Debriefing Entry

Journal Entry #5

Reflect upon how you made meaning out of the University Colloquium experience from a personal and academic perspective. Discuss the impact this experience may have on your chosen major or future profession. Describe some of the high points and the things you found most difficult about University Colloquium:

This course has taught me to appreciate the natural world and how valuable it is to me individual. I will take from this course a better appreciation for the environment. Being green will no longer be a fad, it will be a part of my everyday life. I will focus on reducing waste and being aware of where my food comes from. While many may not see how a legal career is connected to the environment, however, I believe that no matter what your work you have the responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. During this course I truly enjoyed the field trips, since this is a distance learning course I had the opportunity to take mu family along to experience the same places. The most difficult part of this course for me was the due dates on assignments, as most of my other online courses where due on Sunday. Overall, I have enjoyed this course and will carry the experience from it with me into my future and that of my children.

An Expereince Unlike any Other

Journal Entry #4

The first animal I had the opportunity to get near is the American Icon of freedom, the Bald Eagle. The Bald Eagle was an intimidating bird to view with long talons and pointy beak, however once I entered his habitat I was surprised by his calmness and quickly became at ease being so close to the majestic creature. During both of my visits I had been assigned to clean the bird aviary which housed the Bald Eagle along with Red Should Hawks, and Owls. Each of the birds had their unique characteristics and when treated with respect where calm and curious about your visit. 

Among the Anciet Cypress

Look at Tower

 The Corkscrew Sanctuary is one of the few places in the world that is home to the ancient cypress trees that dot its landscape. Where most of the trees have been cut to create furniture here they have stood protected and have grown to show us what the cypress is meant to be. It is amazing that in the short span of the board walk you can reverse through so many different ecosystems, from the cypress hammock to the marsh, prairie, and the lettuce fields each offer something new and unique to the landscape while working in harmony to support one another.

Lettuce Lakes

Urban Field Trip

  Journal Entry #3 Continued

The Downtown Fort Myers River District was a sharp contrast to the abundance of natural life that was to be found at the ECHO field trip, yet that does not mean it was devoid of life. Outside the Building that houses the Lee County Commissioners stands a statute of a soaring eagle carved from a tree that was once stood on that very ground. Next to this same building stands a Banyan Tree dating back to the time Edison roamed that very ground. Downtown Fort Myers was the center of many significant developments as this was the winter home of Thomas Edison, Gerald Ford, and Firestone. Here they collaborated on many new ideas.

The downtown landscape is dotted with art galleries, bistros, lounges, small cafe's and law offices all surrounding the hub of the Lee County Judicial System. All of this sits along the river front that is lined with docks and mangroves. There are several water fountains that continue the feel and sound of the water from the riverfront throughout the district.

ECHO - Not Just A Tour - A WayTo ChangeThe World

Tilipia Lake with Duck House Over Water

Journal Entry #3

At ECHO they focus on reducing world hunger through education. Their facility provides a training ground for those who wish to enrich the world through their service. Here they work in different"climates" such as monsoon, rock mountain side, or drought conditions. Each area services as both a training ground and a testing facility

In the picture above and to the tilipia and duck pond can be seen. This area shows how dual utilization of a small area can provided greater resources to small farms with minimal land available to them. The duck house is built over the pond with an open floor to allow the duck dropping to pass through, these dropping create an algae bloom which serves as food for the the fish. Through this condensed system the farm can produce three commodities: fish, duck meat, and duck eggs. 

 The Goat house again serves multiple purposes. It houses the goats which can provide 1-2 Litters of milk per day. The elevated goat house keeps the goats contained so that they do not eat the crops and allows easy collection of their droppings for use as a fertilizer.

The ECHO facility provided an insightful look into the struggles of the world people and what can be done to help them. 

What Has Happened to the Freedom of Childhhod?

Photo by: Kevin

Journal Entry #2

 The lessons learned within a classroom provide a foundation of knowledge that is indispensable. One must know how to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic. While in the classroom I learned all these basics of life, but it was the experiences outside of the classroom that truly shaped who I have become. You cannot be taught how to interact with the world around you; this must be learned through experience.

