What are your initial expectations of Colloquium, feelings? Consider the following: Briefly describe any experience you have with exploring wilderness areas here or in other regions. Describe your relationship with the natural world. Describe any anxieties or reservations you have about this class. What are your personal goals for this class? Describe how this class might be an important component to your education, major or life experiences
I expect Colloquium to help me realize the impact, not only that I have, but that everyone has on the environment. I would like to become more aware of my actions, and learn more about the environment. Other than camping trips and hikes, I have not been exposed to the wilderness. I did go on camping trips in Maryland where we built tents, made camp fires, and lived without electricity, heat, or the outside world for the weekend. These camping trips were when I was eight years old and it is the most outdoor experience I have had. I do not think that I have the best relationship with the nature in our world. I enjoy going to the beach and lakes, but my fear of snakes keeps me from going anywhere that they might possibly be.
Since I have been in school I have only taken classes that are geared towards the health profession, so I am very interested about taking this class and what it will offer me for everyday life. In the future I plan to build a home and this class will help me learn about sustainable energy and how to construct a home that will meet my “comfort” needs and at the same time allow me to use building products, forms or energy and other things that will help create a greener environment. My mother and father have taught me, over the years, to always turn off lights, change air filters, insulate windows and doors and conserve water usage. This has been a good start, but I hope to expand my knowledge during this class. I am not sure how this class will apply to my major, Nursing, but I know there can be ways for the building and the actual hospital energy and gas to be greener. In my own profession and everyday life as a nurse, I could be more conscious of discovering ways to increase sustainability.
Anxieties I have for this class are that it is a summer class and it is a lot of work. I would like to learn everything about this class there is to offer without being on an overload of work. However, I am excited to learn about ways that I can help the planet through my actions and maybe even teach other people about those ways.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sense of Place- Your Neighborhood
"You can't know who you are until you know where you are." - Wendell Berry. Sense of place is understanding the environment around you, your comfort zone, where you feel most at home. Take a walking trip around your neighborhood. Observe special environmental features, green design, sustainable aspects, species, wildlife etc. Include photos or video clips. What sustainable or ecological features do you notice? Use pictures and/or drawings of your walk. Draw or write about an area where you have a feeling of Sense of Place.
There are many animals and amazing plants in my neighborhood. The palm trees, maintained grass, and lakes, give the neighborhood a Florida feel. Numerous palms, ficus, hibiscus, lilies, and many more flowers are so bountiful around the neighborhood. The animals are all unique and different. There are frogs, lizards, snakes, squirrels, alligators, pheasant, iguanas, various birds, such as the Blue Heron and Peacock, and the homeowners dogs and cats.
Field trip #1-Green Cay Nature Center
During the course of the class, you will embark on self guided field experiences. Each field trip has specific objectives, read through them before embarking on your self-guided trip and comment on what you learned. Provide a reflection of your experience for each field trip. This entry is a personal reflection that should capture how you felt, what you enjoyed, what you may not have enjoyed, etc. What are your impressions of the Campus? Compare your impressions before attending colloquium and now.
Due to the fact that I am taking the class in south east Florida, my field trip was not on a campus, but at Green Cay Nature Center. I will not only reflect on my trip to Green Cay, but I will also compare and contrast it to what I know about FGCU’s nature. Green Cay is over 100 acres of wetland that has a boardwalk allowing the public to walk through to see animals and plants in their habitat. There are numerous animals in there such as snakes, alligators, turtles, birds, frogs, fish, and ducks.
The plants there are used for purification of waste water. Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department has an amazing cycle. It first starts off by having the raw ground water come from wells that are 150 feet underground, the water is then filtered and the odors caused by dissolved gases are then removed. The water is then treated and sent into homes, however the treated waste water is sent to be used on golf courses and into the wetlands. This water is cleaned by wetland plants and restores groundwater levels. Some examples of those plants would be the Fireflag, Arrowhead, Pickerelweed, Arrow Arum, and Spatterdock. There was a large amount of duckweed in the water that I thought was algae, but I soon learned that duckweed discourages the growth of algae by blocking sunlight. It is food for the abundant wildlife and it even cleans the water by absorbing nitrogen and phosphorous.
Not only did this experience allow me to understand nature, basically in my backyard, but also taught me about how to conserve water. An amazing fact I learned is that about 2/3 of the water we use in homes is in the bathrooms, and the majority of that water is flushed down the toilets. Washer machines can use forty or more gallons of water in each load, so filling each load to the top saves water, and there are now water-conserving side loading models that people can buy. Dishwashers use around fifteen gallons of water.
