University of Puerto Rico at Ponce

English Department

Date: May 17th, 2021

To: Professor Pier A. Le Compte Zambrana
From: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles, Alberto C. Pagán, María J. Paz Ruiz, Daniela
Quiles Méndez, and Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual
Subject: Progress Report about our contribution to “Huerto Atabey”,
“Productos Montemar”, and the creation of a home garden.

Introduction

The elaboration of this group work consisted of making a progress report that details
each one of the particular activities that each member of this team carried out. First, a
summary will be presented that aims to show the strategies that were considered to
assertively accomplish this work. In fact, it is the project background, work planned and work
completed sections that have the objective of precisely explaining the logistics that was
finally implemented to meet all the criteria and requirements of this work. Then, we will be
presenting the goals and limitations that we were able to identify as a group while we were
completing our tasks; this in order to present a general panorama of the expectations
proposed to be fulfilled in this project, and to highlight the limiting factors that influenced the
execution of our work. Subsequently, a future projection is presented that attempts to
establish an idea of the importance of continuing with this type of pro-environmental
activities. The summary concludes with the purpose of presenting the general details that,
below, will be precisely explained and justified with appendices that present evidence on:
service log, minutes, images of the completed work and finally the individual reflections of
each member of this group. Without any more preamble, we present the report that shows the
progress of this agroecological work.

Project Background

The Technical Writing course (ENGL 4021) is a prerequisite course for all
undergraduate students from the Biology Department in the University of Puerto Rico at
Ponce. In this course, the students learned the essential technical writing techniques and the
different formats to be used when writing a technical document. As part of the requirements
of this course offered by professor Pier A. Le Compte, students must complete a minimum of
four hours of community service at an agroecological farm or create a home garden during

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the semester, as well as writing a progress report that contains a correct application of the
technical skills learned during the semester to make our experience known. Therefore,
Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles, María J. Paz Ruiz, and Daniela Quiles Méndez attended “Huerto
Atabey” at the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce. Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual visited
“Products Montemar” and Alberto C. Pagán created an at home garden.

Work Planned

During the semester these were the activities performed to complete the project,
which was carried out from January to May 2021.

April-May: All the members completed the minimum service hours.

May 6th : A Google Drive document was created to gather all the documents.
May 15th: The document was revised and all the errors were corrected.
May 17th: Submission of the final project.

Work Completed

The students of the group #3 participated in some tasks that were arranged to
complete the goals on each farm or at the home garden. To accomplish these goals we did the
following tasks:

I. Planting
A. María J. Paz Ruiz and Daniela Quiles Méndez planted sweet pepper and Dahlia
flowers at “Huerto Atabey”.
B. Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles replanted the plants in the tires, that way the students
could take them home for the summer.
C. Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual planted palms trees at “Productos Montemar” farm.
D. Alberto C. Pagán planted bean seeds in his home orchard.

II. Maintenance
A. Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles watered all the plants at “Huerto Atabey”.
B. Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles cleaned the garden with a rake and removed all the weeds.
C. Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual removed the weeds at “Productos Montemar” farm.
D. María J. Paz Ruiz cleaned out the old soil from a tire to use as a new planter.

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E. Daniela Quiles Méndez used a hoe to create a space for a new tire planter.
F. Alberto C. Pagán watered his crops twice for thirty days.

Goals

By going to the Atabey Garden, “Productos Marimar” and creating a home garden,
our goal was to promote the importance of agriculture as an irreplaceable part of society. In
addition to that, we want to emphasize that it is not necessary to have a lot of materials or
have extreme skills to be able to do our part and help to continue developing agriculture.

Limitations

The main limitation for this project was COVID-19. Due to the pandemic the time
that the students could spend at “Huerto Atabey” was very limited. Also, there was a limit of
students that could go in one day, making it very difficult to attend the orchard. Another
limitation is that the farms are very far away and the students most of the time faced
transportation issues.

