Final Impressions

It's that time of the year. Finals are here and the class has just about ended. My final impressions of Colloquium are good. I never thought that I would enjoy the field trips as much as I did. I also felt they were handled well, with our teacher having us write up on them during the field trip and after in these blogs. It helped me relive the experience and actually take a step back and look into them more and see them for what they really were, learning opportunities. I also really liked the fact that they incorporated service learning in this course as well. I'm sure it introduced service learning to some of the students who were new to the university, as well as it helped others who needed the hours in general. I also liked the fact that when we presented our projects to our teacher, she wanted us to be creative with them and not simply show a powerpoint. I felt this was good because I'm sure it forced a lot of students to think outside the box, because I know it did for me. In terms of changes to the course, I would probably shorten the amount of papers written to about two or three, but definitely not four papers. These journal blogs were also good but I would recommend having one due a week as opposed to having five or six all due by a certain time. I think having a journal entry due once a week or twice a week would be good and keep the students on track. The one thing I didn't really like, was the Colloquium Test that we had to take before the class and at the end of the class. I think a simple survey at the end of class would have been just fine because I feel like we just wasted our time on that exam. Many of the questions were asked repeatedly and I just think that they could have gotten information from us on the class and our opinions towards the environment in a different way. I felt we got graded on our readings during the quizzes and we shouldn't get graded on all the readings at the end of the year. In terms of readings, I really enjoyed reading A Land Remembered. At first I thought the book was going to be extremely boring to read, but it was actually interesting. It was also very easy to read which made me enjoy it that much more. I also liked some of the readings from Louv and Dewey because they made me think about how nature isn't getting a lot of attention from us these days. It also made me look at how my attention span has drifted from when I was a kid and when I use to go out running and playing outside every day. I especially enjoyed Dewey's take on Education and how much experiencing things really educates us because that was a main theme in this class I felt, especially with all the field trips that we took. In the future, I would suggest the same field trips, but definitely include something along the lines of canoeing again because that was fun since we were out there in nature, but not just walking around. I also liked the sustainable meal because I felt that was fun and it brought our class together a little bit since we were all just sitting around and eating and drinking together and it wasn't a stressful environment. There's not much that I would change about the course, in terms of removing assignments, however I would change some things with the project we had for the wiki page. I think there should definitely be more time given for the project and at least more time in class to work on the page when everyone is together in groups because for my group personally it was very hard getting people to come together and commit to meeting. I would either make that change, or just have groups present on their chapter in power point form as opposed to making a wiki page because making that page was rather difficult. All in all, I enjoyed the class and I will definitely miss it.

Sense of Place

For this interview, I decided to interview an older woman by the name of Teresa. She is originally from Europe and I wanted to get her take on conservation and with the things we do in class. In her opinion, it's important to protect nature. We have to plant trees as much as we can to make up for the deforestation that takes place. She feels that we need to protect the parks too. In addition, she feels that people in our generation, in general, actually DO try to be more clean. She feels they might be saving more for the economy's sake. "They want to save more money. I believe people were wasting more initially because everything was easy, however I do see a trend in your generation of activists who take a stand and try to save. They're not throwing away as much." I asked her about her life growing up and how conservation was. She said that, "Growing up, we were taught to reuse glass bottles. We didn't have so many things so we had to reuse everything." She also feels that there might be a gap in conservation between the two continents, with the U.S. and Europe. "People in the U.S. are more interested in throwing things away and not recycling." She claimed back in her day, there wasn't much building going on over in Europe like in the U.S. where there is a lot of building and new construction and cutting down of trees. When I discussed FGCU with Teresa she mentioned how she, likes the steps that our university is taking to be green. In addition to her thoughts on FGCU, she also talked about the auto industry. "I think it's important for others to explore driving more fuel efficient vehicles as opposed to the gas guzzlers." She also feels that other countries look at innovative cars and fuel efficiency more than the US does. Going back to basics, she feels that we don't need a lot of the things we have and this may attribute to our waste. She feels that, "tv commercials fuel our need for wanting things and being consumed with materialistic things. We don't need to have the stuff we own. The more stuff we own, the less happy we are." Teresa is old fashioned and feels the less she buys, the better. Teresa likes the fact that I'm taking a class, like Colloquium which is introducing me to more environmental ideas that I otherwise wouldn't be introduced to. She thinks some of the trips like canoeing and walking around downtown are good because kids my age hardly go out anymore and enjoy nature like that. She hopes that FGCU keeps up this policy of having its students take the course and would like to see it implemented in other universities as well so that all students may eventually share in our experience and come together so that we can eventually take a stand towards the destruction we've been putting Earth under.

Canoe Trip

(Photo courtesy of http://www.thedirk.com/2008/04/)
On our last field trip we got to go out on canoes at the FGCU Marine Lab, which is right next to Barefoot Beach. Some people drove separately there, such as myself but others carpooled. I originally wanted to carpool however I had so much trouble finding the Marine Lab at first that I decided carpooling would have made things more difficult since I couldn't find the Publix that I needed to stop at either to meet the other people that were going. Fortunately the other people were able to carpool because we didn't have much room parking at the lab itself.

