Guided Reflection #7

GR# 7
NAME: ____Christine Ritchie________
1. What is the name of your focus chapter?
Early Childhood Education to Transform Cultures for Sustainability     
                                 
2. Who are the authors?
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga

3. Identify the chapter’s main point.
The chapter’s main point is that children learn the most during the ages in early education, so this is the ideal time to teach children about sustainability.

4. Select five quotes from this chapter that are significant to you. Write them down.
There is much in the world that is unknown to children.
Furthermore, modeling behavior is found to be more effective than direct teaching or preaching in helping young children internalize values and develop desirable attitudes and leanings.
Humans depend on the natural world to meet all their basic needs, including air, water, food, energy, and shelter.
Instead of the three R’s of reading, writing, and arithmetic, early childhood education can follow the 7R’s.
Although an individual’s capacity to learn is most receptive during the first few years of life , these are the years that traditionally receive the least support in the education world.

5. Reflect on these five ideas and synthesize them into one idea, one personal thesis.
I believe that children come into an unknown world and it is our job to be their role models and teach them, by actions not just words, that we need nature to live and that it is our job to keep the environment sustainable for everyone.

6. Reflect on and briefly explain why your thesis is of significance.
I think my thesis is important because it concentrates on what we can do as adults to help teach children about sustainability. Not just educators, but parents, family members, community members can all help children learn by being role models.

7. Consider your audience and their point of view. Further explain what you mean by stipulating with examples what your mean or what you do not mean, or by giving an example or two of how your thesis may be applied or misapplied in today’s culture.
What I mean by my thesis is that actions speak louder than words. We can not just teach children that they need to know the 7R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, respect, reflect, repair, and responsibility. We have to show them how to do this. For example if you tell your child that they have to recycle, but then you throw your soda can in the garbage what do you think they learn? They learn that its ok to be wasteful because my mom or dad does it. We have to lead by example and always show children what is right by doing the right things ourselves. My thesis maybe misapplied in today’s culture by people who believe that it is only the people with children, or work with children that have to lead by example. But this is not true, not only do parents and educators have to be role models so do celebrities and the media, and community members, it will take everyone’s help to teach children sustainability which will mean a lot of changes for a lot of people.

8. Should your idea(s) be broadly applied in today’s culture, what are the implications? In other words, what may or may not occur?
I think my idea should begin to be applied in today’s culture, but I don’t think any changes will occur until the next generation. We are to stuck to the kind of lifestyle that we live. But if we present this to our children today then they can work harder to be better role models for there children and so on and so fourth.

9. Reflect on and respectfully address opposition. You may have to do some research or discussion to complete this point.
Some opposition to my thesis could be those that believe that children are born and made from nature not nurture and that no matter what we do they are going to learn what they want. Some people believe that children are born into who they become and who they become as adults has nothing to with their environment they are raised; it only has to do with their genetics. I would say that yes genetics does play a part in who a person becomes, but it is there environment that shapes a child into the adult they grow up to be. If their environment is full of individuals that respect the environment and the other people in the community then those attributes will become part of the child.

10. Bring it back to your main point by briefly discussing the consequences, intended or unintended, or either broadly accepting or ignoring this idea?
If these actions are not taken then I’m afraid we will continue to use our environment until there is nothing left. And we might not have to worry about that happening today or tomorrow, but what about in 50 years when our children are having children and they don’t have enough food to feed everyone. The people they will be blamed are us for not changing our consuming lifestyle and teaching our children the values they need.

11. Conclude
It is our job to teach our children the ways of sustainability. We will not be able to change over night, it will take years for us to change from consumers to environmentalist, and we might not make a huge change today. But by trying to become the right role models and by showing our children what’s right by our actions they will be able to do the same for their children and so on.

Fifth Field Trip

When I first saw that my urban field trip was going to be at downtown fort Myers, I was a little disappointed. I had been to downtown Fort Myers plenty of times and I didn't remember anything environmental or significantly interesting. But I grabbed my camera and went to look around anyway, and I realized I had over looked many things.

First thing is I never knew Fort Myers even had a museum. I didn't go inside because I didn't have the money, but I did research on the website and I looked around outside and it would definitely be a place I would like to go see in the future.

I had been to the Harborside event center before for my graduation and for military ball, but I figured it was a significant place in downtown fort Myers so I grabbed a picture.

 One place I don't remember seeing is centennial park. This park is filled with so much history and art that I was overwhelmed  because I love history.

This memorial is to honor the soldiers that trained at Buckingham and Page Air field in 1942-1945. It honors all of those that were WWII bombers and those that were in the war that had trained at the air fields.

Another statue that i found amazing was "Uncommon Friends" by  D.J. Wilkins. This piece is a sculpture of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. It represents them as the fathers of the American industrial twentieth century. I thought this sculpture was really beautiful and I couldn't help but stop and stare at it for a little while. 

 

My last stop in centennial park was by the water. I found a perfect spot that over looked the water and you could see straight across to the other side of the water. This spot was very peaceful and luckily I brought my book when I went because I ended up laying on the bench for almost an hour relaxing and reading because it was such a beautiful day out.

I was definitely surprised at all the interesting new sites I found in downtown Fort Myers and the next day I have off I will definitely be going back to my reading spot to relax.