I will admit that I have yet to go on the FGCU campus trail. The school itself has beautiful and exotic animals on campus. There are boars, alligators, snakes, rabbits, raccoons, cats, and birds, just to name a few. FGCU is trying to encourage the community to use refillable water containers and have installed spigots to the water fountains. The water at FGCU is tested several times each month, and is sometimes is better quality of water, than bottled water. There are no CFC-based refrigerants used in educational building air-conditioning and fire suppression systems. The school has one of the largest ice thermal storage plants in the state, which saves money, reducing need for more utilities, and is low in demand for electricity. There are recycling centers throughout campus housing and on campus as well. This gives students easy access to recycling, rather than throwing their recyclables in the garbage. Over fifteen percent of the schools electricity is from a renewable source and every new building on campus is LEED certified.
The two places are extremely different, but have the same goal in mind, to help preserve the natural environment.
Due to the fact that I am taking the class in south east Florida, my field trip was not on a campus, but at Green Cay Nature Center. I will not only reflect on my trip to Green Cay, but I will also compare and contrast it to what I know about FGCU’s nature. Green Cay is over 100 acres of wetland that has a boardwalk allowing the public to walk through to see animals and plants in their habitat. There are numerous animals in there such as snakes, alligators, turtles, birds, frogs, fish, and ducks.
The plants there are used for purification of waste water. Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department has an amazing cycle. It first starts off by having the raw ground water come from wells that are 150 feet underground, the water is then filtered and the odors caused by dissolved gases are then removed. The water is then treated and sent into homes, however the treated waste water is sent to be used on golf courses and into the wetlands. This water is cleaned by wetland plants and restores groundwater levels. Some examples of those plants would be the Fireflag, Arrowhead, Pickerelweed, Arrow Arum, and Spatterdock. There was a large amount of duckweed in the water that I thought was algae, but I soon learned that duckweed discourages the growth of algae by blocking sunlight. It is food for the abundant wildlife and it even cleans the water by absorbing nitrogen and phosphorous.
Not only did this experience allow me to understand nature, basically in my backyard, but also taught me about how to conserve water. An amazing fact I learned is that about 2/3 of the water we use in homes is in the bathrooms, and the majority of that water is flushed down the toilets. Washer machines can use forty or more gallons of water in each load, so filling each load to the top saves water, and there are now water-conserving side loading models that people can buy. Dishwashers use around fifteen gallons of water.
I will admit that I have yet to go on the FGCU campus trail. The school itself has beautiful and exotic animals on campus. There are boars, alligators, snakes, rabbits, raccoons, cats, and birds, just to name a few. FGCU is trying to encourage the community to use refillable water containers and have installed spigots to the water fountains. The water at FGCU is tested several times each month, and is sometimes is better quality of water, than bottled water. There are no CFC-based refrigerants used in educational building air-conditioning and fire suppression systems. The school has one of the largest ice thermal storage plants in the state, which saves money, reducing need for more utilities, and is low in demand for electricity. There are recycling centers throughout campus housing and on campus as well. This gives students easy access to recycling, rather than throwing their recyclables in the garbage. Over fifteen percent of the schools electricity is from a renewable source and every new building on campus is LEED certified.
The two places are extremely different, but have the same goal in mind, to help preserve the natural environment.
Calculate Your Ecological Footprint
a) http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/ Reflect on the results. What is your
score? How many Planet Earths? Reflect on what this means to you and your family. Evaluate your
lifestyle and your family's lifestyle? Do you think changes need to be made? Why or why not? If so,
What kind of changes? What do you think about these results?
b) Take a look at your specific consumption over 24 hours during a typical day and note and discuss
the following:
1. Energy usage – think about and discuss all of the energy you use in one day.
2. Fuel usage – think about and discuss the fuel you use in one day.
3. Food Intake – think about and discuss all of the food you consume in one day.
4. Water use – think about and discuss all the water that you use in one day.
5. Packaging – think about and discuss all of the items you handle in one day and their packaging.
The twenty-four hour consumption made me take a closer look at my daily life. I use electricity for my phone and computer charger. I always have my television and radio clock plugged in. Because it is summer I have two fans that are on during the night. My hair dryer and flat iron are only plugged in for about ten minutes total while I do my hair. The refrigerator and lamps are also always plugged in. During the summer, I use a lot more fuel on a daily basis than any other time during the year. I have to drive approximately 15 miles each way to and from work. I know that I could save fuel by not using the air conditioner, but since I work in a service industry and have to dress in a uniform, that is not a realistic thing to do. I am a very safe driver and do not speed, so I am using fuel conservatively. I try to plan my outings so that if I need to make multiple stops, I do them in a systematic order to use as little fuel as possible.