            Within the walls of a traditional classroom I learned how to interact with authority that was not my parents and learned that there were rules to follow that were not the same as it was at home. I learned to follow instructions and manage my time. While each of these lessons provided the necessary structure that must be achieved to function within a society. The lessons I learned after school have proved to be the most valuable.

Reflecting upon Richard Louv’s work, I had for the first time taken the time to categorically compare my childhood experiences to that of my children. My reflections provided to be quite startling. As a child I had the liberty to explore in a way that my children have never experienced. Not until reading Louv’s work had I realized the importance of the freedom I experienced in childhood and how it shaped the person I have become.

I was absolutely startled by the increase in students being medicated for ADHD symptoms according to Louv it has, “increased 600 percent between 1990 and 1995” (p.3). Combining this with my own knowledge in the change in children’s life experiences it seems very plausible that there may be some kind of relationship between the lack of contact with nature and the increase in students with ADHD symptoms. He points out how as a society we have moved from an agriculture society to an urban society, this shift has resulted in a change of perspective, when we were an agriculture society, “energetic boys were particularly prized for their strength, speed, and agility” (Louve, p. 4). These once “prized boys” are now being medicate to undo what thousands of years of nature has created within these boys.

I can remember the playground from my elementary school as though I were standing in it today. The only playground equipment was a set of 10 or so swings the top of the swings were approximately 18 feet, I can remember their relationship to the building as they were at the top of the windows to the second floor classrooms. The rest of the playground consisted of a small tennis and basketball court along with a wide open field that you were free to run and play in.  The field was at least as long as a football field with the swings at the far end. All of the teachers would stay on the small concrete pad near the doors to return to class at the opposite end of the field. There were no fences to keep us in, the far end of the playground had an imaginary fence that you were not allowed to go beyond, the edge of the building and the side of the playground was flanked by a large field leading up to a rolling hill with a few stately homes perched on top looking over the entire school yard. No one ever really seemed to get hurt the worst thing was that you would come back in with mud on your shoes and maybe a grass stain. In the winter we could play in the snow and have snowball fights and when you got hit in the head with a snow ball you just shock it off and kept playing. It was not until sitting down to write this paper that I realized what made recess our time, it was that we were free. The teachers did not breathe down your neck they could not hear every word said and you learned how to interact on your own. They monitored from a distance and only rarely emerged from their concrete pad on the rare instant a teacher would venture off their concrete perch, everything on the playground would go still and watch as the teacher approached a situation.

Reading Richard Louv’s expert from Last Child in the Woods, I was struck by his comment on the state of children’s interaction with nature.”Ironically, the detachment of education from the physical world not only coincided with the dramatic rise in life-threatening childhood obesity but also with a growing body of evidence that links physical exercise and experience in nature to mental acuity and concentration”(p.2). With reflecting upon my childhood experiences on the playground at school I cannot help but to consider them in relationship to the experience my children are having. Their playground at school has the modern school jungle gym of course no swings as that could pose a safety risk. The playground is solid concrete with a fence higher than the one at the Naples Zoo that is used to keep the lions in their cages. The teachers are never out of ear shot. There is not a natural thing to be touched, even the mulch is recycled car tires. Even a small fall can send a child to the nurse’s office. Recently, my daughter was accidentally knocked over by another student playing ball. As a result she had her knee and elbow scrapped up to the point that the blood ran all the way from her knee to her socks. On my playground as a child I would have not even gotten a scratch from such an instance. Now children cannot even run on the playground or play on the monkey bars as they pose liability risks. This new system of recess has taken away the feeling of freedom that was once experience by children on the playground, they no longer have a few moments to leave their school work behind and enjoy childhood.

            My experience of freedom as a child extended beyond the playground and encompassed all of my free time. Upon arriving home from school I was quick to do my homework, as I knew I only had till dark to be outside. Instead, I would spend all of my time outside exploring the world around me. I did not have any fancy world exploring kit or other fancy tools. I had my bike and a sense of adventure. I can remember as early as second grade spending my afternoons exploring the woods around my house with the neighborhood children. There were no adults to watch over our shoulders just ourselves. We had to watch out for each other and make sure we stuck together so no one got left alone in the woods. The thought of my second grader even being out of my sight for a moment outside puts me into a pure state of panic.

