Environmental Biology

I am also taking an environmental biology class two days a week. This class and colloquium are similar but yet so far different. Envrionmental biology has us going on field trips to places I would never go again. We hiked through the cypress domes and marshes at FGCU. It was by far the most disgusting thing I have ever done yet at the same time very informational. I have now seen a duck potatoe plant, water lillies, fire plants and learned the difference between pine trees and cypress trees. So with taking ccolloquium and environmental biology I ahve learned so much about invasive and native species, our land and different types of ecosystems.

Neighborhood

I live in a apartment complex in Fort Myers off of Mcgregor boulevard. It is a quiet neighborhood with a lake in the middle of it. It has a sidewalk going all the way around. I walk the circle almost every day and everyday I notice something new. The ducks have hatched eggs. So there are new ducklings running around. Its so great to watch them grow up everyday.There are small fish turning into bigger fish soon to be laying eggs too. The turtles are getting so bigger. The birds are becoming more active. I believe this is because humans feed them bread everyday and their is an abundance of little fish swimming around. We have palm trees every where. The landscape is well manicured and gorgeous.
I have never noticed the simple things around the lake until I started taking this class. I have realized what a beautiful place I live in. Its phenomenal.

Grateful

Simply be grateful. Well I have so many things to be grateful for. I have a wonderful fiance that i marry on July 24, 2010. He is the man of my dreams and everything I could ever want in someone. He is also the father of my amazing son. Ryan is 9 1/2 months old. He is always so happy and silly. He is the love of my life. My fiance works and makes enough so I don't have to. I have the joys of being a stay at home mom and its the best. I get to watch my son grow up everyday and learn something new. I also have two step daughters. They are great. They can give me a headache some days but I couldn't ask for more. Last but not least I ahve a dog. He is the most obedient dog I ahve ever seen. He is 9 and will listen completely. He loves all the kids and ever tries to play wth them. If hes not playing then he loves to just snuggle in your lap.
As you can tell I have so many things to be grateful for! Life is just amazing and I love living my life one day at a time.

oil spill

Well the BP oil spill has been going on for months now. What is bp doing to fix it? They are building a containment dome that should be done in August but it may or maynot work! So what about all the animals and life that may or maynot living from the first day or leakage to now? Why isn't BP asking for help from other countries or the government? Why sin't the governement stepping in and taking over this spill? Afterall it is their ocean too! BP is having clean up crews working almost all hours of the day but what about working on a permant fix so we can stop these millions of gallons of oil! So now the wuestion for florida is... are we going to promote and vote yes for offshore drilling? hoping this is a just a once in a lifetime issue? Is it going to be all about bringing in Florida money instead of taking care of our beaches and wildlife that lives here?

Events in Land Remembered

There are a few events that have stuck out of the book. Most of them were in the begining of the book. The first scene I remember is the one were Sol gives his car to his shoffeur. Those things today just don't happen. Rich people die with their money or give it to family members, definietly not their help. The next event I remember is when the McIveys helped out the indians. There were two men chasing the indians and Mr. McIvey made the two men get off his property. He fed the indians with what little food he had and let they stay the night. This type of kindness doesn't exist anymore. In todays world people would just turn their heads and pretend not to see the indians or the danager they were in. This book was a great reading and made me oipen my eyes and realize how kind people can be and what the land use to be before we ruined it with our developments.

Reflecting on colloquium

Colloquium was an interesting class. It maybe me thing about nature more than I have in the past. There are a few things I would have changed though. The discussion forum is something I would definietly change. No one respond to each others post. So maybe make the discussion worth more of your grade? I would change the papers. The papers didn't really help the class, they seemed just like busy work to me. I would maybe add more field trips to replace the papers. The field trips were great. They got me to go to places I have never been and examine the wildlife and plant life. I loved it. Also I would add a little more guidelines for the service learning project. It is a good idea to have the project but not having any dynamics didn't work for me. That could just be me though.Overall the class was well worth the time and effort spent on it.

