SEEDS » Component Programs » Chapters » Chapter Directory » University of Michigan
"SEEDS" » Ann Arbor, Michigan
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SEEDS at University of Michigan strives to share our passion for ecological sciences with people who have traditionally limited opportunity in and exposure to ecology. We aim to foster sustainability by enhancing ecological literacy, particularly among youth in local communities of color. With our proximity to the Detroit metropolitan area, we hope to develop a persistent feedback of community pride in place and engender broader perspectives in the field of ecology. |
Plans for 2008-2009
- We will continue to have an office in the student union and will hold office hours open for advice about classes/tutoring and mentoring. We will have resources available in the office about ecology programs and student can also come to find out how to get involved in SEEDS
- We will continue to be a part of the inter-group council for environmental groups and work together with other campus groups in planning events and joint activities. Be involved with making Earth Week on campus even larger than this year, and to help out with the Sustainability fair as well.
- We would like to team up with some local high schools for a mentoring program, or to teach lessons about ecology. One idea was to partner with the Sierra Club in Detroit to help get an outdoors teaching facility in the city to get kids outside and learning about the natural environment.
- We will volunteer again at Earth Works Gardens in Detroit.
- We also want to take more field trips/nature walks with expert naturalists. This excursions will be open to students outside of SEEDS help get them interested in ecology.
- This year we planned a field trip to Chicago to visit their botanical gardens and the natural history museum. We had everything arranged to have a tour and learn about the research going on at the museum, but the due to a family emergency, our driver could not go. We are going to reschedule this trip for next fall.
Activities of 2007-2008
- Meetings
- Bi-Weekly Meetings: Every other Tuesdays from 6-7pm open to all members and Guests invited once in a while. Second semester we had fewer meetings as members were involved in Earth Week activities.
- Board Meetings: a few throughout the semester to help plan and organize for our general meetings and for funding and other paperwork
- Mass Meetings: one at the beginning of each semester to get more people involved. Gave out free organic pizza and presented a power point about what our group is and what we do.
- We also participated in Festifall and Winterfest which are fairs for student groups on campus to promote their group and recruit new members.
- Field Trips
- The George Research Reserve. A group of students went out to this university research site and got a tour of the facility by faculty members and helped with an experiment that graduate students were working on. We also got to take a hike around and lean about the natural history of the place and research opportunities in ecology.
- Earth Works Gardens in Detroit which is a large urban garden that involves local children with activities that teach them about gardening and where their food comes from. All of the food goes to a soup kitchen that is part of the facility. http://www.earth-works.org/ This event was directly after our mass meeting and was the kick off the year for new members.
- Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition Conference at Michigan State University. The Theme was environmental Justice and about 200 students from 15 different Michigan colleges got together to talk about Environmental Justice in Michigan, and engage with experts that were invited coming from the non-profit sector, student and community activists, scientists, engineers, and more. http://www.dosomething.org/node/32138
- Powershift in Washington D.C. This was the largest gathering of youth focused on climate change. SEEDS members bused down to DC with about 300 other students from Michigan and talked about climate change in the US and what we can do about it. The weekend ended in a rally at the capital for better policies to deal with climate change. http://powershift07.org/
- Community/Campus Outreach
- Fresh Food Panel. We partnered with the Detroit project to put on a speaker panel about fresh food issues in urban cities, especially in Detroit. We explored issues of urban gardens, poverty, brown fields and toxic wastes, lack of grocery stores, and related health problem. Our panelists stressed the importance of buying local and organic. We also gave out fresh organic, and local apples that were donated.
- Canvas bag painting. We painted bags with nature designs and sold them to raise funds. We also wanted to help promote living more sustainably using reusable shopping bags.
- We hosted screenings of the Planet Earth series with snacks.
- Focus the Nation. We helped to organize Focus the Nation events including a Sustainability Fair at the Michigan Union www.focusthenation.org
- Earth Week in March. We helped to organize this with other environmental groups on campus. We planted seeds and handed out the seedlings on the diag during this week. We also helped to fund the Hands on the Planet service day where students went to different sites to volunteer.
Faculty Advisors
- Ivette Perfecto
- Robyn Burnham
