Mothers & Others For Clean Air's mission is to protect children’s health by reducing the impactsof air pollution and climate change throughout the Southeast. As their research intern, I have been developing an online webtool helping regular people identify sources of indoor airpollution. Did you know that nonstick pans can release chemicals called PFOAs, known to cause cancer in most animals? The Healthy Indoor Breathing Toolkit teaches this and more. I will speak about my experience assembling the tool’s research and how I tested my final product by traveling to local stores and seeing if I could shop smarter.

Urban Heat Islands are built environments that retain heat and lack green spaces which absorb heat, causing cooler temperatures. According to Jenerette et al. (2011), there is a correlation between lower income and lack of greenspaces in the neighborhood, segregating those with lower financial power. An example of this is the 1995 heatwave in Chicago that killed 700 people, often elderly or lower income residents. Developing and maintaining edible forests will help cool the neighborhood and help feed the community with locally grown nutritious food in areas of food insecurity. Partnerships with local farmers, volunteers, community members, and municipalities should be explored.

Kindergarten through grade twelve programs need to have more nature based recreation programs in their daily lesson plans. This would encourage kids to take control of their own relationship with nature. It could also encourage kids to choose different career paths that they would like to do. I think using recess time to goon nature hikes or doing nature therapy techniques would be more beneficial than doing sport games or playground activities. This would also be more sanitary and adhere to COVID-19 recommended guidelines. They could be masked, distanced and have a more educational experience while still having fun.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, human experiences in nature became increasingly prevalent. Studies have concluded that these experiences and encounters with nature have had a significant benefit on human health both physically and psychologically. One study conducted on the use of greenspace during lockdown found “...consistent positive associations between frequency of greenspace use and the five measures of mental health outcomes” (Soga et al., 2020). We aim to analyze the findings of other research studies in an attempt to fully describe the total benefits of nature within the context of current pandemic life, including Covid-related compliance.

What are the ecological and cultural connections between squash bees, African American, and Native American food cultures? Two subfamilies (Peponapis and Xenoglossa) were identified as bees of interest because their host plants (Cucurbita) could be connected to food cultures. Cucurbita was found to be a common host squash species found throughout North and South America. Searches in academic literature databases connected cultural and ecological knowledge to agricultural history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Skilled slave labor and products were not the only trading goods; various plants were transplanted during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.Throughout history squash became more integrated in food culture as seen throughout a series of cookbooks created by Native and African American people. Phylogenetic history of squash bees and Cucurbita connects both groups to species in Africa with divergence events caused by dispersal into milder climates. This research connects squash bees to food cultures, and the possible consequences that today’s environmental conditions have on cultural food systems.