My food intake is usually pretty simple. I always eat cereal with skim milk in the morning. During this 24 hour period I had a half of turkey with mayo, mustard and cheese sandwich for lunch. For a snack I had a protein bar, and for dinner a small salad with blue cheese dressing. Every meal I had a glass or two of water, all from a Brita filter. My water use, I would say is the second highest thing that I use. I am constantly washing my hands throughout the day. I used the washing machine and dishwasher today, which uses a lot of water. I also took about an eight minute shower.
Even though my household scored well in the 24 hr. study, I think that there is still a great deal we could do to become better stewards of our environment. Becoming more aware of the food we purchase could make a measurable impact on our environment. If we made an effort to shop at local farmer markets we would be supporting local farmers. By supporting local farmers we would also save on fuel consumption and emissions because the produce would not be transported from other states. By eating more locally grown food we also become healthier because we are consuming less chemically altered foods. We can make sure that the foods we buy are chemical free and the animals are not fed grains infused with hormones and other dangerous ingredients. We could make our home more efficient if we added a water filtration system because we would not have a need to purchase bottled water. Reducing the amount of bottled water would ultimately help reduce the amount of plastics being used, even though we recycle. Another simple change we could make would be to purchase recycled shopping bags. These would be used each time we went to the store. By using shopping bags, we would no longer need to have groceries packed in plastic bags that we either throw away or put in the recycling bin. On average, a trip to the grocery store means bringing home 10 – 15 plastic grocery bags. Clerks at the stores, often times, put one or two things in a bag which means you take home a lot of plastic bags. It takes years for one plastic bag to decompose in a land fill so we could stop this cycle of waste by using the “green” bags. It is difficult to reduce the fuel consumed while I live at home because I have drive to work, but when I am at school, I can make a concerted effort to walk or ride my bike more. This will accomplish two things: one I get more exercise, and also I will be reducing the amount of fuel consumed and emissions in the air.
Field Trip #2-Daggerwing Nature Center
During the course of the class, you will embark on self guided field experiences. Each field trip has specific objectives, read through them before embarking on your self-guided trip and comment on what you learned. Provide a reflection of your experience for each field trip. This entry is a personal reflection that should capture how you felt, what you enjoyed, what you may not have enjoyed, etc. Impressions, feelings, ideas, what did you like about it? Would you visit this area again?
This field trip was amazing! I took my brother with me to Daggerwing Nature Center, and it is in the middle of baseball fields and basketball courts, not to mention a water park right across the road. I was not expecting to see what Daggerwing Nature Center really had to offer. Inside were two rooms, one had four tanks that contained a Box snake, a skunk, a tortuous, and the last was empty. In the next room was an adventure. It started off with being under ground. As I continued to walk, I walked into the main room, which was filled with real wild life and statues of wildlife. The animals that were in tanks were: a soft shell turtle, an alligator, and an owl. These animals can be adopted or people could give donations. Around the room were stations that explained different things, such as how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, and how the food chain works. However, I thought the neatest piece was a bumblebee, which one could sit in and hit buttons to watch different pieces about bees in their natural habitat.
After exploring both of these worlds I walked outside to the boardwalk. There is over forty acres of preserved swamp habitat in this area and I was able to walk around and see the marshes. Throughout my walk on the boardwalk I saw beautiful white and blue bird houses. The trees were bountiful and each tree was listed on the boardwalk. Thank goodness I did not see any snakes; because the whole time I was walking I was terrified one would fall out of a tree or some other equally frightening appearance. The Daggerwing Nature Center was an amazing fieldtrip; I really liked the inside of the center as well as the board walk. My favorite part was the room. I was very upset at how the nature center was placed and not well known. I would definitely visit this area again. My younger cousins are coming into town and I already told my mom that is a place I want to take them.
IIn front of Daggerwing Taken By: Colin Gates
Above Ground (Learning Room)
Bumblebee Television
Learning about Decomposition
Learning about underwater Food Chain
Animals For Adoption
Alligator
Owl
Turtle
Outside Fish
A great saying "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
On the Boardwalk Taken by: Colin Gates
Field Trip #3-Marine Area-Gumbo Limbo-Conservation 20/20
During the course of the class, we will embark on off-campus field experiences. Each field trip has specific objectives, read through them before embarking on your self-guided trip and comment on what you learned. Provide a reflection of your experience for each field trip. This entry is a personal reflection that should capture how you felt, what you enjoyed, what you may not have enjoyed, etc. What were your impressions of this field trip? What did you think of the history lecture? What did you think of the boardwalk? Conservation 20/20 - Visit http://www.conservation2020.org/index.cfm and learn about this program. In your own words, provide an overview of this program and its purpose. Is this the first time you have heard of the program? Have you been to any of the preserves acquired through this program? Do you think you will visit any of these preserves in the future? Do you know of similar programs existing elsewhere? Find out if you have a program in your area if you are not in Southwest Florida. What are your thoughts on using tax dollars for land preservation?
