Amy Youngs | ARTrees

Collecting campus tree stories

03/14/202003/14/2020 | Amy Youngs

sycamore Constitution Tree — The Constitution Tree, once located on the south side of Hopkins Hall, was part of an entire grove of trees that lined the Oval during the university’s founding. The tree is verified to have lived there before the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

Trees have stories too. The ARTrees team is collecting these to include as part of the information shared in the app we are developing. Do you have a story you can share with us? Please contact me: youngs.6@osu.edu.

A great example story we have collected is this one from Christopher D. Cook, who was present in 2016 when the historic, Constitution Tree was removed. He wrote about it on his blog:

“Having stood for more than a quarter of a millennium, this sycamore was a true witness tree. It was surely home to countless generations of squirrels, birds, and insects through its long life and well loved by humans, too. When Native Americans walked the banks of the Olentangy River (Keenhongsheconsepung as they called it), gathering flint, the tree must have been just another sycamore among an expansive forest of hardwoods. The tree stood silently as hundreds of slaves slipped by its outstretched branches following a nearby Underground Railroad path to freedom. Its bright green leaves might have felt the heat from the flames that consumed the nineteenth-century Armory building, a few hundred feet to the east, on a June day in 1958. Ohio State’s Constitution Tree lived with the students of every class since the first graduated in 1878.” ...read more on Christopher D. Cook’s blog

Chadwick Arboretum Open House

07/19/201907/19/2019 | Amy Youngs

We will be presenting our recent progress on the ap at this year’s Chadwick Arboretum Open House. All are welcome to attend, it is this Sunday, July 21, 2019 at the lake on campus, called Chadwick Lake. Meet trees, insects, and flowers, while eating ice cream! Learn more about our partner Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens here.

Land Acknowledgement

04/17/2019 | Amy Youngs

Our work in developing an app that highlights trees on the Ohio State University has brought us into conversations about the historical trees here, as well as the history of the land the university sits upon. We felt it appropriate to acknowledge the indigenous people who once called this land their home. With the recommendations of the Office of Student Life Multicultural Center, we will be including this land acknowledgement into our app.

“The Ohio State University is situated on the traditional homelands of the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami and Wyandot Nations. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory, and we honor and respect the 45 Indigenous Nations that continue to connect with this land today”.

App Logo

02/07/201902/07/2019 | Amy Youngs

Ashten Brooks has been working on styles, color palette for the app and has created this sweet logo!

Conference presentation

01/24/201901/24/2019 | Amy Youngs

ARTrees team members present at the Community Engagement Conference: Partnering for a Resilient and Sustainable Future.

Amy Youngs, Lina Sasaki, Andrew Frueh and Kim Landsbergen presenting at the Community Engagement Conference

We presented “Classroom as Incubator: a model for interdisciplinary app development” and we showed the process of developing the ARTrees app.

Photos of beta testing event

01/23/201904/17/2019 | Amy Youngs

Beta Testing Event – November 30, 2018

10/22/201810/22/2018 | Amy Youngs

Beta Testing Event Nov 30, 2018

The public is invited to participate in an event to test out an early prototype version of an application designed to encourage playful interactions with trees on campus with the aim of increasing awareness of these important members of our community.

This Beta Testing event takes place on Friday, Nov. 30^th^. At 1:00pm will meet at the alcove entrance of the 18^th Avenue Library to test out the application among the trees in that area in front of the library. We will have iPads there for you to try it out. At 1:30pm we will convene in room 340 of the 18^th Ave Library (the Research Commons) where we will have snacks, discuss the project, and learn about your user experience.

ARTrees is being developed by an interdisciplinary group of OSU students, faculty and staff, supported the STEAM Factory at the Ohio State University with equipment support from the College of Arts & Sciences Technology services.

STEAM Project funding

10/13/201810/13/2018 | Amy Youngs

We are thrilled to announce that the ARTrees project has been selected for funding by the STEAM Factory at the Ohio State University. This grant has allowed us to hire and pay the students who have been working on this project as volunteers and as unpaid interns. With this infusion of support, we expect to have a working draft of the app at the end of November 2018, and a completed project in April 2019.

The mission of the STEAM factory is to “facilitate a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration”. Check out all of the other projects they have supported with the STEAM Powered Project grants. Thank you STEAM Factory!

Tree tests

02/08/201802/19/2018 | Amy Youngs

We are seeking an aesthetic for our virtual trees that implies an active, apparition. Here is an initial test of a moving, breathing tree made in Maya.