Reading #6 - Moving Ecoagriculture into the Mainstream

Chapter 2 helped me understand the concept and importance of ecoagriculture. Until now, I never knew that it was a way for agriculture, rural development and managing the ecosystem to balance each other out and work together. I enjoyed reading about agroecological farming and the different types, such as organic agriculture, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, and evergreen agriculture. It was interesting to understand the flow of the environment and how important each role contributes.

Reading #5 - Charting a New Path to Eliminating Hunger

After reading chapter 1 in State of the World, I thought about how much food I waste from a day to day basis. For example, after dinner I throw all of my left-over's down the drain or in the trash. Also, I thought about food processing in America and the overall quality. It made me think how fortunate I am to be able to live in a country with plenty of food and where starvation and hunger is not an issue. I've always known that Africa was a poor country that doesn't have many resources, but I never realized why. Chapter 1 explained to me why their methods of crop growing are failing and that many people need to be educated about proper farming techniques. Personally, I think I can help out by buying fruits and vegetables at a local farmers market. This chapter was very eye opening and I am excited to read more.

Reading #4- Summary

                I thoroughly enjoyed all of the reading and video's on interactive, environmental learning. Coming from a fairly large family with four children, who are all 1 year apart, and two loving parents, there seizes to be any form of peace inside the house. Both my brothers are prescribed with ADHD and both my sister and my mom are prescribed with ADD, so sometimes my house can feel like God is pushing the fast-forward button on a dramatic reality TV show.  Despite the household craziness, after reading and watching the information, I began to think back to my childhood, how it's affected me today and how privileged I am. While my dad was at work, my mom would pack a cooler and plan a day trip to a nature reserve, the beach, a park, or anything that hand enough space for four children to run around outside. Although the majority of my family is prescribed with some sort of "disorder" my parents never believed medicine would fix the problem. Yes, there was several behavior issues along the way, but I enjoyed seeing my family express their creativity instead in sitting for hours focusing so intensely on their homework due to Ritalin. My mom was able to detect our higher level of concentration and better performance in school if we were able to play outside.
                Out of all the videos, I enjoyed Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity the most. He had a funny sense of humor and spoke the truth about our school system not only in America, but also on a global scale. It hurts me to think that someone  will spend their entire life searching for a passion because it was overlook as a young child and known as "misbehaving". Ken Robinson and John Dewey's perspectives are very inspiring as well as educational. Because I am an education major, I have previously been introduced to John Dewey and this theories.  He emphasized the importance of a strong community and how each person plays an important role because of their natural strengths. Additionally, he proposed that working with and in an environmental setting can only be beneficial.
                I am very happy that this issue was addressed in this course because I think it is important for not just education majors to understand that the environment can be used for much more than a pretty picture. As the book University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future states that the environment is a simple solution to better concentration and overall health. All of the information has given me a different perspective. Instead of looking at a child who has a "disorder" and feeling sorry for them, I am going to think that they have some sort of creativity and charm about them that no one else possess. I hope to keep and practice this information as I travel inside the classroom and teach in the future.                 

Reading #3 John Dewey

Researching John Dewey and his importance to education was very interesting and informative. All of his theories have dramatically impacted education. For example, his observation on collective learning and group work is something that we use today in schools. Students come together and share the information together inside a classroom and sometimes are broken up into even smaller groups to complete a specific task. Additionally, he emphasized on kinestetic learning and working with your environment. Being a kinestetic learner myself, I agree with Dewey and his style of teaching.

Personal Journal #1 - May 21

The beginning of the week was the start of triathlon training for me, so I have been spending quite sometime outside either swimming, running, or biking. Usually, I think about how much I want to stop, go home, sit on the couch, and watch endless hours of trash TV or read a book with a storyline filled with high-line drama. Today was a little different. Before I started my run, I was greeted by our large, stray, lizard with a curly tail. Although he runs away every time he sees me, I get excited and say hello as if he understands. I began to jog and felt the sweet form on my forehead from the unforgiving sun beaming on me. As I reached my 2 mile marker, I suddenly became worried as I saw a hand sized turtle in the middle of the road, huddled in his shell, hiding, as the cars rolled over him. I quickly jumped in the busy traffic (at the safest time possible) picked him up and placed him in the bushes. After my good dead for the day, I continued running thinking maybe training isn't so bad after all.   

Field Trip #1



I walked around my neighborhood this afternoon and it was absolutely beautiful! It was a cloudless sky, the sun was shinning bright, and there was a light breeze. As I was wondering around, I noticed how little there was to look at near all of the houses. There were a few flowers and trees that were planted by the home owners, but other than that there really wasn't much too see. Although, I did enjoy the few natural plants and animals when I saw them. My favorite part of the trip was sitting and watching the lake water ripple and crash into the grassy edges. The few questions I wrote down are:

1. How many different types of animals are in the lake and what is the most common?

2. What plants and trees are indigenous to this community?

3. Without the irrigation systems what would my neighborhood look like?

4. As technology increases will the natural environment decrease?

5. Instead of building out, wouldn't it make more sense to build up?

5. Will the lake near my house be there in 50 years?

6. How many people live in the neighborhood and contribute to pollution?

7. Are there plants that are better for the environment than others?

8. Due to the increase of urbanism, have the number of animals decreased? 

9. Will I ever see the otter I saw in the same like 10 years ago again?

10. Why has it become so difficult to see such a beautiful natural landscape?

Reading #2 - Quality Enhancement Plan

All the vocabulary is relevant to this class because they explain the type of learning that will be done throughout this course, the motive behind University Colloquium, and the goals that are set after accomplishing this class. As the class continues many of the vocabulary words can be referred back to because of their importance. For example, the terms colloquium, goals of environmental education, sustainability, civic engagement, and critical thinking are all major factors of what this course is based upon. The same motives and goals of this class can also be applied to my life. Although, as unique individuals we all have our own problems and struggles, we all share the environment.   

Reading # 1 - Orientation

Throughout this course I would like to learn more about the global community and how to work together in order to achieve environmental peace. I know that there are several small choices that humans are making that are hurting the environment and eventually evolve into a large problem. I would like to know how to eliminate our destruction and maintain sustainability. Additionally, I would like to interact more with my home environment, rather than traveling elsewhere to observe environmental beauty.

Introduction

Hey!

My name is Hannah Swope and I am a Junior at FGCU. I'm majoring in Education and can not wait to teach in a classroom! I love to travel, experience new cultures, and meet new people. Tri Delta is an important part of my life, as well as our philanthropy, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. My favorite thing to do is laugh and my favorite place to go is the beach.