(Photo courtesy of http://www.fgcu.edu/vestermarine/)

Once everyone was there, we were given a brief overview of the map and a general idea of where we would e canoeing and then our professor's husband gave us a little talk about canoeing and the technique for proper paddling. After that, I began helping out along with the other tall strong guys, in getting the canoes down the rack and into the water for my classmates who had already gotten a partner. Towards the end, I ended up getting partnered with two other people in a somewhat smaller canoe. I don't believe it was a proper three person canoe however it still fit three of us. I was a bit annoyed because I just wanted to be in a canoe with one other person, and even then I would have preferred being by myself. One we got in the water, we realized the girl in the middle wouldn't be able to paddle since she didn't have much room. My other partner was in the front and I was in the back since I was the heaviest and would be steering. Once we were out there, we began to get the hang of things and followed the class out. After a while, we would make periodic stops and our professor would point out some things, mainly the mangroves or even the oysters. I appreciated the stops since my group seem to always fall behind and needed to catch up! It was kind of difficult following because I paddled much harder than the frontman and we were essentially carrying another person who couldn't paddle so that definitely slowed us down a bit. Fortunately, I had a good time otherwise just being outside, even if we did crash into others in canoes and mangroves! The only hard part was sitting down for so long during the whole thing. My butt was real sore even WITH a seat cushion during the whole process, and I would have hated to feel it without one.



My impressions of the mangrove estuary were fine. It reminded me of the field trip when we went out to see the old cottage and then walked along the boardwalk. I do realize how important mangroves are however, and I won't take them for granted. They provide shelter for the smaller organisms that wouldn't survive out in the big water alone. They also aid in carbon sequestration. They also protect our shorelines too which is important because sand erosion isn't good and we need to make sure we can stop or slow it down by any means necessary. All in all, I would definitely like to go canoeing again and check out the mangroves again.

Urban Ft Myers and Southwest Florida Historical Museum

On this field trip we ended up going to downtown Ft Myers and the Southwest Florida Historical Museum. First we toured downtown and walked along the streets and check out some various sites, including this area that had different types of palmettos growing and planted in separate spots. It was interesting to see that there were that many different types of palmettos, especially in areas that I didn't even know could grow palmettos. We also saw some statues too that were in honor of civil war soldiers too.
(Photo Courtesy of Robert Wozniak)

We walked further downtown in Ft Myers and saw this amazing mural that was painted.
It shows soldiers and native americans standing, with shots of various things throughout that era occuring right behind them. That was interesting to see and I wondered what motivated the artist to come up with that image. In a way it makes me wonder if I too could be capable of such work in any capacity. After viewing the mural we made our way to a museum. The museum had a lot of cool interesting artifacts such as various skeletons from previous animals that use to live in the area.
(Photo courtesy of Robert Wozniak)

The picture above shows the jaw of a baby megalodon which was actually an ancestor and precursor to current sharks today. I thought it was too huge to be a baby, but the lady that was giving us the tour concurred that it was indeed an infant. I would sure hate to meet the parent!
While going on the tour we also saw other skeletons of animals, such as a huge sloth like creature that was rather intimidating. We then walked around this Egypt exhibit that had these things set up to resemble artifacts you would find in Egypt. My favorite part however was getting a chance to see the Crackhouse. The Crackhouse was this little shack set up that resembled an outhouse basically. It was rather small and didn't look like it could comfortably house one person, let alone an entire family.
In terms of redesigning Ft Myers and getting more people involved, I wouldn't necessarily change the sections of the area, or reconstruct anything like that. I actually like the way downtown ft myers is set up, because it's easy to walk around. The only thing I would do differently to make it so that more people got involved is to throw more events in downtown, especially those activities that get kids involved. Every Halloween I would set up stations for free candy and kids could stop by and get free candy. I think this would introduce them to the area if they hadn't already been and then after a little touring they might just stop by again .

Energy Usage

A. For this blog, I experimented with the amount of energy I use in my every day life. Starting in the morning, I notice that I keep the A/C on during the night and for all of the day. I have the A/C going on for 24 hours. In addition, I used my phone several times throughout the day, totaling 1 1/2 hours on the phone for the 24 hour period. My alarm clock is constantly plugged in so that counts for 24 hours of usage. I kept track of how long I watched tv for, and the hours totaled that I watched was 6 hours of tv. I only showered once and that was for only 15 minutes. I also used the microwave for 1 minute to heat up some leftover food.

B. I wasn't able to check out my meter however the company I deal with for power is FPL. According to their website, "FPL uses a diverse mix of fuels at its power plants to generate reliable electricity. Because of its fuel mix, FPL is recognized as a clean-energy company, with one of the lowest emissions profiles among U.S. utilities." (http://www.fplgroup.com/about/contents/fpl.shtml).

C. The total number of miles that I drove was 41 miles. This included my commute to school, and various errands that I had to run throughout the day. Throughout the day I drove by myself.