25 things about a place

There are twenty five things about a place that make me happy. This place would be Lakes Park.
1.There is a playground designed for young children
2. They have baby swings.
3. Butterfly garden
4. Flower garden
5. Cactus garden
6.train rides
7. lake with fish and alligators
8.wild birds
9.water area with spitting water
10.picnic benches
11.shaded rest areas
12.grills for picnics
13.icecream shop
14.snack center
15.bicycle rentals
16.water bikes
17.another water area
18 older children playground area
19.naature trails
20.parking area
21.cheap entertainment
22.farmers market every friday
23.boardwalks
24. rollerblading areas
25.water fountains located everywhere

Lakes Park is a great place for anyone at any age.It is my favorite place of all times. I probably go there at least twice a week.

lifestyle and health in environmnetal influences

My lifestyle and health is influenced by the environmental issues and outcomes. Today there is the huge oil spill that keeps leaking oil into the ocean day after day. My lifestyle is affected by this because I work at a seafood restaurant and we are already slowly running out of supplies. Our oysters are almost gone everyday because the fisherman that usually go out and get the oysters are getting paid way more to help clean up oil so no one is getting the oysters. Fish supply is diminishing too. So soon our business may diminsh to really nothing. Who wants to come into a fish house to eat chicken or a burger? Not to many people.

Service learning projecct

My service learning project was to help clean up the beach. This became harder than I thought. You have to have proper training class before you can even volunteer. So after I took the 4 hour course I drove to Panama City and volunteered. it's hard work. You are out in the sun all day bent over working. I although I would do it again in a heartbeat, It is a very demanding service learning project.

As far as my PowerPoint presentation of it; i had a good time doing it. Power points are a easy and fun way to describe what and how you did something. You get to put a little part of you in it too.

The form we had to send to the teacher and then her mail it back to FGCU seems like a hassle. I wish there was an easier way to get it signed by her and to FGCU.

Environmental article- Why recycle glass?

Glass recycling is both simple and beneficial. Let’s start with the benefits of glass recycling:
Glass recycling is good for the environment.. A glass bottle that is sent to a landfill can take up to a million years to break down. By contrast, it takes as little as 30 days for a recycled glass bottle to leave your kitchen recycling bin and appear on a store shelf as a new glass container.

Glass recycling is sustainableGlass containers are 100-percent recyclable, which means they can be recycled repeatedly, again and again, with no loss of purity or quality in the glass.

Glass recycling is efficient.. Recovered glass from glass recycling is the primary ingredient in all new glass containers. A typical glass container is made of as much as 70 percent recycled glass. According to industry estimates, 80 percent of all recycled glass eventually ends up as new glass containers.

Glass recycling conserves natural resources. Every ton of glass that is recycled saves more than a ton of the raw materials needed to create new glass, including: 1,300 pounds of sand; 410 pounds of soda ash; and 380 pounds of limestone.

Glass recycling saves energy. Making new glass means heating sand and other substances to a temperature of 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit, which requires a lot of energy and creates a lot of industrial pollution. One of the first steps in glass recycling is to crush the glass and create a product called “cullet.” Making recycled glass products from cullet consumes 40 percent less energy than making new glass from raw materials, because cullet melts at a much lower temperature.

Recycled glass is useful. Because glass is made from natural materials such as sand and limestone, it glass containers have a low rate of chemical interaction with their contents. As a result, glass can be safely reused. Besides serving as the primary ingredient in new glass containers, recycled glass also has many other commercial uses—from creating decorative tiles and landscaping material to rebuilding eroded beaches.

My thoughts: You should definitely recycle glass! You can get paid for each glass bottle bring you in. They can be safely reused. It saves room in your trash can and good for the environment. Why shouldn't you recycle them?



Glass recycling is also simple, as I pointed out at the beginning of this article. It’s simple because glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle. For one thing, glass is accepted by almost all curbside recycling programs and municipal recycling centers. About all most people have to do to recycle glass bottles and jars is to carry their recycling bin to the curb, or maybe drop off their empty glass containers at a nearby collection point.