Future Projections

This experience has fulfilled its objective of impacting on the importance of

promoting agricultural habits, at the level of recognizing that these learned skills must be
perfected, in order to be able to extrapolate and apply them even in the garden of our home.
In this way, instead of making a progress report, the idea would be to be part of the progress
by contributing with actions that promote agricultural activities. It would even be an objective
to find a way to involve more members with precisely this type of environmental projects, by
guiding in order to educate on the importance of retaking these practices that are sorely
lacking in Puerto Rico, as in other countries in the world that have a consumer economy
rather than a production one.

Conclusion

The purpose of this progress report was to document the work done by the members
of this group regarding the community service hours required for it. Of the five members,
three went to Atabey Garden at the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, one made his own
vegetable patch, and one went to the “Productos Montemar” farm. The work period was from

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April to May, and the tasks performed included planting/plowing, garden cleaning, weeding,
watering, sowing, composting, seedling creation and chopping. Engaging in these activities
provided insight about the importance of agriculture and the benefits that are obtained by
practicing it. The members helped with the development of the “Coalición Estudiantil
Pro-Agricultura” (CEPA) and “Productos Montemar” projects. Each project is currently
under development, looking to positively impact this vital part of society and its economic
and environmental growth.

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Appendix A
Service Log of the group members: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles, Alberto C. Pagán, María J. Paz
Ruiz, Daniela Quiles Méndez, and Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual

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Appendix B
Minutes of the group meetings.

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Appendix C

Photos of the members: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles, Alberto C. Pagán, María J. Paz
Ruiz, Daniela Quiles Méndez, and Rosenid K. Quiñones working in the orchards.

Figure 1: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles refilling the water bottles of the tree at “Huerto Atabey”.
Yarimar Aponte López took the photo.

Figure 2: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles cleaning and watering the pumpkin plant.
Yarimar Aponte López took the photo.

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Figure 3: Mariliz M. Oliveras Febles raking the leaves at “Huerto Atabey”.

Yarimar Aponte López took the photo.

Figure 4: Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual planting palms trees at “Productos Montemar” farm.
Gabriel O. Olivero Mangual took the photo.

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Figure 5: Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual removing weeds at “Productos Montemar” farm.

Gabriel O. Olivero Mangual took the photo.

Figure 6: Rosenid K. Quiñones Mangual sifting compost at “Productos Montemar” farm.

Gabriel O. Olivero Mangual took the photo.

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Figure 7: Daniela Quiles Méndez pouring soil into a pot to plant sweet pepper seeds at
“Huerto Atabey”.
María José Paz Ruiz took the photo.

Figure 8: Daniela Quiles Méndez using a hoe to create a space for a new tire planter.
María José Paz Ruiz took the photo.

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Figure 9: María J. Paz Ruiz planting Dahlia flower seeds at “Huerto Atabey”.
Daniela Quiles Méndez took the photo.

Figure 10: María J. Paz Ruiz cleaning out the old soil from a tire to use as a new planter.
Daniela Quiles Méndez took the photo.

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Figure 11: María J. Paz Ruiz (left) and Daniela Quiles Méndez (right) chopping yuca
harvested in the vegetable patch.
Professor Pier A. LeCompte Zambrana took the photo.

Figure 12 - 13: The left shows the selection of bean seeds for cultivation, while the right
shows the result of having wrapped the seeds in a paper towel and sprinkling them with water
to facilitate their hatching.
Alberto Pagán took the photo.

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Figure 14 - 15: On the left, seeds are shown hatched after six days providing water once a
day; on the right, it is shown that the hatched seed was grown in 10 plastic containers with
soil: 5 of the containers had openings at the base and 5 containers had no opening at the base.
Alberto Pagán took the photo.

Figure 16 - 17: On the left, the germination of the crop is shown after 5 days of having
grown and every day water was poured into it twice; while the right shows the germination of
the seeds after 10 days.
Alberto Pagán took the photo.

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Figure 18 - 19: On the left, the germination of the crop is shown after 15 days of having
grown it; while the right shows the germination of the seeds after 20 days.
Alberto Pagán took the photo.

Figure 20 - 21: Both images show different results at 30 days: on the left, the crops already
transferred to the plot of land in my home garden are shown, while on the right, the 5
containers that lacked openings at the base are shown with the withered crops.
Alberto Pagán took the photo

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Appendix D
Self-Reflection of the project

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