Spotlight

By Jaliliah Williams There’s a lot to be said about the beauty of the forest. The way everything seems to fit in place and flow within everything else. Nature is serene and peacefully quiet. It was effortlessly graceful, effortlessly beautiful. It seems as though every love song and poem revolves around the juxtaposition of beauty […]

Over time we’ve lost our connection to the outdoors. One of the reasons is our advancement in technology and living in a more industrial world. Urban environments are full of noises that are constant, annoying and many times affect our hearing and health. Noise pollution is something we hardly hear or think about and it’s […]

WBC and Makeda Cheatom present Dragon Fruit Cacti music Sit, take a breath and relax. For 2 years WorldBeat Center has been researching the healing effects of sound particularly through plant music. Our research is part of the NOISE Project, a national community science project on the effects of noise pollution funded by the National […]

By Owen Sullivan For the past few weeks, members of the NOISE Project have been coding responses from interviews that were conducted over the summer. During the coding process, we scan interview  answers for their main ideas, and then assign them words or phrases that capture these main themes. These words and phrases are called […]

It is critically important for minoritized communities co-lead science projects. Communities are strong! Communities are made of people who care about the wellbeing of their community and who know what’s best for them. Communities historically excluded from the sciences are more than capable of engaging in science, if institutions create a more equitable and inclusive […]

By Owen Sullivan For the past few weeks, members of the NOISE Project have been coding responses from interviews that were conducted over the summer. During the coding process, we scan interview  answers for their main ideas, and then assign them words or phrases that capture these main themes. These words and phrases are called […]

By Owen Sullivan The NOISE Project explores culture through a scientific lens. This term, culture, is most often used when describing ethnic and religious customs that shape the decisions and lifestyles of individuals. Yet a different sort of culture–organizational culture–is another powerful force that shapes behaviors and decisions in the workplace. Kenneth Jones and Tema […]

What do city buses and your air conditioner have in common?  Noise pollution! It can take on many forms and affect our health in just as many different ways. Even the sounds you’ve become numb to, like the loud hum of your air conditioner, can cause problems over the long-term! Learning difficulties, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular […]

By Yao A. Foli The community’s point of view of understanding and defining noise pollution could be a pathway to a cultural and social noise pollution policy making.  My name is Yao Foli, I am from Ghana. I am a community researcher and advisor with a national group of researchers representing underserved communities throughout the […]

By Bobby Wilson (Metro Atlanta Urban Farm) Could COVID-19 and the impending lockdown threaten your access to fresh vegetables?  If you think so, then the time may be right for families across this great nation to experience the joy and excitement of planning and planting a backyard garden? A backyard garden can serve as a great teaching tool […]

By Bobby Wilson (Metro Atlanta Urban Farm) Metro Atlanta Urban Farm and other CoPI’s across the US have been contemplating ways to adjust our course to accommodate the needs of the country while continuing to “be the change” that we “want to see” in the lives of people that we serve in our communities. By […]

By Yao A. Foli The definition, story, memory, and understanding of noise by the community could be the guideline to community engagement, education, and awareness about noise pollution. The experience and the memories of the stories at noise-exposed workplaces by community members provide detail about the unawareness and the awareness of noise pollution. Many are […]

What happens when STEM research and programming is led directly and equitably by community leaders? The NOISE Pollution Project! Please check out, share, and VOTE for our video https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/p/1891 where a team of Community Researchers representing communities historically excluded from the sciences, in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, share a different perspective and approach for doing science “with” communities instead of “on” communities.  […]

By Adam Spaulding-Astudillo What are the best ways for community leaders to educate the public about noise pollution? For answers to this question, ask Alexia, Cecilia, and Maria from Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES)! During our recent in-person meeting, they shared a set of activities that they have been using with their community over […]

CLUES has been hard at work bringing awareness of noise pollution into their community! Tanya and the Community Science Collaborators at this organization created activities for the Science Museum’s Youth Science Day. Using interactive activities the CLUES team was able to educate and engage the youth in their community about the effects of noise on […]

The NOISE team is happy to be starting a new participatory research project using PhotoVoice! The Community Science Collaborators on our team will be bringing this fun and creative research technique into their communities.  What is PhotoVoice PhotoVoice is a community-based participatory research method that allows participants to share their own perspectives and ideas through […]