Service Learning and Colloquium-10

University colloquium is a required class in order to graduate here at FGCU. It is also interdisciplinary environmental education course designed to explore the concept of sustainability as it relates to a variety of considerations and forces in Southwest Florida.

While taking this class it surprised me how much I really learned in the classroom, on field trips, and also doing my service-learning hours. This class helped me to enable a working understanding of sustainability, of environmental education, and of ecological literacy. With taking this class we also had to do service-learning. hours. Service-learning is a reflective activity that can increase knowledge and skills, and provides an enriched learning experience that contributes to personal growth and worldwide knowledge. By doing this service-learning it has helped me to learn about sustainability and how to be more sustainable in many ways. One way I learned to be sustainable through this project was by urban gardening. Urban gardening is low-cost, lightweight method for gardening in any situation where good soil is not available or is not suitable for gardens.  You will be surprised at what you can grow on an old carpet or in a cement-mixing tray filled with old socks filled with cola cans. I believe that this method connects with the natural world and is very sustainable. While doing this you are not only being sustainable but also helping the environment you live in.

Overall by taking University Colloquium and doing my service-learning project it has shown me many ways to be sustainable and also the understanding of sustainability, of environmental education, and of ecological literacy. It was a learning experience and knowledge that will help me in my future.

Class-9

Today was our last day of colloquium! In todays class, we watched everyones videos on their plants they did for their service learning project. It was interesting to see what the class had put together and what they had learned about their plants through these videos. We saw videos on plants such as the Chaya, moringa, neem tree, and the mulberry. Everyone did a great job on their videos and each one was very informational and very education as well. Something new I learned about one the plants, Moringa, is that it is often called the "miracle tree" because of its medicinal and nutritional properties. Something new I learned about the Chaya plant is that it is a great source of calcium and potassium. It was great learning so many new facts about plants that I had never even heard of before this class. It broadened my knowledge on plants and knowing about these plants will definitely help me in the future!

Downtown Ft. Myers-8

Today, we went on a class field trip to downtown Fort Myers. Downtown Fort Myers is a very beautiful place to visit not only for its atmosphere but also for its historical value. When first getting to downtown we stopped at the local farmers market. The farmers market was full of fruits, veggies, flowers, and even products like honey. We then went and visited the fountain call "Three Uncommon Friend." This fountain is a historical tribune that is dedicated to the city's most famous winter residents: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. The foutain depicts the three men gathered around a campfire. There is also a mother alligators and her babies, a mother manatee and her calf, fish, lily pads, and frogs. As we walked through the town we visited Pleasure Pier and the Fort Myers yacht basin. After seeing all these historical and beautiful landmarks we went to a garden full of palm trees call "The City of Palms." This park had a bunch of different kinds of palm trees form all over the world. It was cool to see all the different kinds of palm trees and where they grow and originate from. This field trip taught me a lot about the downtown Fort Myers area and also taught me there is a lot of history behind it.

Plan B 4.0-7

Today in class everyone did their presentations on their particular chapter from the book, "Plan B 4.0." It was interesting to see the whole class's perspective of the chapters that I have already read and compare to what they got out of the chapter. My group and I presented on Chapter 6, Redesigning Urban Transport. This chapter was really interesting to me! After a certain point, as automobiles begin to multiply, they provide not mobility but immobility. Automobiles also pollute the air that we breathe. However, as this chapter describes, their are ways to solve this problem by redesigning urban transport systems. Urban transport systems all include busses, railroads, bicycle paths, and pedestrian walkways. By using these urban transport system it can not only help with the overpopulation of the street but also by using these systems we can prevent dozens of casualties too. The chapter also talked about using urban gardening to help redesign the city for people and not cars. By gardening more it will help the you and the community and also it can help to make vacant parking lots a beautiful garden! These changes are very realistic and it will potentially save the environment and helping yourself in the process.
 

Lover's Key Sate Park-6

On today's field trip we went to Lover's Key State Park. This field trip was probably my favorite field trip so far. As a class, we got to experience the beauty of the beach and the ecosystem that surrounds it. Dr. Morris explained to us at the beginning that the type of ecosystem we were in was an Estuary. An estuary can be defined as a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it. We saw many different animals while exploring the beach. There were sea slugs up on shore. There were also crabs and many different types of fish. The shore was coated with all different types of shells which I though was very pretty. The park has many different activities that is very environmentally friendly to the area. People can bike, hike, fish, canoe, or kayak at the state park. It is also a perfect environment for having a picnic.

Class-5

Our colloquium class had no field trip today. Instead we stayed inside the class and learned many new things through videos and lectures. One of videos we watched was about consumerism. I learned the definition of Consumerism. It is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in great amounts. The video broke down exactly how this works and how the government tries to get us to buy goods that we don't even need! Or they will make products that are so cheap that it will lure you in to buy them and then very soon after the product will break. Most likely when your product breaks you will go buy another and another and the flow continues. During this class we also discussed our Ecological Footprint. An Ecological Footprint is defined by the measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystem. We went through as a class a set of questions to figure out what our ecological footprint is. Our class's ecological footprint came out to be 8 worlds! Thats terrible! That means with the amount of resources we use or don't use that it would take 8 worlds to fill what we consume on a  daily basis. At the end of class we got into our groups for our Plan B 4.0 and discussed further our presentations that are due in 2 weeks.

ECHO-4

Today we went on a field trip to ECHO farms. ECHO was a great learning experience and it is a great cause. ECHO is a non-profit organization that helps to reduce world hunger. During out field trip at ECHO we traveled through the fields and saw all the ways that they help to reduce world hunger. ECHO's main mission is to equip people with resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives of the poor. One of the things that interested me the most was the urban gardening solutions. Using materials such as garbage, tires, and carpet can be used to garden in your back yard even if you live in a city. This is a great solution to better our society in many ways. We will also be helping out the community and helping ECHO. We will be making knowledgeable videos on certain types of plants located at ECHO that will be available for the visitors of ECHO to see. This will help to better the knowledge of the visitors and anyone who take tours through ECHO about that certain type of plant.