August 29

It's Friday!

You have a quiz today. The format may be new for many of you; this will be a google form document that requires you to log-in with your Creek account. This quiz is an 8 question multiple choice event based on our first two weeks together...  it is drawn from our discussions, presentations and articles.

In class today, after your quiz, we will be discussing the nutrient and matter cycles that operate in each of the biomes. I would like you focus on a couple of key concepts as we move through the cycles.

1. Please pay attention to the different forms that the elements take;
2. Identify the mechanism (energy transfer) that causes the molecular change.
1. Be sure to identify the specific organism (as appropriate).
2. Be sure to identify the specific type of energy that is required
1. this includes possibilities from multiple energy groups that we have discussed in class, including:
• potential (chemical, nuclear, mechanical & gravitational)
• kinetic (motion, sound, radiant, thermal & electrical)
• renewable energy sources
• non-renewable energy sources
3. You will use the chrome books to review the following sites and create your own diagram/notes of the cycles. 
1. Penn State University School of Earth and Mineral Sciences: Carbon Cycle Feedbacks
2. MIT Open CourseWare: Environmental Earth Science: The Water Cycle
3. University of Minnesota: College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences: Phosphorus Cycle
4. University of Minnesota: College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences: Nitrogen Cycle

Please remember to review your sustainability research question along with your peer reviewers comments. I would like to see (hard copy, Times New Roman, 12, double spaced) a revised rough draft on Tuesday.  I hope that you all have a great weekend. If you have any questions, I will be checking in periodically from the "Ranch" and will post pictures next week of some sustainability/ecology interest!

August 28

Happy Thursday!

Please remember to send me your biome tri-fold tonight! The instructions and sign-up information are found on the blog from Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday, we talked about the starting point of all biome interactions and all of the energy on Earth, coming from an energy source.

We need to finish the presentation from yesterday and we need to discuss how the biomes are connected and inter-related.

We need to evaluate how that energy drives the matter and nutrient cycles that are critical to the functioning of a biome.

Carbon
Water
Nitrogen
Phosphorus

August 27

Good morning! We have a busy agenda for today. Please make a list of the following 11 types of natural resources:

1. coal
2. oil/petroleum
3. natural gas
4. nuclear materials (uranium eg.)
5. solar
6. wind
7. hydro
8. tidal
9. geothermal
10. bio-mass or bio-fuels
11. hydrogen

We will be talking about how these fuels are classified and how they relate to our discussion of biomes. We will review the Laws of Thermodynamics and explore how these "rules" determine how energy transfers take place.

Here is the presentation for today.

Please turn in your week #2 write-up (population warm-up question).

Here is the biome sign-up sheet! Sorry for the late post.  Have a great night and see you all tomorrow!

August 26

Happy Tuesday!

Agenda for the day is as follows:

• 5 minutes to pair and share with a classmate on the warm-up & write-up activity presented yesterday (which can be found here) and will be on board when you get to class.

BTW...the population of China is 1.351 billion and the population of India is 1.237 billion. The US is third with a population of 313.9 million. Global population is 7.046 billion (and rising!).

• 5 minute review of expectations for the write-up....precise and concise please!
• 10 minute introduction of the biome presentation which is due on Thursday (8/28). The instructions for this activity can be found here.
• 30 minutes for peer review introduction and actual review of research summary from the sustainability article that we read last week. 

Homework:

1. Use Chapter 4 and the glossary of Chiras to define the vocabulary words given to you yesterday. Please be sure to use this information as you begin to construct your biome presentation.
2. The "population" warm-up & write-up is due on Wednesday (8/27).
3. The biome presentation is due on Thursday before midnight.

August 25

Happy Monday!

I hope that you had a great weekend and that you are starting to get back into the swing of things. We have a busy week ahead and I want to start this week by providing you with a list of the material that we are going to cover.

• You will share your environmental ethic;
• You will have your first reading from the Chiras text; 
• You will complete your first three (3) observation diary entries;
• You will complete another warm-up & write-up activity;
• You will have your first quiz;
• You will make & complete your first presentation.

Busy week right? I want to accomplish a lot so that I can give you some time off over the long weekend (cross your fingers!). I want you to know that I value your time and will do my best to provide you with assignments that will enable you to reach our goal and not waste your time.  In case that goal was not stated clearly enough last week... everyone in class earns a 3 or higher on the AP exam, which is the point where colleges begin to award credit for this course. In addition, I have a goal that my students collectively average a 3.8 on the exam, which means that many of you will be scoring 4 or 5 this spring....

Enough yammering! Here we go:

Week #2: Warm-Up & Write-Up

Basic Ecological Concepts

Diary Observation Form

August 22: Developing your Environmental Ethic

Today is a reflection and resolution day.

Explain what your environmental ethic is....

• you may use pictures or poems;
• you may use detailed flowcharts with footnotes and citations;
• you could even perform an interpretive dance!

The point in this exercise is for you to find a voice for your connection to this planet.

Thursday August 21

What is your environmental ethic?

The presentation from class can be found here.

Use the following questions to help shape your personal ethic...

1. How do you "see" the earth?  Is it beautiful or ugly or somewhere in between?
2. What do you "feel" about the natural world?
3. Do you feel joy or sorrow, pain or pleasure about animals or sunsets or white-capped mountains?
4. Do you "understand" the natural world and how its components are related? Or are its ways foreign?
5. Do you "love" the earth - or do you feel alien from it?
6. Do you care for its well-being, feel for its suffering, want to heal its wounds? 
7. Or does thinking about the earth in such terms seem inaccurate and far-fetched? And, to use the last of Leopold's terms, do you have "faith" in the earth?
8. Perhaps this is a religious faith? 
9. Or perhaps this is faith in the sense that you count on the earth to provide well for your life?
10. Or perhaps the earth is faithless, a fickle friend at best?

Wednesday, August 20

Here is the presentation for the Sustainability: Environmental Ethics article that you read yesterday. At the end of the presentation, there are 5 research questions. Please select one question and prepare a rough draft of your answer for Monday (8/25).

Tuesday, August 19

On-line Survey

Book Check-Out

Environmental Ethics Presentation

Reading (to be done) for Wednesday: Sustainability: Ethical Foundations 
original link can be found here

Homework (to be done) for Wednesday: W-U & W-U (rural, urban or sub-urban?)

Daily Outline of Events

Monday August 18, 2014

Introductory Information

• Lab/Field Activity Permission Form
• Course Description & Expectations
• Pre-course on-line survey
• Service-Based Learning (SBL) Requirement