University Colloquium

Date:07/10/2010
I believe that this class should always remain part of the required curriculum to graduate from FGCU. I now I have learned a lot of new facts about sustainability and my interest in the matter has also grown a lot. I'm glad I was able to take this class over the summer so that I had more time to appreciate all the tasks that I had to do. I really enjoyed the class and I think that they way this class was taught through online was awesome and should continue to be offered this way.

Simply be grateful!!

Date:07/10/2010
I think that many people are not grateful for many of the things that we have. I remember looking at a video for this class during one of the weekly discussions, and they compared two families: one from India and the other from America. It was really surprising to see the difference in lifestyles and to see what Americans take for granted and as a daily element of there lives while people in India would almost die to have. I think that we should be more grateful for what we have and learn to manage those resources so that we are not wasting them and consequently maybe taking it away from others.

Education of Sustainability

Date: 07/10/2010
When it comes to sustainability, I believe that we are starting to here a lot more about it now then we used to years ago like when I was a child. This could also be blamed on the growth of the media, but my point is that I believe that one of the biggest steps that we need to take when it comes to sustainability is the Education of Sustainability at a young age. I believe that sustainability should become somewhat of a daily routine, chore, or task for all young children whether it be at school or at home so that when they grow up it is no longer a task but I daily habit that they live by.

Park Rangers

Date: 07/08/2010
After I got done visiting all the different state parks, I thought to myself " Why are these people working here, even if they dont get paid much?" I was really amazed when I thought that to myself and I suddenly felt a much higher level of respect for these men and women, because they are truly not doing this for the money. They are simply working here, at least for the most part, because they care a lot about nature. The park ranger named Mike told us his life story as to why he became a park ranger and his main conclusion was because he loved the peace of the forest and it made him happy.

Kite-Birds

Date: 06/23/2010
One of my favorite birds that I first started paying attention to when I started the class was a kite bird that I saw right outside of my house when I was doing my walk around my neighborhood at the beginning of the semester. I have gone online a few times to read about these birds and I mainly learned that they live near warm areas with nearby water and usually pray on frogs and other reptiles. I mainly like the bird because of its really cool looking tail which as I can see helps it make really fast turns and be very agile in the air.

Talking to my roommates

These are some of my fraternity brothers and the I'm the second from the left and the third to the fifth are my roommates with who I discussed all my weekly topics.

Date: The whole Summer C semester and 07/10/2010
When it came to talking to my roommates about sustainability and all the weeks topics for discussions, I was really amazed at how interested they became and how our conversations sometimes just kept going and going and how people kept joining into the conversations whenever they wanted to give their opinions. I had a lot of fun talking to them about the issues and was really surprised at how much input they gave to our conversations.

What is sustainability and my own definition

Date: 07/10/2010
I looked up the definition of sustainability in dictionary.com and it said: "to hold, support, or bear up from below." My own definition of sustainability was to keep the environment alive. After taking this class and reading the definition from dictionary.com, my definition of sustainability has become more then just keeping the environment. My new definition of sustainability would be more along the lines of making a effort to make keep what we have left of the natural environment alive and to make a difference in our lifestyles to help it grow.

Personal Comsumptions for 24 hours

Date:07/09/2010
Today being 07/10/2010 I recorded all the things I used yesterday to make this journal on my consumption. When I woke up I have a frozen egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast so that had the plastic wrapping. Then on my way to ECHO i bought a Gatorade, once again plastic. Then for lunch I went to Publix on my way back from ECHO and got sushi and Arizona green tea, which both had plastic containers, and then finally for dinner I had Jet's Pizza which probably had a recycled cardboard box which is probably not too bad. And I used gas to get around town and water when I took a shower... and yeah I cranked the AC in my car and house because it was really hot outside...sorry.

My lifestyle

Date:07/10/2009
I believe that I dont have the most sustainable lifestyle. I remember the test that we did for one of the weekly discussions and I did not do too well at all. I think its really hard to have a really sustainable life because this program would ask if I bought plastic bagged products and that something that is almost inevitable. Obviously the sustainable part of recycling can be accomplished with a little effort but things as driving a car and buying plastic good and things like that are really hard not to do. I do plan to try and make my lifestyle as sustainable as I can because I do want to do my part in making a difference.

Reflection on health and well-being

Date:07/10/2010
Being from Costa Rica I have learned that plants and nature have a lot of medicinal benefits for humans. Im not an expert in medicine but im pretty sure that almost all medicines come from plants and sometime I start to think that as the live link to where deforestation is growing; later in the Earth life where are we going to get all our medicines from? Because if we keep up this rate of deforestation sooner or later mostly all of the forest will be gone. Not only will the medicinal benefits disappear but also the fauna that needs this flora as well. An example of a medicinal tree that I learned about during my trip to ECHO was Moringa and all the benefits from the leaves were really suprising.