            All of the kids I grew up around played outside all weekend. As a child my mother would spend Saturday cleaning our house from top to bottom. While I never looked forward to cleaning; I knew my chores and I got up and quickly got them done, so I could head outside to play. I would only rarely venture in before sunset. If I did it was only for a quick snack. If you were thirsty you went to the water house or creek for a drink. It was a time of innocence when you could accept a cookie from the grandmotherly in the neighborhood, which always seemed to have a snack for the neighborhood children. The weather had little effect on whether we would play outside. If it was too cold to play outside we had to be told so, as we would have never felt it was. The first really good snow of the year was one of the best times to be had, it was a winter wonderland to all of the children.

            While we may have been out of our mother’s sight we were never unwatched. If you had been somewhere you should not have been your mother would know before you even arrived home and you would be greeted at the door with a disproving look. If you did not venture out to play after school it meant you had gotten a really bad note home from your teacher. Further, if you did not venture out on a Saturday you must be really sick or in a lot of trouble. If you did not come out there would be a parade of children at the front door seeing what the matter was. If you were in trouble this usually worked in your favor, because your mother was busy and had little to time to keep explaining why you were not allowed outside and eventually you would be freed from the confines of the house.

Reading Louv’s story of The Last Child in the Woods, I realized that I am one of the children to venture out of the woods, leaving our play forts abandoned with only the ghost of our past and no new children to venture in and discover what we had left behind. Instead all of the children are inside watching television or playing video games. The streets are no longer filled with the simple pleasures of childhood.

            From stories like Louv’s we must learn about the importance of our connection to the environment around us. Classes such as this Colloquium are an important way to connect those who have never had that personal connection with the environment and remind those who have forgotten it about the importance of a personal connection with the environment. Through this connection we can preserve the environment for the next generation. Without the connection, environment is just an inanimate object with no real place in our daily lives. People are always willing to protect the things that are important in their lives and if we are to protect the environment we must have a connection with it.

            My experiences both inside the classroom and outside have shaped my character and sense of self. Both have been an integral part of developing me into the person I am today. A strong foundation in academics and discipline has guided me through my professional career. While a sense of adventure and a free spirit to explore have shaped my personality. I hope this course will allow me to reconnect with nature as I experienced it as a child and allow me to instill in my children the love of nature.

References

Louv, Richard. “Last Child in the Woods.” A University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future.

Copley Custom Textbooks. Acton, 2011. 1-14

 Photo Retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincollins/77344844/

Bio Diversity and It's Connection to the Human Race

Photo By: astkam

Journal Entry #1

Humans have for many generations sought to tame the wilderness into a productive factory that produces the most profitable goods at the lowest financial cost, regardless of the environmental cost. Each generation has developed new technologies to increase production of the highest yielding crop. This idea of profit over environment has led to a dramatic decrease in the biodiversity of living organisms. According to Shiva describes the dramatic increase in the rate of species extinction to the current rate of 27,000 per year. Species are becoming extinct before we can even identify them. Our race for profits could allow us to make the cure for cancer extinct before we can even discover it. Shiva’s article impress the importance of biodiversity for each living organism and how each is connected with one another and that the destruction of a small organism can have devastating impact on the larger species such as ourselves.

                While Shiva details what we have and are doing to the earth Goodall’s expert is an inspiring collection of stories of how individuals have made significant impact on the world they live in. Often the people who have restored the natural balance had a hand in the original destruction or saw the destruction first hand and how it affect the area as a whole. Goodall also points out the significance of the environment as a whole that is working collectively. Both experts show how everything is connected that and how if we remove one element from the circle of life we can destroy the whole being. It is important to protect the biodiversity of the planet if we are to survive as a human race.

Photo retrieved from:  http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=250226&searchId=405aaff66082ffe7231d7c1f79926c17&npos=26