If you need an extra incentive to recycle glass, how about this: Several U.S. states offer cash refunds for most glass bottles, so in some areas glass recycling can actually put a little extra money in your pocket.

my sustainable challenge

There are several things I could change in my life to make things a little "greener" and more sustainable. So what challenge should I take upon? After careful consideration, I am going to try to eat everything organic with the least amount of packaging possible.
My first day as this challenge begins, I am drink faucet water instead of bottled water, I went to the local farmers market and got fresh fruit and vegetables. I then went to the butchers shop (Marios Meat market in ft.Myers) they cut the meat for you then put all the meat in one big bag. It saved on individual packaging and came from small local store.

Days 2-6 were all anout the same. I ate my fresh food and drank faucet water. Nothing to exciting happened.By day 7 I was craving the fast food, candy, soda everything I didn't want to have.

Day 9 I finally caved. I did go back to eating the organic food after inhaling a cheeseburger, fries and a soda.

I learned a valuable lesson from this challenge. Although eating organic is great, my body craves all the bad things too. So this may be from inducting all the chemicals and grease into my body for years and now I am dependant on it or it maybe my tastebuds just wanted it. i am trying to make a happy medium between the two. So that way i'm happy and still trying to help out the environment.

Downtown field trip 4

Field trip 4 Downtown Fort Myers
What is new urbanism? It is an urban design movement which promotes walk able neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. Yes downtown fort Myers completely fits this description. They have the luxurious high rise condos to middle class condos then to low-income housing. Job types vary from court house and city jobs to small mom and pop shops.
I feel most comfortable and energized walking into the park area. Landscape is scattered around nicely. Grass is green and cut very well. The whole area feels open and inviting. There are not abundant amount of parks and green spaces here. I don’t feel a sense of connection to this area but it is a nice place to visit.
A ton of space is devoted to vehicles. There is paid parallel parking everywhere. It cost you a dollar an hour. There is so much parking devoted to this area for all the people that need to come here even just for an hour. You have the courthouse, county jail, water management and several law offices. At night parking is free for all the bars that open up in the evening. There are busses that travel down that way which might be least expensive. I would not use the county bus since I have a car.
Most of the city’s tax base goes to maintenance these days. They have spent a ton of money in the past few years renovating it and some parts are still under construction. Now our tax money goes to keeping it clean and beautiful. People who live in the inner city can shop for groceries at the Publix right down McGregor or there are a few smaller locally owned stores. I think they are trying to tax more to gain more of a profit.
Yes there are several signs of homelessness. Graffiti is in a few places but I think with the remold it has covered up a great deal of it. No I don’t feel comfortable in the city during the day and especially at night. During the day there are so many people driving crazy and walking around angry from the courthouse. You just never know what’s going to happen. At night the bars open up, so you mix alcohol with anger. The news always talks about all the gun shootings down there too. It isn’t a safe place. Tourist probably isn’t safe in this area either. They won’t be in any harm’s way if they just go to the park and leave but I wouldn’t trust it. I would not consider living down here at all.
I learned that downtown can be a pretty place if you just stop and take a minute to look around. My favorite place was the playground and least favorite place was the parking lot. The playground had nice landscape and the parking lot had graffiti in it and made it look run down. Advantage of living down here is you are close to a city park and government offices. Disadvantages of living here would be all the violence and nonstop traffic. People here do feel very connected to their space. They show this the way they stand on the streets and run their stores.
Some changes that could take place would be safer streets. A nicer parking area and better sidewalks would be a great improvement also. I definitely think safer streets should be improved immediately.

