Last class

During the last class of university colloquium it was really interesting to see everyone's videos about the plants they were assigned. It was cool to see all of the different resources each plant can give those who eat it or what benefits they may have for the soil and wildlife. Some plants can offer tons of vitamins to help villages and other people who wouldn't normally get them. Also a lot of the plants can grow in poor soil so it is a lot easier for countries with very poor soil and those plants will most likely also keep the soil intact and further put nutrients back into the soil so the farmers can have richer soil to plant on. It is amazing the way ECHO will use our videos to help the people around us and the people around the world. I learned a lot by watching those videos in class and I hope others can learn from them too.

Reflection

During the university colloquium course I had come to understand a lot of things about the nature and community around me and the growing problem our society is presenting to nature. Such as the problems presented in planB 4.0 which were very shocking to to realize. I had come to understand my sense of place within the community and what needs to be done in order for our society to take the step towards an environmentally friendly environment.
First it is important for everyone to be educated and aware of the problems presented in planB 4.0. As this text was the basis for our class I learned a great deal from it and have grown to be more aware of the impact my actions has on the environment. If everyone where to do the same our society could grow to be fully sustainable without wasting food, water, or other resources.
Second as people become more aware and educated it is important for everyone to take their own actions toward a more sustainable way of life. Weather it be something small or something large scale anything is helpful. So as long as everyone has the same goals and knowledge about our environment I believe we could be a better place one day.
In conclusion I believe this class taught me a lot about the environment and what is really going on in today's world.  I believe the school is doing the right thing to require this course to their students. They are doing this because our school is extremely environmentally conscious and they believe their students should be educated enough about the environment to take their own steps toward a more environmentally friendly way of life.

Service Learning

During my service learning project i saw the importance of ECHO of SWFL and I found a way to give back to the community and help ECHO. ECHO is a world known agency that helps villages and other communities around the world figure our how to live and be fully sustainable off of the surrounds. ECHO would give them tips and guides on how to grab the resources around them and not only live a more sustainable life but a healthier one.
What i did for my service learning project was take 2 different plants that they keep there and do some research about the plants and make a video about it. The 2 plants that were given to my group were Lemon Grass and Malabar Spinach. It was very interesting to learn about these plants and it was an amazing feeling to know that what i was doing for ECHO could potentially help a local grower or a grower across the world in planting these plants for their resources, food, or vitamins they provide.

the two videos can be found here
Lemon Grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGHh7XtQ4O0
Malabar Spinach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKM2gi9CCk4

What i also did was make QR codes for the videos i made and the QR codes for websites where i found the information about the plants.
Again i hope what i did can help ECHO in learning more about these plants and help them to further enhance the lives of others.

Chapter 2 Population Pressure: Land and Water

This chapter out of Plan B 4.0 is extremely interesting and unbelievable. It is unimaginable to learn all of the things about our depleting water supply around the world and even here in the United States. In Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas the water table has dropped by more than 100 ft. Just seeing that happen so close to home can really shock you. In parts of the middle east they share portions of water tables and this conflict is predicted to start wars between neighboring countries. This is going to be caused by the increase in population which causes an increase in demand for water. Water is going to be a very very valuable resource to everyone around the world.
Not only are there starting to be battles between countries for water but there are starting to be battle within countries for water. This is because the amount of water it takes to make the food we eat. It takes about 100o tons of water to grow 1 ton of wheat. And even the amount of corn it takes to create 25 gallons of corn based ethanol  could feed a person for an entire year.

Downtown Fort Myers Field Trip

On Thursday june 27th our class visited Downtown Fort Myers to learn about the people and the environment of Fort Myers. The main thing that stood out to me during the field trip was this collage.

This image alone explains for the most part how fort myers was found and how it came to be the fort myers we see today. On the far left you can see a group of seminole indians and the boats they were sipped out of fort myers on. Then to the right of them you can see the infamous indian chief Billy Bowlegs. Behind Billy you can see the "Fort Myers" and the union troops in front of him. To the right of them is the railroad and train that really boosted the industry here in fort myers. Then the long bridge that was built across the river for people to cross and the cattle to symbolize how big of a cattle town Fort Myers was.

Another thing that really caught my attention during the field trip was the monument of an eagle flying that was built outside of the courthouse. This eagle was carved out of a huge tree that once stood there but had died from being stuck by lightning too many times. When the city was going to remove the dead tree a local artist offered his time for free to make this carving in order to please the city.

Also it was amazing to know that many influential people that carved the way of the world and how we live today had lived in Fort Myers. People such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone who are all actually in a huge statue in the middle of a fountain in downtown Fort Myers. 

Field Trip 6/13/13

During this field trip at Lovers key it was very cool to walk around the beach and see everything the small island has to offer. The main part of the field  trip was our talk about what the strip of islands along the west coast of Florida has to offer. Not only does the islands offer a barrier from strong coastal winds but it provides an extremely beneficial bay area where tons of game fish come from see to lay their eggs. This drives our economy and fishing industry.

People from all over the world come to our beaches to go on fishing trips and this alone provides a great amount of revenue. A main part of why our bay area is so important is because of the mangroves that provide protection for these fish. The Red mangroves (or walking trees) provide excellent homes for these fish. This is because of the hanging branches that envelop an area where larger predator fish cannot enter. Not only do we have a large amount of game fish developing in our bay area but the shrimping industry is also excellent. I got a small glimpse of this walking out on the dock picture below. At this dock there were tons of schools of bait fish and under the dock there were very large snook and other fish.