Service Learning

Date: 07/03/2010
For my service learning project I decided to go to Koreshan State Park. When we first got there they decided that we were going to do some weeding, which really didnt sound too exciting. But in the end I actually ended up having a good time because some other students from Colloquium where there and we had fun trying to see who could pull the longest vines and find the most weeds to I actually enjoyed my time at the park. I also learned a lot about how many invasive species are in the lands of Florida and what the effects they have on the native plants and I was more then amazed to see there was so many different types of exotic species and how large they were in numbers.

Walking down the wood pathway on Campus

Date: 07/08/2010
The other day when I was walking back from class I had parked in the news parking garage and I was coming from AB7 so I had to take the wooden walkway to my car. When I was walking in the pathway and through the mini swamp I was bashed at how the entire time I was looking for any sign of exotic species that we had been pulling during my service learning hours a the Koreshan State Park. I was also looking for any sign of poison ibis because they had told us to be very careful we didnt start pulling one of those by mistake.

My effort to become more sustainable

Date: 06/23/2010
Ever since I started taking this class I have honestly thought a lot more about sustainability them I ever have. I remember in one of the discussions that we had about how can we make a difference, and I realize that as a college student right now my duty when it comes to sustainability really is easy. I should make sure to recycle, carpool, close the doors so the AC doesn't overwork, and overall just think more about sustainability and teach others about it. I was really kind of proud of myself when I went to get the recycling bins because I honestly feel like I had never really made an extra effort to be sustainable and I did. I feel like this class has definitely made a difference on my view of sustainability.

A Land Remembered

Date:06/29/2010
I really enjoyed reading the book A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith. What interested me the most was the journey that the McIvey Family went through. Whenever there was a challenge that they had to encounter the would always fight and figure out a way to solve this problem. Like when they first started chasing cows to when they have the marshtackie and were able to hunt them down easier. I was just really into the book the entire time and thought it was a really good choice for the class as it really makes you put yourself in the McIvey's shoes and really appreciate the land more and wish it would still be the way it was back then.

Reflection on Class Discussions

Date: 07/10/2010
I really liked having the open discussions online. I felt that this way people would be alot more open to sharing their opinions with others and not being worried about being judged. I also thought it was a really great incentive to keep all the students on their toes when it came to checking up on the tasks and deadlines for the assignments in the class.

Florida Panther

Date: 07/07/2010
When I went to visit downtown Fort Myers I walked by a monument dedicated to Florida Panthers. I stood there for a few minutes and realized the magnificence of these animals and how it was so terrible that they are almost extinct. I cant believe we would let such a beautiful animal almost disappear for ever. This made me think of how mankind, at the pace that we are going at now, is at one point going to take over all the face of the Earth and kill of many other species of animals because we can't control of growth.

Agricultural Experience

Date: 07/09/2010
Agricultural Experience
For my agricultural experience I decided to visit ECHO in North Fort Myers. When I first arrived I though ECHO was just some small nursery like any other. I was surprised after we watched the video to learn how ECHO has had such a great impact worldwide to many poor and third world countries. I thought it was even more intriguing that the headquarters of ECHO where here in Fort Myers.
When we watched the video I learned probably most of the purpose of ECHO. I learned that they teach people in need how to grow their own crops. And since they have an outreach worldwide they have been trained in all the different areas of the world in techniques in agriculture. With all these effort that I saw during the video, one saying stood out the most when they were talking about some proverb that said something along the lines of: “Give a man a fish and feed him for one day, teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” I thought that that was exactly what the whole purpose of ECHO was. I find this organization really interesting because you’re not just simply helping others but your are teaching them ways in which they can put their own efforts and have beneficial results that without this organization could never happen.
When we were touring the gardens it was really amazed at how they had different areas that represented different parts of the world from the tropics, tundra, and the rain forest. One of the ones that caught my attention the most was the section that taught people how to build gardens on the roof tops as for busy city climates. They used things like soda cans, tires, packaging sponges, and other materials to resemble what regular dirt would do for the plants and allow them to grow on the roof.
I was also really interested on how they used things such as chickens to naturally weed the sugar cane fields, ducks to feed the tilapia in the pond, and worms to make soil for plants from the old plants. Also many of the different gas and irrigation machines that they showed us were all very innovative and smart ways of keeping the farms alive and feeding the people.

