests, this festival incorporates interactions with nature and fairytales.

I am developing my project with Dua. Our experience with the Dunwoody Nature Center has inspired us to create a product that focuses on environmental education. Some ideas that we have discussed so far include infographics, a website, and a survey. I recently spoke with Dr. Finck about developing a short survey for festival attendees for feedback on the educational aspect of the festival. We might also make a broader survey that addresses environmental education in general. This one will be longer and target individuals at 40 years and under.

 

Introduction: Raihaanah Bint Abdullah Muslim

by rmuslim1

Hello everyone!

I’m Raihaanah, a senior biology major and a research assistant here at GSU. I became interested in research after completing my associate’s and transferring to the downtown campus. I was initially interested in cancer research, but I was paired with a principal investigator in the neuroscience institute and became fascinated with neurodegenerative diseases. I hope to graduate this semester and enroll in graduate school within a year. I’m both excited and nervous about graduating because I’m taking a gap year.

This semester is interesting to say the least. I’ve never been in a service learning course before, but I have volunteered through GSU and other organizations. This class is nice because I get course credit for volunteering.

I’m excited to share that I’ve been partnered with the Dunwoody Nature Center! I’m super eager to learn about their programs and help them run them. The Dunwoody Nature Center focuses on conservation and has many educational programs that inspire the community to be stewards of the natural world. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing there. Based on their survey responses and emails with Holly, I think I’ll help them run their educational programs, gardening, animal care, social media posts, and organizing materials.

The Dunwoody Nature Center is approximately 30 minutes from my house, which isn’t bad. It’s a little inconvenient because it’s in the opposite direction of campus, so I may not be able to make it to lab on my volunteer days. The most concerning thing is that I won’t be able to start volunteering until the week of March 11th, so I’m not sure how I’ll satisfy all the required hours or come up with a project proposal before the GSURC abstract deadline passes. Nonetheless, this is an exciting experience and I hope it’ll be a highlight of my undergraduate career!