Field Trip 3

The relationships between the marketing, production, distribution and consumption is extremely well maintained. They have to market their products to get them into distribution and then obviously consumption.
The relationships between the soil, water and climate is different for each plant. They send different plants to different climates and monitor how they produce. Some produce really well and that’s how we get plants in areas that were never once there. Others don’t produce at all and we have negative results.
The economic relationship with the state is good. As we have an organization right here in southwest Florida. Also Bonita Springs Middle School is developing their very own garden to “help stop out hunger”. as well as Lakes Park is making room for a garden. The nation is okay with the economic relationship. The nation could do a little more to help but is doing some necessary items. As far as the world and the economic relationship it is good. ECHO sends seeds all over the world to help produce plants.
the environmental issues of this business is growing plants that should not be here and economic issues would be taking away money from local businesses.
I interviewed a wonderful lady named Kim and her perspective on the environment, production and distribution. She thought that this was a great organization. “We send about 10 seeds over to any one farmer and those seeds can produce up to thousands of vegetables or fruit.” “It is sometimes their only means of surviving”.
You can become involved by volunteer for ECHO or even doing an internship with them. There also plenty of other organizations that help feed the hungry that are looking for volunteers.
Is this activity sustainable? Absolutely! They are using natural resources to help others out.
What do we have to do to feed the one billion people? We would have to do a whole lot more than what we are doing. I think if we knew what we could do to feed everyone then we would have done it by now. There is not just one set answer to feed the hungry. It takes many efforts and a part on all of us to do so.

Class discussions?

As i reflect on class discussions I realize they aren't discussions. This past week I was a discussion leader and had commented on several peoples post about the few topics we had and no one wrote back to me. It seems as every week it is just a one way conversation. I'm sure it wasn't just me who didn't get a response but why is it called a discussion, if we aren't discussion? I am guilty of this too. as the past weeks have just been so busy, I am happy to get on and post my discussion and let alone reply to others. Are these discussions really worth it? Maybe it would be a better idea if we took quiz es or found some other way to prove we have read the materials? Or maybe after all, I am the only one that nobody is replying too. lol

Lovers Key-Field trip 2

Lovers Key State Park

I am sitting on a park bench looking out over the water in a nature trail and it’s absolutely gorgeous. There is a slight breeze coming off the water that is cooling me off and I‘ll can help but feel is a calm, relaxing, and at peace feeling. It is incredible how the outdoors can make you feel. The birds are chirping, branches swooshing. Its nature, at its best.
The natural elements have shaped this environment by the water and weather. The water shaped it by the waves. As the waves come up on the shoreline it washes away some sand over time creating a new shoreline. The weather has shaped it by the way the sun hit’s the plants. Some plants need more sunlight and are growing better on that side versus the ones that need a little shade.
The surface features affect the plant and animal life because not everything can grow and survive with salt water surrounding it. Certain plants need fresh water to flourish and Lovers Key is surrounded by the ocean.
There is many plants growing wildly at Loves Key State Park. Just to name some of them there is; beach sunflower, tropical sage, Spanish bayonet, strangler fig, Spanish moss, prickly pear cactus, catclaw blackbead, common persimmon, Florida silver palm, and cabbage palmetto. Some bird species located in this area are; American kestrel, reddish egret, white ibis, piping plover, and boat-tailed grackle. I saw some animal life. There is great [potential to see many others but they weren’t out while I was there. The ones I did see were Julia butterflies, gulf fritillary butterflies, a brown anole lizard, a ton of red fire ants, and even a few great land crabs. The park ranger said I could see tortoises, squirrels, raccoons, bottled nosed dolphin, manatees and some marsh rabbits.
A unique characteristic about this park is that it has something for everyone. It has beaches, nature trails, and pavilions for picnics, kayaks and canoes. Many places around this area don’t have much stuff to do. It’s either just a beach or just a nature trail. Lovers Key is an exception. It is great tourist attract as well as a getaway for locals.
In the 1900’s the islands were accessible only by boat. A road was built in 1965. Fish camps were located on Black Island from the early 1900s’ until late 1950’s. Then in the 1960s the four islands were slated for development. Preparations for development damaged the islands. So the state acquired the islands in 1996 and they merged with the adjacent Carl E. Johnson County Park to become Lovers Key Carl E. Johnson State Park,
As you walk through the Black island trial you can see all the mangroves sitting on the shore lines. The estuaries are a great sauce for animal and plant life. These animals and plants can adapt to this ever changed lifestyle.

ecological footprint

I went to the website and did my ecological footprint. It was an eye opening website. It told me if I keep living the way I live and everyone else lived like me we would need over 400 earths! That is crazy! So its a good thing everyone doesn't live like me.Since doing that website I am definitely trying to change my ways. Its hard but I am trying. By the way, if you have not visited that website, you must do it now! its a real good source.

