Erin Taylor Peterson

Salt Lake Community College

Civic Engagement project

HUMA 1010

How Do We See The World

For the Civic Engagement activity I chose to do an earth day project. I had

contacted a few schools in my area and got in touch with a private school called

Dancing Moose Montessori School. These guys did a project over the weekend

including all families who wanted to join and the community around the school. We went

to a park right next to the school where they had set up a bunch of different stations.

Everything they got was donated to the school for this project. There was a station

planting flowers around the trees, a station talking to kids about recycling and playing a

relay race, a station making seed bombs and a station talking about the water cycle and

how to take care of our earth. I was placed in at the station making seed bombs. This

activity lasted from 11am to 3pm. I talked to family about what a seed bomb was and

showed them how to make it. As a group we helped make lots of seed bombs for

families to take home to plant. The seeds bombs had wildflowers for bees and

hummingbirds, they also had lots of flowers with bright colors. The children loved this

activity because after we had torn up newspaper and placed it in the water, it sort of

turned to mush. The kids enjoyed squishing it and rolling the much into little balls For

most of this activity I talked to individual families about what to do and I provided each

family with the materials they needed.

 For this course I originally chose why we fight, But my original plan fell through

and I picked a new theme called How do we see the world and What do we know. As I

was reading through some of the text and watching the videos for this module, the

quote stuck out to me “ We learn from our parents, peers,family,media, religion, film,

music and the country we resign. We all are influenced by those around us.” (What do

we know) What better way to be an example for our future generation than to show

them how we can take care of yourself, others and the world we live in. We all try to

become better human being but think about how much paper is used a day, think about

how much electricity is used a day, also think about the last time was when you had

helped someone with their yard or even helped your own yard. I know his is tricky in the

middle of winter, but think about all the plastic bags used when you go to get food. I

wanted to tie these two things in because we don’t ask ourselves many questions

anymore because we are always having siri or google answer them for us. It is always

best to ask more questions than answers. When we do chose to better our world and

others me need to make sure we ask ourselves why because “To be, or not to be” (

William Shakespeare) is the main question and only you can tell yourself what to do.

I felt as though I did participate in a small group, I hope I made a difference in

lives. I hope that what I did bettered our world and I know it bettered me. I hope it made

it so I was promoting freedom in a way. In a way that kids are learning to become part of

a community. In a way that the parks near the school are clean and beautiful for those

who visit and for the animals who live there. I felt I have been given the chance to

become better and wish to help more with things like this. This is an activity that has
promoted my freedom because I was able to build the community up and help what is

around me. It has helped promote freedom for those who live nearby because they are

able to enjoy a park that can be used for families, and school and other related activities

such as soccer games and volleyball. Many people take parks for granted and I think it

is a wonderful place where you can explore and be who you want to be. It gives people

the space to grow as everything around them grows as well.

I loved the experience I was given because it taught me to be a leader, it taught

me to enjoy the little things. Obviously I knew these thing in the past but it gave me

more of what I needed at the time. Helping and giving service is one of the best gifts

that can be given and received. I understand this was just a small park experience but it

puts me on the path to becoming more and helping more. I would most definitely want

to do this again and possibly with a larger group. I would love to do this again and

maybe be more apart of the planning process because seeing how happy everybody

was there made me happy. It helped the park out a ton and yes it was a lot of hard work

with lots of busy bodies but to think about it, we all came together as a community to

better what we wanted to be fixed. This was an amazing experience to I hope continues

in the future.
 Reference

What do we know, SLCC HUMA 1010

https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/510129/pages/what-do-we-know?module_item_id=
8711455

William Shakespeare,
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/hamlet-act-iii-scene-i-be-or-not-be