Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ethics and Stewardship by Austin W.

Our first unit was about Ethics & stewardship. So far this year in charter I have learned a couple of new things, one thing I learned was how the littlest things can cause the biggest problems for our eco system and the things that live in them.

Environmental ethics means to make the right decision that can effect the environment. Environmental stewardship means to take care of the environment so we can preserve it for the future generations. One thing that we did was find our ecological footprint. To see what our Ecological footprint is, we went to www.myfootprint.org. My footprint was 3.45, which means that if everyone in the world lived like me we would need 3.45 Earths.

You can reduce your ecological footprint by changing your behavior.

Something that I learned about was pollution. Pollution is contamination of the environment. There is not just one type of pollution. Some examples are: water pollution, noise pollution and air pollution. Water pollution is when un-natural things, such as oil, find a way into the water. Water pollution can also come by when water runs down the storm drains in the streets. Noise pollution is when you can’t hear the natural environment that you are in. Air pollution is pollution that is in the air that comes from chemicals like gasses. (Green house gasses, propane, etc.) We also learned about environmental awareness. Environmental awareness is about being aware of the environment, not just around you, but environments in far away places. For example, Japan’s environmental problems with the nuclear pollution and the earthquakes.

Environmental awareness is also about composting your fruit and veggie scraps instead of sending them to the landfill.

Something that I have learned that I can share with others is, by observing and watching what the teacher shows in class, I can learn a lot. Some people I learned from were Bill and Chris from the Renewable Resource Center. They taught me what I can put in my compost pile and what I can’t. They also told me about different types of pollution, and what resources we have used the most in the past century. I have also learned from Mr. Schultz at the prairie and on one of the first days of school. He told everyone about different types of prairie plants, like Showey golden rod, and which types of plants are native and which are not. When Mr. Schultz came the first time we were working in the court yard, at that time he told us what plants to take out of the court yard and what plants they put in the courtyard last year, now the courtyard looks fantastic compared to when we started. These were both very exciting field days.

This unit was very fun. If I could I would do the unit over again, but we have to move on to the next unit which should be very exciting. I liked the prairie because some schools take field days to indoor places and this one outside in nature on a beautiful day. It was interesting because who gets to learn about a prairie for science class?! This unit was fun because our teacher, Ms. Strobel, is fun and amazing and the best teacher ever!

1 comment:

  1. I am impressed with your thoughts, Austin. You really get stewardship!! You are also a good communicator through writing!

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