Colloquium Fall 2019

FGCU's Vester Marine Station was an eye-opening experience about how much fun you can have while learning. By far, this was my favorite field trip, because it was the most active one. I loved being on the water and figuring out how to steer the canoe. We were interacting with nature in a way we hadn't before on other field trips. Though we were having fun and getting exercise, we were also having important conversations about the nature around us. This concept makes me think of the discussions we have had throughout the course about education. It is important to start discussions about preserving our ecosystems, but it can be a challenge to get people's attention and get them to share your concern for conservation. Canoeing was a great way to form an individual and positive connection with the natural environment. While we were in our canoes, FGCU naturalists talked about the significance of the estuary ecosystem and pointed out interesting wildlife. Mangroves were the...

Our trip to the Lee County Waste to Energy plant addressed a big problem that directly affects our everyday lives: trash and what to do with it. Recently in class, we have been reading about and discussing the impact our everyday lives have on the environment, such as the food we eat and the waste and garbage we produce. Understanding how big our footprints really are is important, so we can be more concious of the small changes we may be able to make. This trip in particular was very rewarding because it provided many sustainable solutions to several complex problems. Not only is the plant getting rid of waste, it is actually turning it in to energy that powers 30,000 homes without any extra emissions. What I was most suprised to learn at Waste to Energy was the amount of ways trash is sorted and dealt with, in the most sustainable ways possible. There are separate facilities for recycling, horticultural waste, and chemical disposal. In the horticultural waste plant, waste is proc...