Personal Journal Entry #18

                                                                                                                                    April 14, 2011

Teacher Website

       I was working on my teacher website and I realized that in today’s world we have become a more technology-based society. Many assignments can be found Angel and research is derived from the internet. We live in a fast-paced society where many things have not only gone digital but now we always need to be in contact with someone. I have noticed more people talking on their cell phones doing daily activities then people being alone. Moreover, teachers are encouraged to send out emails to clarify assignments and for any questions, comments, or concerns.

       I have learned that we need to be aware of how much we take our natural world, the environment, for granted in this day and age. Today many people do not realize the impact they have on the environment. For instance, the amount of trash we have, how many times we forget to turn off the light before we leave the house, or how our children are spending more time indoors playing video games, thanks technology, then spending time riding a bike. These are things we need to consider if we plan to make a change.

       My teacher website is for both parents and students to use as a resource for education and to get in contact with me. I have provided many different educational links for my future students to use for extra practice and I have created a blog for student to student, student to teacher, and parent to teacher. This is a great way for the class to communicate using the advances we have in technology. I think that with all of the technological advances these days; I need to provide educational benefits. My website is also saving paper, because instead of printing out a weekly homework report, I can put homework assignments online and save some trees. I also think this helps because parents are extremely busy, so this helps them get involved in their child’s education without feeling obligated to sign and keep track of a million papers.

www.schoolrack.com/MsStephenson

Personal Journal Entry #17 - Ecological Footprint

                                                                                                                                   April 14, 2011

Ecological Footprint

If you want to calculate your personal ecological footprint, here are two websites to visit:

1.    http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/

2.    http://myfootprint.org/en/visitor_information/ 

       After investigating my personal ecological footprint I found that I could be better but could be much worse. Below I have my results from the two quizzes, depicting my carbon footprint, food footprint, housing footprint, and goods & services footprint. Amplify your impact by encouraging others to follow your lead. Engage your friends and community with local and global movements for social change, or start your own movement! We can reduce our ecological footprints by:

Reduce your Carbon Footprint

• Use cleaner transport
• Add energy-saving features to your home 
• Adopt energy-saving habits
• Reduce your Food Footprint

Reduce your Food Footprint

• Eat more local, organic, in-season foods.
• Plant a garden-it doesn't get more local than that.
• Shop at your local farmer's market or natural foods store. Look for local, in-season foods that haven't traveled long distances to reach you.
• Choose foods with less packaging to reduce waste.
• Eat lower on the food chain-going meatless for just one meal a week can make a difference. Globally, it has been estimated that 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions are associated with meat consumption

 Reduce your Housing Footprint

• Choose sustainable building materials, furnishings, and cleaning products
• Adopt water-saving habits

Reduce your Goods and Services Footprint

• Buy less! Replace items only when you really need to.
• Recycle all your paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. Don't forget electronics!
• Compost food waste for the garden. Garbage that is not contaminated with degradable (biological) waste can be more easily recycled and sorted, and doesn't produce methane gases (a significant greenhouse gas contributor) when stored in a landfill.
• Buy recycled products, particularly those labeled "post-consumer waste."

Journal Entry #16 - Service Learning

                                                                                                                                          April 1, 2011

Garden at Eden in Naples, FL

Harvested 3 different species of eggplant, squash, and zucchini.

The Group: Me, Megan, Stephanie

"C" shaped eggplant:                                         Eggplant & squash at the cleaning station

C for Colloquium                    

Journal Entry #15 - Field Trip on FGCU Campus Trail

                                                                                                                                      March 31, 2011

Florida Gulf Coast University Campus Trail

Today our environmentalist, Erica, was able to take our class on a beautiful tour of the campus trail. 

       I was somewhat interested on going on the FGCU Campus Trail but I was not overly excited. I thought it would be interesting to learn about different trees, plants, and animals. But I learned so much more than that. I learned that we have a lot of Echo friendly tecniques with the water system below the board walk, how they freeze the pipes to provide air conditioning to the school, and how their are campus clean-ups where students can help clear the trails of the walkway.

       I liked how great it felt to go around and pick up the trash around the campus. It is ridiculous to see the amount of garbage that college students produce and leave on the grounds of the campus. I think if everyone that attends FGCU had the opportunity to learn about the environment and go on a campus trail they would have a better appreciation for the world and hopefully get a new perspective. The trail is also a great place to just take a walk and absorb the nature. I would definitely reccommend taking a moment of hectic college life to go on the campus trail.

Personal Journal Entry #14

                                                                                                                                      March 31, 2011

       Environmental Education

       I am a pre-professional teacher, and I believe that hands-on activities are how children learn best. I was thinking as I was taking a walk that today teachers to do express the importance of environmental education (EE). Environmental education is a learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action.

       EE focuses on:

• Awareness and sensitivity about the environment and environmental challenges
• Knowledge and understanding about the environment and environmental challenges
• Attitude concern for the environment and help to maintain environmental quality
• Skills to mitigate the environmental problems
• Participation for exercising existing knowledge and environmental related programs

       At the elementary school level, environmental education can take the form of science enrichment curriculum, natural history field trips, community service projects, and participation in outdoor science schools. EE policies assist schools and organizations in developing and improving environmental education programs that provide citizens with an in-depth understanding of the environment. School related EE policies focus on three main components: curricula, green facilities, and training.