D. The odometer on my car reads 109716 miles. It's a 2003 Ford Explorer. On average, it's been driven 15, 673 miles a year.
(Courtesy of http://4wheeldrive.about.com/od/explorerrides/ig/Ford-Explorer-Offroad-Photos/Doc-s-2003-Ford-Explorer-XLT.htm).

F. According to the website, www.fueleconomy.gov, my car actually puts out 12.4 tons annually of CO2 emissions.

G. Looking back, I feel somewhat ashamed at how much energy I use. I could definitely cut back on the amount of energy I devote to the AC. This will only save on money for me as well, however I was so used to our long winters that I'm a bit spoiled on the cool air and I'm just not quite ready for the hot weather to be here yet. I could definitely make better choices, such as turning the AC unit off after I leave the house, or unplugging my clocks after I leave the house since I don't need to know what time it is when I'm out of the house. I try not to drive a lot of places however I do live far away enough from the school that I have to drive pretty far out. In the future, I plan on setting a limit with my driving and make sure I can keep myself to a certain budget of driving. This will not only benefit the planet but also save me on money too.

Corkscrew Swamp

On our fourth field trip of the year, we went out the furthest we have gone, all the way to Immokalee, to a place known as the Corkscrew Swamp. When I first heard we were going here, I had no idea about the place. In fact, I just thought the Swamp was actually right on Corkscrew road near the university. Little did I know that it was actually an hour away! When we arrived at the swamp we began by going inside and then discussing the history of the water flow in Florida. I found it all very interesting because I hadn't known about the impact we have as a civilization on the water flow in Florida. We saw the three different maps about the water flow way back many years ago, and the population in Florida at the time, which was rather small. We then saw the map of how Florida is currently and I realized then how important it is that we help to restore the natural water flow in Florida for the sake of the environment and ourselves since we rely on the natural water our aquifers provide. After learning about that, we went along the boardwalk and split up into two groups. I felt this was smart since we could both cover much more ground splitting up rather than being together. Plus there wasn't much room on the boardwalk as it was for our entire class. We followed along the grad student who had a lot of information on the swamp. We learned about the background of the swamp and how it was purchased. We also learned about the animals in the swamp as well and spotted a few of them.
One of the animals we saw was a green anole. This was actually pretty cool to see because I hardly see the green anoles. We have the brown "cuban" anoles all over the place on our campus. We also saw some red-shouldered hawks as well. The most interesting site for me though was the divide between the cypress and the pine trees across the sawgrass.


It was an amazing site because I've never seen such a natural divide in nature. Overall I would like to visit the swamp again because I would like to see more of it and I also think it's just a nice quaint place to visit anyways. My only hope for next time is that I can see more wildlife and possibly a few alligators too.

Ecological Footprint

What would the world look like if everyone lived like me?

That's the question that's proposed with the ecological footprint game, a game that is pretty interesting to try out. It basically calculates your ecological footprint on this planet based on how you live your everyday life. It takes into account your transportation, eating, shopping habits, etc, to figure out how many planet Earths we would need in order to sustain the human population if everyone lived liked you. I took the test and was shocked to learn that it would take 4.6 Earths to sustain my lifestyle. I never really considered myself as having that devastating of an impact on this environment. I think that perhaps my lifestyle is a bit lazy. I don't like carpooling, I prefer driving alone. I like being able to go where ever I want to and be able to leave whenever without having to compromise because I'm traveling with someone else.
Although I'm sure this can cause a lot of traffic and emission.














(Photo courtesy of http://tucowsinc.com/news/2007/06/tucows-goes-to-the-traffic-conference/)

I'm also pretty bad with leaving lights on in the house and things plugged in.
There are times when I will unplug appliances and tvs when I know that I will be away from my house for a long time. However I still leave my phone charger in the wall whenever I leave my house just out of habit and laziness. I think my lifestyle isn't that bad for the environment. I don't litter and I don't really waste water or electricity that much. I will turn a light off if I leave a room. I think part of my reason is that my electricity bill isn't that high and since I don't see the effects of wasting electricity here or there in my bills each month, I don't think there's much to be made if I change my habits. I'm not willing to change my driving habits because I do live far

(photo courtesy of http://www.gearfuse.com/driin-mobile-phone-holder-shackles-cables-from-causing-chaos/)

away from the places I need to be at every day, whether it's work or school and I just feel that carpooling doesn't apply for everyone. In terms of food, I feel that I shouldn't have to change my lifestyle unless it affects my health directly. Fortunately I don't need to change my shopping habits since I don't even shop at all anyways. I also won't change my household since it's my house and where I want to live and I feel that no one should have to live uncomfortably if they don't want to, strictly from a size perspective. I will however, take steps to recycle more and stop creating as much waste since I do agree that I throw away too many garbage bags each week when the trash comes. I will begin to take steps in separating out paper, plastic and aluminum each week.



















(Photo courtesy of http://eltterengganu.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/save-our-world-be-the-protector/)