Sustainability

What is sustainability to me? It is about keeping the earth clean and not using all of the harsh products we offer. Use some organic items and eat organic foods. We don't need all the harsh fumes in the world. It is harmful to us, everyone around us and the environment.

Sustainability is something we all need to work on. I myself am not the greatest person with organics. I tend to chose man made objects which is not helping the earth at all.

current position on Colloquium

I would like to get several things out of this class. I want to know about our community and the parks its offers,the environment around us and what other people think about our environment.

I think I could use this class and what i learn in everyday life. This class will hopefully teach me about the environment and how much use it is to human race. I could use a new appreciation for the environment.

Field Trip One-Florida Gulf Coast University May 21, 2010

There are three separate habitats on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University; the lakes, wooded areas and the Flatwoods. The lakes plant life is floating hearts, swamp lilies, rattan vines, duckweed and maidencane. There are several plants in the wooded areas of the campus. Most of them are slash pine trees but there are also silver palm trees, white bushy aster flowers, filed sandspurs and sawgrass. The flatwoods mainly consist of several types of pine trees and some shrubs such as wax myrtle and tar flower. The vegetation in each of these habitats has adapted to our ever changing climate and moisture. For instance, this was the coldest winter we have had in years and yet these plants and animals have managed to stay alive. They adapted to the drying up of the soil and the bitter cold temperatures but now that it is raining once a week again and temperatures are extremely hot these living creatures have managed to adapt again.
There are several animals that occupy each habitat. While visiting the campus I encountered several of these species and observed them. Water animals such as fish, turtles, alligators and tadpoles live throughout the ponds on campus. There are wooded creatures such as ants, spiders, rabbits, slugs and snakes. The flatwoods animal life can contain panthers, ants, worms, frogs and beetles. The air creatures can be but aren’t limited to bees, wasp, birds, owls, butterflies and dragonflies.
The water is a very important element. It is crucial to the environment and the way we live. The campus has been planned to retain/detain water runoff with the retention ponds throughout the land. They have boardwalks to cross over the ponds and help keep the natural vegetation growing.
The relationship between the campus people and the environment is for the most part respectful. The students and faculty try to keep the environment very clean. There are trash cans and recycle bins located conveniently all around the campus. The University offers many environmental classes to help educate the students on their surroundings. There are a few students that don’t respect the environment or the campus. As they throw cigarette butts on the ground or leave trash in the grass. I would change the smoking sections. Either add more sections with more ashtrays so people don’t throw the butts on the ground or go the extreme opposite and eliminate smoking all together. I think the university could go either way and help reduce that litter on the ground. As for just the paper trash that some disrespecting people threw on the floor; maybe we could add more ground keepers.
Three unique energy saving designs that Florida Gulf Coast University offers large overhangs to reduce solar heat into the buildings, sprayed foam insulation which provides energy efficiency of the building and metal roofing to allow easy rainwater collection.

Traditional, progressive or experimental?

Journal #1

May 16, 2010

My education has been primarily traditional with a little experimental mixed in. It has been traditional in the sense of ways of learning. The time schedules, schemes of classification, rules of order and the patterns. This way has taught me most of my life lessons learned.

The little experimental mixed in has been the life choices I have made and then dealing with the outcomes of them that can not be learned in a traditional setting. No one can teach you how to live, learn and forget. You have learn how to love someone, and yet forget their faults.

Life is just a big trial and error. Your going to a try a job and you may hate it or love it. You have to take a big leap into things and hope they work out for the best.