Date: 07/07/2010

Urban Experience

For my urban experience I chose Historical Downtown Fort Myers. During my tour of the city I felt most comfortable at the Centennial Park(my camera died before I went back to take a picture of it) because I was just so peaceful. I saw people sitting reading books and the traffic by that area was must less than any other part that I visited in downtown. What caught my attention the most was that they had a beach volleyball court set up in Centennial Park and I personally love to play beach volleyball on my free time so I thought that that would be one of my favorite places to come to in Downtown Fort Myers. I didn’t see too many abundant parks in the downtown area but there were some and I feel like they add a lot to the environment of the city. I feel like these small parks are a little escape for people from the reality of the city that surrounds these parks. I feel like a large amount of the city is devoted to vehicles and parking and all that’s related to traffic which makes sense as for anyone who is to come and visit the city comes in a car and needs parking space; therefore, if downtown wants business they need parking. I also was amazed at the feeling I got from the city itself. I felt like I was back in Costa Rica, just walking down the streets of downtown San Jose but just a complete 180 degree turn when it comes to sanitary conditions and just the overall nice look to the city. I saw no signs of homeless people or graffiti in the walls as I would expect to see in San Jose, obviously were talking about a third world country in which every capital downtown is not very safe, but I never expect Fort Myers’ downtown to be so pretty. I don’t understand why college students don’t make more trips to downtown I thought it would be a nice place to go visit for the day, and I also saw some bars that seemed to be like really fun places that students of age could go and hangout at just as regular college students would in a big city like Boston, which I visited last spring with B.E.E.P(FGCU Programming Board). Nonetheless, I felt like downtown historic Fort Myers was really organized with their parking and it seemed like a very safe place for people to walk around, not only college but families as well. There are lots of nice things to see in the city, like the different monuments, antique stores, sculptures, and memorials and not to forget the very nicely remodeled building on Main Street.

Freshwater Experience

Date:07/07/2010

Freshwater Experience

For my freshwater experience I went to Lover’s Key State Park. When I first stepped out of the car I noticed how silent and peaceful everything around me was. There was a bridge that crossed over a canal and I walked over it and then all the sudden I was scared by a mullet that had jumped out of the water like they typically do. I was amazed that I was scared by the fish because I’m used to such a loud environment like traffic and loud music, and just getting caught up in nature must have made me all the sudden forget all the loudness from back home.
I could tell that many of the surroundings where shaped by the weather. I could see that many of these canals did not seem as man-made as others, I’m not sure if they were or not but they seemed to be more wavy, as to a natural river flow.
The topography was very interesting; I saw many mangroves along the edges of the canals. Along these edges I could also see I great amount of small fish, this showing that this was an important part of the breeding of many species of fish.(I took a picture but it came out somewhat blurry).
I identified several trees such as, sand pines, red mangroves, and what seemed to be some black mangroves in the distance, several carrot-wood trees, and plenty of palm trees. I saw birds such as cardinals, a crow, seagulls, a pelican, and several kite fish in the distance since we were close to the bay and the beach.
What I really liked about this part was that it was really close to the beach so you could see what the inland of Florida was like as well as the shore.

My fishing trip to Estero Bay

Date: 06/20/2010
On this day I went to Estero Bay to go fishing with some friends.

Marine Experience

For my marine experience I went fishing with some of my good friends in Estero Bay, but we forgot to take pictures because we didn’t catch anything but I remembered a bridge that we went under and I finally figured out which one it was so I drove to it and took pictures from the bridge of the bay.
When we went out on the boat the first thing that we started talking about was the tides so that we could see what kind of fish we were going to try and catch. I related this to the definition of a marine system, as that explains the type of environment that we were in because a marine system is a place that has water from the ocean and it directly affected by the tides and contains living species from the area. The types of fish that we were mainly going for were snook, redfish, or trout. These are the main species of animals that habitat the bay waters. When we were fishing we mainly followed along the lines of the mangroves hoping for a bite. Mangroves along the shore and islands of mangroves were the main species of plants that we were encountering. The mangroves on the islands seemed to serve as very popular nesting grounds for birds as there were many empty nests all over them.
I have always been surprised to see how to be able to drive your boat in the back bays of Florida you must always follow a certain channel. I stopped to think about that for a second and realized that all the channels were man-made and there are thousands of miles of channels throughout Florida made just for boaters and I could not imagine the impact that man has had on the ecosystem after all that destruction of the natural habitat. I think that for nature the building of these channels were nothing but another disturbance from mankind as the flora and fauna of the area was completely transformed so that nasty smoky boats and people themselves could pollute the waters and deplete a great amount of the fish from the area.

Population Growth

Date: 06/16/2010
During the readings and links that were uploaded for this weeks discussions, I was really really interested in the link in which the present count of births and deaths along with total world population numbers was so amazing. It seems at times a little hard to believe that all these different stats are true because how do they gather all the information from every part of the country so quickly but I'm not really all that educated on the matter so maybe it is true. I'd like to see some evidence.