Gumbo Limbo is a breath taking place, I highly recommend everyone to go there. This is an entire place full of awe and wonder. There are sections to the place that makes it worth while. On the ground are different animals which lead to a certain exhibit. Butterflies lead to an entire butterfly trail, which was filled with all types of butterflies and dragon flies. The butterfly garden lead to North Ashley Trail and towards the back was a Seminole Chiki Hut. The Chiki Hut overlooked the intercostals, it was breath taking. Florida Atlantic University research center was there, filled with numerous open tanks for sting rays and sea horses. The four outside tanks had amazing water animals. One tank had baby bonnet head sharks and nurse sharks, the other had a moray eel, one had full grown bonnet head sharks, and the last had a sand crab, and sting ray. There was a new addition to Gumbo Limbo, which was a turtle rehabilitation area. The researchers’ recovered hurt turtles, bring them back to Gumbo Limbo, and help them fully recover to go back into the ocean. Walking towards the turtle rehabilitation area was a timeline. The time line consisted of products that are not disposable in the water and how may years it takes to have these objects break down. It was amazing to think that fishing wire take 600 years, a diaper is 450 years, and a glass bottle is unknown. After the time line there was a boardwalk, the board walk had signs that explained the trees were seen and even wild life to be expected. There was a forty foot observation tower that overlooked the intercostals and the ocean, it was absolutely fantastic! A bench was up at the top to sit on and truly enjoy the view. There also was and intercostal over look, which was nice, but not as miraculous as the observation tower.
This is my first time hearing about the Conservation 20/20 land program. I think that the numbers are amazing, most south Florida counties put aside up to 85% of their land to conserve, and Lee County only puts aside 10%. That number was configured in 1994. Two years later a group called CLASAC (Conservation Lands Acquisition and Stewardship Advisory Committee), which was formed to protect wildlife, water, the land, and resources. However, to do this they would need to be a rise in taxes, and they were unsure if the public would vote for it. They received the votes and no have forty-two preserves that are under the program. Now that I know there are this many preserves in the area, I would like to go and visit some of them. I have not heard of any similar programs, but since I read this I will want to look into this type of program for the future. I do not know how I feel about using taxes for land conservation. I feel that by conserving the land is part of our job of enjoying the land. I looked for places online for more conservation areas, and I found numerous websites. Such as, http://crocdoc.ifas.ufl.edu/project/reports/landsheet.pdf.
Entrance to Gumbo Limbo
Moray Eel
Observation Tower, overlooking the ocean
Walking the Boardwalk Taken By: Albert Bistany
Turtle rehabilitation
Butterfly Trail
Nursing Shark
Bonnet head shark
.JPG)
In front of Gumbo Limbo Taken By: Albert Bistany
Field Trip #4-Agriculture Area-Bedner's Fresh Farm Market
During the course of the class, you will embark on self guided field experiences. Each field trip has specific objectives, read through them before embarking on your self-guided trip and comment on what you learned. Provide a reflection of your experience for each field trip. This entry is a personal reflection that should capture how you felt, what you enjoyed, what you may not have enjoyed, etc. What are your impressions of this area? What is your experience growing plants or gardening? Could you grow any of your own food and many people around the world have to do? Include photos and/or drawings.
Bedner’s Fresh Farm market is a local farmers market. The market itself is a medium size, with great options on food at affordable prices. They grow “romaine lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, white corn, green beans, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, strawberries, tomatoes, and many fruits.” It is one of the last remaining family farmers markets in South Florida. In 1950, Arthur and Henrietta Bedner moved to South Florida to start with the farming industry. Today, his three sons and grandson are dedicated farmers “producing the freshest and highest level of quality produce available and delivering it to [us], their valued customers.” There are U-pick strawberries, when in season.
Entrance to Bedner's Farmers Market
Near the U-pick Area Taken By: Casey Gates
Some of the Crops
Farmer's Market
More Crop area
Although, strawberries are not in season, I was able to see the U-pick tractor and the area. I think it is great that a local farm, which are suppose to be more expensive than a grocery store, but at Bedner’s Fresh Farmer’s Market is more reasonable than I expected. I always see the sign for Bedner’s Fresh Farmer’s Market, but have never been in. It is in the opposite direction of everywhere my family and I go. Learning about local farmer’s market and how it is better for the environment and bodies.
I have never had my own garden, but I have helped my aunt start her garden, which now grows tomatoes, onions, strawberries, lettuce, and green peppers. I also have helped her pick all the products when they are ready. I have learned a lot from my aunt and if I had the space and availability, I would grow my own food. I would love to do it now, however, I am living in an apartment, and sign yearly leases.
In case You want to have your own Organic Garden:
Pictures from the garden i helped out with:
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