       Schools can integrate environmental education into their curricula with sufficient funding from EE policies. This approach – known as using the “environment as an integrating context” for learning – inserts environmental education into the core subjects and thus environmental education does not take time away from other important subjects, such as art, gym, or music. In addition to funding environmental curricula in the classroom, environmental education policies allot the financial resources for hands-on, outdoor learning. These activities and lessons help address and mitigate "nature deficit disorder", as well as encourage healthier lifestyles.

       Green schools, or green facility promotion, are another main component of environmental education policies. Greening school facilities cost, on average, a little less than 2 percent more than creating a traditional school, but payback from these energy efficient buildings occur within only a few years. Environmental education policies help reduce the relatively small burden of the initial start-up costs for green schools. Green school policies also provide grants for modernization, renovation, or repair of older school facilities. Additionally, healthy food options are also a central aspect of green schools. These policies specifically focus on bringing freshly prepared food, made from high-quality, locally grown ingredients into schools.

Personal Journal Entry #13 - The Four Challenges to Sustainability by David Orr

                                                                                                                                 March 31, 2011

GR #9: The Four Challenges to Sustainability by David Orr

David Orr explores the theme of sustainability in his paper the “Four Challenges of Sustainability.”  The article begins with a short look at the origins of the ‘concept of sustainability’ something he believes did not enter public notice until after the threat of nuclear war emerged in the 1950’s.   Initially, he draws his readers into a rather bleak look at some of the things he believes we can no longer sustain.    He identifies militarization as one issue while emphasizing his belief that sooner or later it will lead to ‘Armageddon.’  Furthermore, he identifies world poverty, a growing population, unrestrained development, a divided world, an ever increasingly complex world that is overwhelming our capacity to manage, and a world that is spiritually impoverished as all being possible sources for an end of the world scenario.

Orr believes that there are some potential barriers to reaching a sustainable world.   Social factors could prevent change as complex human systems become impossible to manage and people will fail to understand how to live in large numbers in a fragile world.    Political ineptitude could also interfere with man reaching a sustainable future as there is a lack of leadership or leadership is corrupted.   And finally, Orr believes we may fail because of a ‘spiritual emptiness’ which undermines man’s desire to work towards a sustainable future.  

 

Orr asserts that the challenge of sustainability will be a driving force in bringing mankind together to deal with the one issue that should be uppermost in all men’s thinking – building a sustainable world.  He believes the great discovery of the 21^st century will be the fact that man will finally discover “our interconnectedness and implicatedness in the web of life.”    Indigenous populations will undoubtedly point out that it is not a new belief at all.    Orr sees man’s transition to sustainability as having four main challenges:

1.    Create more “models, metaphors, and measures to describe the human enterprise relative to the biosphere.”

2.    “The transition to sustainability will require a marked improvement and creativitiy in the arts of citizenship and governance.”

3.    The public will need to be educated about sustainability.

4.    Man will need to embrace spirituality and accept that many of our problems can only be fixed by higher forces of “wisdom, love, compassion, understanding, and empathy.”

To keep going the way we are going will do nothing more than kill the planet and ultimately destroy man.   Orr argues that we need to stop denying, leave complacency behind, and get to work preserving life on earth.

Personal Journal Entry #12 - The Earth Charter

                                                                                                                                         March 30, 2011

GR # 8: What is the Earth Charter

o Are the guidelines reasonable?

       "It is imperative that we, the people of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations." It is very reasonable to encourage individuals to help sustain the environment. Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make life adventurous and rewarding and we, the citizens of this planet, should appreciate the world we live in and try to make the world a better place.

o Which of these principles and standards are most applicable to our own lives?

       In my opinion, the first principle of the Earth Charter, Respect and Care for the Community of Life, can be allied to our lives. We need to (1) respect the Earth and life in all its diversity, (2) care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love, (3) build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful, and (4) secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

       I think it is important to have these ideas because we need to recognize we live in a community. That each of us are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Everyone should take it upon themselves to care for the environment in a way that benefits them. Everyone has the ability to make a difference. To take action. To make a change. If we all agreed to do one environmentally positive action then imagine what type of world we would live in...

o Is it true that as a culture we are more interested in having more than being more?

       I think this is an accurate statement. We are in a fast-paced society and we are very consumer driven to want the best of everything. We all, even if we don't admit it, want the best for ourselves. There is always some new technology that is coming out, and we all want to own it. We all want to have the biggest TV, the fastest computer, and the coolest cell phone. But sometimes we do not realize that we can have the best without having the newest technology. Just having the opportunity to go to the store to get our food instead of farming should be something that we think about. We do not realize how blessed we are to be living in a society where we have so much. We should think more of ourselves. We should use our knowledge to give something back to the environment in which we live.

o How might the application or not of the principles and standards suggested in the Earth Charter factor into the State of the World?

       Everything is interrelated. Everything we learn in school, work, and home can be applied to everyday life. The purpose of State of the World is to live in a sustainable world and to open our eyes about the type of world we live in. Passion is a key ingredient to success. And both the Earth Charter and State of the World motivate the reader to feel passionate about something. To feel like you can make a difference in the world and in our own lives.

o Is there any real-life connections between what we have discussed in class and your service-learning project?

       My service learning project is working on a farm in Naples. I learned how to grow my own food, wash it, and package it. I am used to buying food in a store and I never truly thought about all of the work behind growing crops and getting them ready to be sold. Farming allows you to be one with the environment and after class discussions we talk about how to make a difference. I am making a difference in my service learning because I am able to help a farm in need of extra hands. I am able to learn new skills. And I am giving something back. Many things you learn in school can be applied to real life if you take the time to give it some thought and make connections.