STEM communication

Park sign featuring QR code.

Service Learning at Trinity Eco Prayer Park II: Installing QR Codes

Classes, communication

Reflections on Service Learning Lessons with Trinity Eco Prayer Park in Dr. Haugtvedt’s Fall 2025 STEM Communication for Public and Technical Audiences Course

Josiah Gibbs

When I first walked into room 206W in the Classroom Building, I was expecting a typical English class. I was not expecting Professor Haugtvedt to outline our main project for the semester as a real-world research project for Trinity Eco Prayer Park in Rapid City, a nonprofit organization. We would not be assigned a prompt. Instead, we would be forming groups and researching problems the park faced, writing first a project proposal, then a recommendation report, then presenting our findings in person to the Board of Trinity Eco Prayer Park.

English assignment? This was more like a senior design project.

I was suddenly excited. When my team of five chose to research how Trinity Eco could install QR codes in the park, I knew our research would impact the Rapid City community. I also knew that, because this was a real client, the project would prepare me for communicating outside of a college environment. Often, classes are a little too “safe” – isolated from industry – but this class was industry.

QR Code Used as a Plant Label at Kanakakkunnu Palace. Photo: ASV Nair, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons.

Our team had a picture of Trinity Eco’s future – we wanted to research ways to install QR codes. In a normal project, that would be the end of it, but here we had to communicate with our client and make sure our vision lined up with theirs. Part of my role was to talk to the park’s director, Ken Steinken, to clarify our budget and make sure our plans would match Trinity Eco’s own picture of the park’s future. And, with five team members, we had to communicate among ourselves as well. Everyone needed to know their role and communicate their progress to the group. This was all besides our main communication with Trinity Eco: the proposal and the report we were writing. To make a real impact, we had to be able to share information on multiple fronts. The same will be true in a career. With this project behind me, though, I know I can communicate on that level. When I stood in front of Trinity Eco’s Board with my team, describing our plans for QR code installation, I realized we had succeeded – the Board understood our research, and they resonated with it. I’m taking that confidence with me into the future. After this project, I know I can communicate.

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Laptop on the grass in a park

Service Learning at Trinity Eco Prayer Park I: Improving the Website

Classes, communication

Reflections on Service Learning Lessons with Trinity Eco Prayer Park in Dr. Haugtvedt’s Fall 2025 STEM Communication for Public and Technical Audiences Course

Krista Burkman

Service learning is beneficial in many ways, from learning more about a local organization to seeing the impact one person or a group of people can have on a community. The project we completed in Dr. Haugtvedt’s Fall 2025 ENGL 289 does just this. Through working to help the Trinity Eco Prayer Park find potential solutions to one of their problems, I learned how a person or a group of people can have a larger impact on the community than I previously thought.

One of the issues the park is currently facing is finding ways to utilize its website to show off all the park has to offer and recruit donors. I spent time reading articles to learn more about the different audiences the park would like to reach and the content each audience prefers. After compiling all my newfound information, I was able to compose a recommendation for the park board. This included several options for creating strong and effective content for their website, which can also be used on social media platforms if the park were to utilize them.

Even though this may seem like something small, this will help the park improve its website and be more well-rounded when trying to create content to entice viewers. This also helps them gain donors, which then helps the broader Rapid City community. The park may have the funds to continue doing upkeep, general maintenance, and taking on new projects to update or improve the park. The park board’s mission is to bring together people in Rapid City. By maintaining the park and creating a safe environment for residents and visitors of Rapid City, they continue to bring people together and strengthen the community.

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Science communication in the community: Trinity Eco Prayer Park

Classes, communication, Environment

By Erica Haugtvedt

Students in ENGL 289: STEM Communication for Public and Technical Audiences are partnering with Trinity Eco Prayer Park to leverage their science expertise and science communication skills to help the park face real-world problems. Trinity Eco Prayer Park is a private park owned by the Trinity Lutheran Church Foundation that models sustainable stewardship of the environment. The park naturally filters stormwater for 2/3 of its concrete-heavy city block through native plant species that represent five local biomes from the Great Plains and Black Hills. 

Director Ken Steinken stands in front of students and rests his hand on a sign about native plant restoration.
Director Ken Steinken stands next to a sign about native prairie restoration.
Buffalo grass with a small sign labeling it.
Buffalo grass.
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