KCAU 9

Storm Drain Decoration in My Painting I Class!

Timed for Earth Day and in collaboration with the Sioux City Environmental Advisory Board and the Morningside Sustainability Committee, my ART 225 Painting I class took on an extra-credit project to decorate two campus storm drains with goals of raising awareness (what goes into the storm drains comes right back out again without mediation into a local creek that feeds into Bacon Creek which feeds into the Missouri River) and beautification.

The first storm drain we painted on Earth Day itself, and there was a bunch of press interested in documenting it! We had crews from Morningside’s Marketing Department, the city of Sioux City, local ABC News affiliate KCAU 9, and the Sioux City Journal documenting our work, which was pretty fun.

Here’s a group photo of the completed piece, which is directly in front of the Morningside community gardens! The paint we used will hopefully hold up for a while, but when it eventually flakes off, it is biodegradable and should not contribute to the problem of storm drain pollution.

Me and my ART 225 Painting I students who worked on the Morningside Community Garden storm drain site!

A second group of ART 225 Painting I students and I painted a second site which is located across from our new agricultural greenhouse the following Tuesday. The weather was colder than we’d have liked, but we persevered! Note that some chalk blueprints are still visible in the photo but will be rinsed away with the next rain.

Me and my ART 225 Painting I students who worked on the new agricultural greenhouse storm drain site, minus one who had to leave a bit early.

Birdwatching!

A still from the video - I’m the birdwatcher in the striped shirt!

A still from the video - I’m the birdwatcher in the striped shirt!

I love spending time outdoors, and I enjoy opportunities to do so while learning, exercising, and having new experiences. On the first day of spring this year - March 20th - I joined some friends in a birding hike at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center in Stone State Park. To our surprise, part of the way through a cameraman appeared to document the event for the local news!

In this ABC television affiliate KCAU 9 video clip, you’ll hear about what we were up to but also get a glimpse of me on the trail - I’m the birdwatcher in the striped shirt, black face mask, maroon hat, and grey backpack. On this hike, I learned how to focus binoculars and became a little more familiar with some of the more common birds in the region: the white-breasted nuthatch, the red-bellied woodpecker, and the downy and hairy woodpeckers (they look very similar but have different beak lengths). We also saw a couple of bald eagles and turkeys, though I had already been able to identify those!