2014-2015

The Earth day celebration is a popular annual gathering at the University of Washington. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the event. On April 22nd, 2015 the event was put on by UW’s student run Earth Club and assisted by the UW sustainability staff. The goal of the organizers is to bring as many people together as they can to talk about our planet and sustainability. This year the celebration was located in Red Square in the center of campus.

The Prairie Rain Garden is a student run project located near the botanic gardens on the north-east corner of campus. The students involved are trying to improve the ecosystem of a small plot of land by removing invasive species, improving the topography and planting a healthy native plant garden. The garden’s location is just uphill of a trail which is frequently flooded during the rainy season and becomes extremely muddy and impassable. The Prairie Garden is designed to capture some of the rainfall, filter the water and drain it to prevent runoff flowing onto the path.  

Doctoral Canidate Julie Kriegh is local architect and a graduate from the University of Washington. She works towards environmental health and sustainability across the Northwest. Her specialty is in the design of sustainable buildings that fit LEED certifications (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) She has organized a panel which included multiple other experts in their fields. The speakers come from a broad range of academia and origins.  Dr. Manzo is an associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington.

The UW night market is an annual event, which is put on by the Taiwanese Student Association (TSA). The night market brings up to 20 vendors to red square to promote Taiwanese culture. Vendors sell a wide variety of cultural foods as well as running games and activities for market goers to participate in. There are also free musical performances put on by the TSA. 

The Construction Materials Laboratory at More Hall is an instruction laboratory where undergraduate students of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the College of Built Environments (CBE) study different construction materials and gain hands-on experience with mixing portland cement concrete. In order to achieve the desired strength and durability of the concrete, the concrete structures are cured in a fog room adjacent to the CML.

The proposed project's goal is to create an education program for elementary school children to tour the Farm and learn about sustainable agriculture and healthy food choices.  The proposed project requests funding for two main components: 1) the creation of a physical space on the Farm where children can explore and garden and 2) the acquisition of educational materials and supplies needed to run an educational outreach program that provides rigorous, curriculum-driven field trips with engaging and interactive educational activities.

Our project, HydraPower, is a new, innovate technology that produces clean, alternative energy. HydraPower functions by capturing and generating energy from light, specifically infrared (IR) light. The device collects energy from ambient IR light, which is ubiquitously present at all times of day. Therefore, it provides stable power at all times of day without needing additional power supplied by rechargeable batteries. The ability to generate constant, stable power is a stark improvement from solar photovoltaic technologies, which are limited by sunlight.

The Kincaid Ravine Bioswale Hydrological Assessment seeks to conduct a feasibility and assessment study on potential hydrologic modifications and designs for a bioswale in Kincaid Ravine will not only help address the issue of flooding on the Burke-Gilman Trail at the edge of Kincaid Ravine, but will also add to the ongoing efforts to restore the ecological functions and habitat of the previously underutilized and ecologically degraded four acre open space located in the northeast corner of campus.

While many RSOs focus their events on a single topic or target a specific major, ReThink’s goal is to reach as wide of an audience as possible, and we are seeking funding for an event that will do just that. We are requesting $1726 to host a “Resilience Challenge” which will implore participants to consider and engage with real-world problems surrounding predominantly business and the environment.

The University of Washington’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery was established at the Center for Urban Horticulture in the spring of 2013. The SER-UW nursery maintains an inventory of 1000-1500 containerized plants native to the Puget Sound and used in planting efforts at two CSF funded restoration sites: Whitman Walk and Kincaid Ravine.  The nursery also delivers educational benefits to students studying horticulture and ecological restoration at UW by providing experiential learning through volunteer activities.