Building Better Neighborhoods hosted a booth at this year’s Be My Neighbor Day on June 10th, asking families to paint a rock and then choose where in the community they want it placed. These “Kindness Rocks” with their little pops of color and inspirational quotes are meant to brighten the day of those who find them. You can see these bright additions at Heekin Park’s Memory Spiral, Canon Commons, various MITS bus stops, the Cardinal Greenway Trailhead, Minnetrista’s Children’s Garden, and Westside Park.
In this project Advanced Spanish students collaborated with elementary schools to promote their dual language immersion (DLI) programs. Students explored the state of bilingualism in the U.S. and the benefits of programs like these to enable students in developing proficiency in both Spanish and English, strengthening academic learning and achievement, and cultivating intercultural sensitivity. The final community products included ten-week virtual reading/mentoring sessions in Spanish for 2nd graders, design and production of promotional materials to promote the benefits of dual language immersion programs, and Spanish translations of several procedure and policy documents for DLI programs to make more materials accessible to Spanish-speaking families. Blog Post | Digital Showcase
Spring 2021 Semester
Faculty Mentor: Chin-Sook Pak Department: Spanish Community Partner: Muncie Community Schools Students: Dani Allen, Rachel Armstrong, Madeline Backs, Jazmin Castillo-Soto, Bethany Elmore, Rebekah Hoffer, Amanda Huynh, Denise Jacquez, Jacob Newlin, Elizabeth Rieth, María Sanchez Cisneros, Darla Thomas, Peyton Thompson, Carl Torrence, Amy Wyse & Jerome Zirnheld
Fall 2020 Semester
Faculty Mentor: Chin-Sook Pak Department: Spanish Community Partners: Muncie Community Schools, West View Elementary Students: Rachel Armstrong, Bethany Elmore, Bailey Fields, Joely Gause, Rebekah Hoffer, Denise Jacquez, Jordan Kasuboski, Cecilia Lambertson, Alexandra Martin, Justin Persinger, Maddie Ramsell, Elizabeth Rieth, Abigail Shaw, Grant Sturgis, Darla Thomas, Peyton Thompson, Jerome Zirnheld, Jenni Cruz, Edgar de Santiago, Karina de Santiago, Rosa Gonzalez, Stephanie Gutierrez, Hannah Hyde, Denise Jacquez, Lauren Lara, Diana Martinez, Daisy Mendoza, Alina Murrugarra, Ashley Navarro Rodriguez, Blanca Ortiz, Yatzari Perez-Muñoz, María Sanchez Cisneros & Isabelle Wright
Students in PLAN 203: Regional Analysis and Design, conducted solar potential analysis for brownfields in Muncie. They applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to study the ownership of the brownfields, current land use and zoning ordinances, preexisting conditions, and then analyzed solar PV potentials using a publicly available PV watts tool developed by the US Department of Energy.
The project focused primarily on the reuse of brownfields for solar PV installation. Brownfields are previously developed land that former use, like the potential presence of hazardous substances, makes reuse complicated. PLAN 203 students identified six brownfield sites in Muncie for potential solar PV installation. Together with brownfields, students also analyzed the solar PV potentials for city-owned facilities including fire stations and Muncie Sanitary District facilities. Two fire stations and two of Muncie Sanitary District’s water treatment facility sites were selected.
Faculty Mentor: Sanglim Yoo
Department: Urban Planning Community Partner: Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter Students: Adam Coleson, Lauren Doppke, Michael Grossniklaus, Elise Jones, Kaelyn Leach, Enzo Lundy, Mattew Pytel, Kaylie Slate, Eric Snowden, and Christian Terrell
The goal of this project was to map the quality-of-life for Muncie neighborhoods, and specifically to map the living quality for the Anthony-Northside neighborhood using GIS and remote sensing techniques. Four general categories of living quality indicators were evaluated for each house in the neighborhood and fifteen maps were created in this project: one map for Home Insulation; two maps for Home value and Lot size; one map for Lot Greenness, ten maps for its adjacency to community amenities, and one Overall Living Quality Index map.
Home Insulation for each house was evaluated from a thermal infrared image collected by students using a FLIR One thermal camera. Home value and lot size were obtained from Zillow.com. Lot Greenness was assessed based the greenness percentage in each lot, which was derived from the USA NAIP NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) imagery. Proximity to community amenities including Clinics, Schools, Libraries, Restaurants, USPS Mailboxes, Bus Stops, Parks, Bike Trails, Recreations, and Fire Stations were analyzed using Network Analysis in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online. The values of all indicators were scaled to categories of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest living quality and 5 being the highest. The Overall Living Quality Index was obtained by averaging all fourteen living quality indicators.
In the Spring 2020 Semester, the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry hosted an amazing program allowing students with the BSU English Department in partnership with the Muncie Arts and Culture Council to explore the “makers” movement becoming increasingly popular in our cities. The investigation covered some of the cool makerspaces here in Muncie and culminated in a large enough collection of stories and data for 2 print books – a compilation of oral histories and a collection of photo essays featuring stories of Muncie makers. Learn more at the website for the project on the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry’s site, and check out these other awesome resources!
Faculty Mentor: Laura Romano Department: English Community Partner: Muncie Arts and Culture Council Student Team: Stressca Nathaniel, Tamera Sims, Jack Satter, Elizabeth Baum, Mason Killebrew, Jessica Snow, Andrew (Drew) Catalano, Halie Wills, Sarah Morrow, Laura Romano, Darrin Sims, Elizabeth Riester, Hannah (Cali) Fehr
