My personal summer reading assignment

I hope my AP Environmental students are enjoying their summer reading. E.O. Wilson is my favorite scientist!

 I thought I'd fill you in on what I was reading this  summer so you'd all know that I had some self-inflicted summer reading of my own to complete.

 I'm finally reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma,"  I've been meaning to read it forever, but I'm just now getting around to it. 

While doing some research I ran into this article and thought some of my previous Environmental science students would appreciate what this girl was saying.  Knowing that "ignorance is bliss" means that by taking this class you are all prepared to be living in a slightly less blissful state!!!

How Michael Pollan ruined my life / Thinking about where our food is coming from

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/How-Michael-Pollan-ruined-my-life-Thinking-2497593.php#page-2

AP Environmental Science (APES) Summer assignment 2014

Here is the link to the AP Environmental science summer assignment.
Follow all instructions.

This has to be handed in the first day of the 2014-2015 school year, REGARDLESS of whether you have the class in the Fall or the Spring

It's a small book, but dense in important facts and concepts that you need to understand. Read it slowly, be sure you are getting the material. If you don't understand a word or a concept, look it up. BE CURIOUS!! Curiosity is THE most important ingredient of a successful scientist, everything else can be taught and  learned.

Enjoy your summer!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ktc4Oge7ie49Lx1fIqROpOQ2R_TEoSRIYb0mFdCSKrQ/edit?usp=sharing

Where's Waldo?

All of our tadpoles have officially morphed into frogs! 

I'm so glad we didn't lose any in the process.

I brought them home Friday so I can take them back to where I found them and let them continue their journey of life. Let's just hope there isn't a predator waiting on the other side of the bank!!!!

Anyway, here's a picture of the three of them together, see if you can find them!

Greece meeting for parents and students re-scheduled for Wednesday May 28th 6:30pm SEE PREVIOUS WATER BOTTLE POST TOO!

SUMMER 2015 GREECE RESEARCH EXPEDITION:

http://opwall.com/sixth-form-high-school/locations/greece-school-expeditions/

THIS IS A RESEARCH TRIP, STUDENTS WILL BE EXPECTED
  ( AND RELIED ON) TO COMPLETE FIELD RESEARCH THAT SCIENTISTS WILL USE FOR DATA IN THEIR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS



GO HERE FOR A PPT. ON THE GREECE EXPEDITION THAT TELLS ABOUT THE RESEARCH STUDENTS WILL BE DOING AS WELL AS HOW STUDENTS CAN RECEIVE COLLEGE CREDIT FOR THE COURSE IF THEY PARTICIPATE IN THE TRIP THE SUMMER THEY GRADUATE.

IT'S THE GREECE 2015 TRIP:
http://opwall.com/sixth-form-high-school/schools-presentations/

GREECE WAS CHOSEN BECAUSE IT IS THE SAFEST REGION AND IT HAS A TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC COMPONENT. STUDENTS WILL GET CERTIFIED TO DIVE WHILE THERE.

  Opwall offers a free dive training course to PADI Open Water level.  PADI is the largest diver qualification scheme in the World and Open Water is the first qualification on a ladder of training leading eventually to Dive Instructor.  With an Open Water qualification you will be able to dive in any PADI Centre around the World but we would always advise that you dive with a Dive Master even after you have qualified for at least the first 50 dives.  The course consists of theory training and then learning skills such as mask clearing and buddy breathing.  The initial skills training is done in the shallows of the beach (about 1m water) in front of the research centre.  After the theory and skills have been learned and the tests passed the students then complete 4 Open Water dives to achieve their qualification. 

WATER BOTTLES FOR SALE UNTIL TUESDAY / links to documentaries you need to watch/ vocab due Wednesday

Remember that our water bottles will be available for sell until Tuesday the 27th . They are only $5.00 and the purpose of selling them is to get you to kick your (non-reusable) plastic water bottle habit!!!  We also want to raise awareness about NURDLES!


Ask your friends, neighbors and Parents if they want one too!

We are selling the bottles almost exactly at cost, however, if enough people buy them we may have enough change left over to purchase a cool water treatment system for people who don't have access to clean water.

see this site:
http://www.lifesaverusa.com/
Here's the TED talk by the man who designed it!  http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter 

 New Nurdles  >  plastic bottles, bags, etc  >  varied Nurdles  ( now they look almost identical to plankton, attract pollutants and are killing marine life)

The bottle is stainless steel with this image:

  

                     NURDLES!

"Nurdles—tiny, pre-manufacture resin pellets about the size of a BB—are transported around the world from petrochemical plants to the thousands of facilities that transform these raw beads into the plastic products we use"

resource: http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/nurdlepollution-2/

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/

The truth about climate change videos:

2nd video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK47Pnx46rM
1st video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51mWYhVmek

Monday sub plan 5-19

Climate change web quest for 2nd and 4th block:
they are in the computer lab today for this.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NvF_Bmp6FgM5tRcjHIGk2wcK5OinznGKpdVmGDB8UDA/edit?usp=sharing

write out answers on separate paper.


3rd block should watch this documentary and complete the handout that goes with it: ( if the majority of you have watched the 2nd one at home, you can simply backtrack and watch the first one, just take a few notes on what you learn from it.)
2nd video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK47Pnx46rM
1st video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51mWYhVmek


These questions are only for the 2nd video. 
Questions: Have students write out these questions prior to watching the video, they just need to answer the questions to one version.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WgDwprwqnPIs4wNeqGJlLGGFyhTUij87-kYdfE7a-jU/edit?usp=sharing

 3 rd block:  also watch this- 6 minutes to be enlightened on the topic of PCBs- which are in our local fish which is why you shouldn't eat anything coming out of lake Norman or Wylie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXw_KDBtgB4

WATER BOTTLE DESIGN: by Kenny T.

If you were out this past Wed. or Thurs. please read the previous posts and watch the assigned clips. Also complete the case studies that are linked if you didn't get them in class- they will be collected on Monday.

Here is Kenny's design, I think it's incredible and that we should definitely go with it!
We'll order them on Friday, so whoever wants one should bring in $5.00 by Friday.

  Nurdles!

"Nurdles—tiny, pre-manufacture resin pellets about the size of a BB—are transported around the world from petrochemical plants to the thousands of facilities that transform these raw beads into the plastic products we use"

resource: http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/nurdlepollution-2/

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/

Duke will be hosting a new professor this year: E.O. Wilson will teach an environmental class at DUKE!!!!!

http://nicholas.duke.edu/sites/default/files/sp14.pdf

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