Prompt 1

For my first prompt i chose chapter 5 out of the book "Plan B 4.0." I chose this chapter because as I am in pursuit of a degree in the field of engineering it is very important for the future of engineering to think about environmentally friendly ways to go about anything they are doing. This can be applied to just about anything such as the production of materials, and the pollutants this may give off. Energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy is especially important because of the harm fossil fuels and coals do to our society, not to mention the fact that our fossil fuels are non renewable and our worlds supply is depleting very quickly. 

The world needs to start to move towards a more reliable and renewable energy sources and the book has depicted this very well. In the book it says that the US coast lines has so much attainable wind energy that it could power the whole country. The book also said enough light hit earth each day to power the worlds economy for a whole year. Finally the amount of geothermal energy trapped in the earth is astronomical and the first 6 miles of the earths crust contains 50,000 times more energy then all the worlds oil and gas reserves combined.

Field Trip to ECHO May 30

On this field trip to ECHO it was very interesting to see the different types of irrigation and ways to grow the plants we had seen that day. There was as lot of cool stuff that they use at ECHO that is very beneficial to the world. They showed us ways to irrigate crops in places with very little water, ways to use natural gas grills using cow manure, seeds to sterilize water, and even crops that will grow essentially anywhere.
During the field trip there were a couple of things that stood out to me. One happened to be the moringa plant, also known as the miracle seed. This seed happens to purify water, which is very beneficial to areas with poor water conditions. It is also edible and contains a very large amount of vitamins and even contains more vitamin C than oranges pound for pound.
Another thing that also stood out to me was the irrigation system they used for the rice fields. Instead of a modern rice field where they clump the seeds very close together in groups of three and flood the field ECHO came up with a new technique in which they use one seed and space them out and they even use less water and don;t have to flood the field. They have tested this technique and the results have shown that this technique creates even more rice than the technique that is now being used very widely.
Also another cool thing was the tilapia pond. It was cool to know that these fish can live in ponds with very low oxygen levels. This is very useful for villages located in areas where there may be a very small pond with little oxygen and it will give them a food source with a large amount of vitamins.
Also the bunnies that are raised at ECHo can be very beneficial for a village as well. While bunnies don't require much food or water since they are so small they can populate an area very quickly. This means that the village can have a good source of protein and use the skin and other parts of the bunny for other uses. Also bunnies feces can be used for a good manure to help grow crops.

Class May 23

On this blog i wanted to reflect on the videos we watched in class.
It was pretty interesting to see the 3 different places around the world and the new things that were presented to us. To see the destruction that the human population has done to places like Africa, Vancouver, and even close to home Kansas, was really disturbing and really hit home. It is crazy to think about how the human population can be so greedy at times or even think they are helping places out by changing the plant life when it is really so destructive to that environment. Such as the places in Africa that were mentioned during the video.
When European settlers had thought they would be doing a good deed by planting seeds all across Africa but in reality these trees were stealing water from the native species and flowing rivers. Once some of the trees were cut down the rivers started to flow again and the native species and human could now live their daily lives without having to walk miles to a water supply. This can relate to us to because of how many invasive trees there are in florida such as the maliluka and brazilian pepper.
Also in Vancouver island how the they have switched from the destructive clear cutting that destroys the land and environment to a spot cutting technique. This technique requires surveyors to look over the land wanted to be cut. After approval a team comes in to chop the trees down while a helicopter starts to air lift the trees so they can be made into lumber. This relates to us because the lumber made from these trees are marked in stores as certified lumber and when a purchase for anything wood related, such as a deck, it is important to support the use of lumber that have not greatly affected the area from which it came from.
Lastly in the video we had seen the affects of pesticides in Kansas. As one farmer is trying to stray away from pesticides and focus on the nutrients and health of the land. He had mentioned that the soil had been stripped a large amount of top soil and nutrients since the dust bowl and wide spread use of strong pesticides. The pesticides are so strong in fact there is a dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi river and those pesticides flow into the gulf of mexico.

May 16th Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Field trip

During our field trip to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary it was really awesome to see the the Pine Flatwoods, Wet Prairies, and Marsh Swamp within 50 feet of each other. While the elevation had lowered during our walk on the boardwalk we had seen some deer grazing in the wet prairies. Walking further we had come across a barn owl at the beginning of the swamp lands. finally near the end of our walk we had come across a mud whole where an alligator had been sitting out with some baby alligators as well.

While reflection on the beautiful sights I had seen throughout our journey through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary it had become very evident that this is a place that must be cherished and protected by all of mankind. As a society that is continuing to grow we must not be too selfish to take the homes and space of these beautiful florida animals. As professor Doug Morris had mentioned during our field trip that 'we have changed our environment before, and it has never been for the better. We have always come to find in later studies that what we think is right for the environment is truly never really correct , and that the environment has perfected this specific way over thousands of years."While seeing the environment of south west florida it had made me realize that everyone should view the environment in such a way as we did on that day. I think it would be essential for people to get a better understanding of what they are doing to hurt our environment around us and what steps we could take to protect it. We could benefit things in the real world such as the Living Machine. In society we could use this anywhere really and it would benefit the surrounding area and giving use clean water that was literally purified by trees and plants around it.