El Centro College ENVR 1401 Online Environmental Awareness
_______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________ __________ Objectives 1. Students will be able to observe and describe describe basic environmental conditions in a local setting. 2. Students will be able to compare observations and descriptions of basic environmental conditions in differing locations. _________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ ___________________
Introduction This lab is a two-part lab designed to increase your environmental awareness and foster your desire to learn more about the environment, its problems and their solutions. The first two parts of the lab allows you to experience and observe phenomena of the natural world in varying varying locations while the third part allows you to compare the two. Observing environmental phenomena is an important component of environmental science; it is the first step in the scientific method. (Wagner, T. and Sanford, Sanford, R. 2010. Environmental Science: Science: Active Learning Laboratories and Applied Applied Problem Sets. 2nd ed. Joh n Wiley & Sons, New York.) Instructions You will visit two different locations to make observations for this lab. The first location can be any outdoor location you choose. Location two will be your home or neighborhood. neighborhood. Ideally you would want to compare locations locations that you frequently visit and it would be even better if they differed in their makeup such as urban vs. suburban or rural. Answer the questions provided for each location. After both visits are complete, move to activity three. Here you will compare the two environments.
Activity 1: Outdoors-Location 1 *Please Highlight or type answers in a different color.* 1. Where are you? What is the setting? setting? What are the general ambient (background) weather conditions? Describe any feelings this environment may evoke? 2. How windy is it? There are lots of ways to estimate wind speed but we’ll use a flag and flag and trees. If the flag occasionally flips open & the outer end hangs lower, the wind is between 1 and 4 mph. The flag will stir more noticeably between 4 and 8 mph. Eight to 13 mph is a gentle breeze that moves tree branches. branches. 3. From which direction is the wind blowing? 4. Are there clouds? clouds? What kind of clouds do you think they are? (see image below)
5. Select a sloping area. In what direction is the ground sloping? 6. Does the degree of slope and the condition of the land rule out some land uses? Explain. 7. In the nearest parking lot, look for the largest and oldest vehicles. What is the oldest vehicle (make, model & year)? What is the largest vehicle (make, model & year)? Which of these two vehicles most likely consumes the most fuel? How did you determine this? Which of these vehicles pollutes the most? How did you come to this conclusion? 8. On the basis of your tour around the area, how many human-made devices did you see that might increase the population of wildlife or enhance the living conditions of wildlife (e.g., habitat, water, birdhouses, perches, wildlife cover)? 9. Find a location that has no trees. Stay there for 5 minutes. Describe where you are. Glance around. How many different species of animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, etc.) do you see or hear? Form a circle with your two thumbs and index fingers and place it over the ground. Count how many different plant and insect species you see in the circle. 10. A certain amount of precipitation will infiltrate (enter) into the ground, some may evaporate, and the rest will flow as storm water runoff. See Figure 1 below. What factors influence the degree of ground infiltration? Estimate the percentage of the area that has impervious surfaces (parking lots, sidewalks, roofs, etc) where water cannot infiltrate into the ground.
Figure 1: Example of Infiltration and Stormwater Runoff of Precipitation.
11. In which direction will the stormwater runoff flow? 12. Figure 2 (below) shows some common pollutants that are in urban stormwater runoff. What pollutants are likely to be in the runoff from your area? What are the sources of these pollutants?
Figure 2: Common Pollutants in Urban Stormwater Runoff.
Activity 2: Outdoors-Home In a second location, with a different setting than the 1 st , answer the following questions . 1. Where are you? What is the setting? What are the general ambient (background) weather conditions? 2. Describe any feelings this environment may evoke? 3. How windy is it? From which direction is the wind blowing? 4. Are there clouds? What kind of clouds do you think they are? (see image Activity 1-question 4) 5. Select a sloping area. In what direction is the ground sloping?
6. Does the degree of slope and the condition of the land rule out some land uses? Explain. 7. How many human-made devices did you see that might increase the population of wildlife or enhance the living conditions of wildlife (e.g., habitat, water, birdhouses, perches, wildlife cover)? 8. Find a location that has trees. Stay there for 5 minutes. Describe where you are. Glance around. How many different species of animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, etc.) do you see or hear? Form a circle with your two thumbs and index fingers and place it over the ground. Count how many different plant and insect species you see in the circle. 9. A certain amount of precipitation will infiltrate into the ground, some may evaporate, and the rest will flow as stormwater runoff. Refer back to Figure 1. Estimate the percentage of this area that has impervious surfaces (parking lots, sidewalks, roofs, etc). 10. Locate a lawn near you. Lawns are referred to “nature on a leash”. Does it have nice green grass? What does the term “nature on a leash” mean ? In your opinion, what is required to keep “nature on a leash” and what are the environmental impacts of doing so?
If maintenance were completely halted, describe what the lawn would look like in 5 years? Describe or make a sketch to show what the abandoned lawn would look like in 50 years.
Activity 3: Comparison In paragraph format compare & contrast the two environments in the space below. Be sure to include structural comparisons, environmental impacts, human influences and future predictions.