Fourth Feild Trip

 My fourth field trip was at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I want to start off saying that I got lost twice trying to get there, but I eventually found my way. It is all the way down immokalee....ALL THE WAY DOWN. When the roads start turning into dirt roads you know your there. Anyway I was pretty excited about this feild trip because of all the animals the site said they had so I was expecting to walk into a zoo. Unfortunately that was not the case. But I did get to see some interesting plant environments and learn about different facts that I didn't know about before.

As soon as I walked in the door I learned something new. These pictures describe the past waterways of florida, the present and the future. it displays how we have changed and modified the natural waterways and the consequences that have come from this change. Thankfully the future picture shows that we are making some changes to ensure that our water becomes sustainable and the wildlife will be able to reproduce and spread again.

Once I began to walk the path outside the first thing I saw was this bulletin board. I was immediatly excited because this board was full of all the animals that had been cited in the sanctruary. Which meant I was going to see some crazy wild animals, like eagles, hogs, and deer. But my main goal after seeing this sign was to

see a bear and an alligator because they were two of the animals listed that had been seen that very day; which is shown in the next picture.


Anyway I continued down the path through the different environments and the first thing I started to think about was a Land Remembered. When I was reading the book I was thinking of the exact landscape of the Corkscrew Sanctuary. I kept thinking to myself while walking around, imagine yourself a hundred years ago walking through Florida and this is what you would you see everywhere.

 All of these different environments were very relaxing and before I knew it I had been walking for two hours. It made me realize that nature is a very relaxing therapy. I didn't stress out, or think about my problems, or that I had to work the next day, or clean my house, I didn't really think at all. I just walked and enjoyed all the different sites and sounds that came from every corner of the swamp and relaxed.

One last thing to add is I did get to see my alligator!!!!

I saw him in a fish tank inside when I was leaving :)

3rd Field Trip: Fort Myers Beach

I decided to take my third field trip, the marine environments trip, to the historical district of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. I visited a lot of sights at fort myers beach. These sites were the Matanza's Pass Preserve, The Historic Society, The Historic society annex, the rain barrel, Beach Elementary School, Pink Shell Cottages, The Mound House, and St.Raphael's Church. I really enjoyed this trip because I had no idea that these places were even at Fort Myers Beach. My usual places on the beach were Lani Kai and Lovers Key, I didn't even know there was a historical side to Fort Myers Beach.



 I'll start with Matanzas Pass Preserve. First thing I have to say is, I did not dress to walk through a nature trail. I thought it as gonna be a nice trail on wooden planks or something. Boy was I wrong, I walked through bugs and mud and dirt, but I have to admit it was exciting. I also got lost because I wanted to take the trail to the overview, but somehow I ended up in the deep wilderness on the other side of the trails. I did see a lot of interesting things.

I brought a couple of friends with me and one of them pointed out something moving in the trees, she swears it was a monkey, but I saw it too and it looked like a cat, but it was too big to be a house cat. After I did a little research I think it might have been a bobcat.

We also so sand crabs, spiders, bugs, osprey, egrets, and fish. I was hoping to find an alligator because of the swamp like murky water, but I had no luck.



 Matanzas Pass also had a lot of information posted along the trails.

 

 Here are some extra pictures from Matanzas Pass:

See any alligators?

I think this hole was dug by some type of animal

If you look closely you can see raccoon tracks.

A birds home?

I finally made it to the overview

 

I also went to other historical sites around Fort Myers Beach.

The mound house was pretty cool, but I wanted to go inside and look around. Unfortunately they were in the middle of an archaeological dig but I am definitely going to back when they open the site which should be in January.

This is a piece of the sidewalk outside of the Beach Elementary school. All of the sidewalk outside of the school had names and dates carved into it. I thought it was really neat to think that 30 years ago some nine year old was carving their name into their school sidewalk, and now I'm standing in that same spot.

 

These two pictures were of St. Raphael's Church. I thought this building was really unique and interesting. Another cool thing that happened was the pastor/priest lived next door and saw me taking pictures and gave me a tour of the inside. It is a beautiful structure and its amazing to see how architecture was back in the 1950s when it was first built.

2nd Field Trip: ECHO

I decided to take my 2nd field trip, the agricultural field trip at ECHO, or Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. Here I learned about the many ways ECHO uses innovative and inexpensive resources to help third world countries provide food for themselves. ECHO teaches a wide variety of landscapes so they use their center in North Fort Myers as a testing center to see want type of plants, technologies, resources, etc they will need for other third world countries. There are different landscapes, some of these include city areas, where there is no room to plant food, monsoon areas where there is so too much rain, and arid areas where there is not enough rain. ECHO transforms what resources a place has and uses everything to help provide plants sustainable all year long to feed a village, family, town, etc. ECHO also teaches other countries inexpensive technologies, like water pumps, fertilizers, solar ovens, irrigation systems, etc. I really enjoyed my visit to ECHO it really made me think about how much we waste on a day to day basis. People in third world countries can't waste anything; even a soda can can be used for helping with growing plants or fertilizer. I definitely would like to go back there so I can show people just how much a little bit of innovation and technology can do to help waste less and make our world a better place.

solar ovens made of plastic and rubber

fertilizer made from worms

 Here are some example of different technologies ECHO has made.

Irrigation system

Water pump made from PVC pipe, so easy a child could do it.

 Here are some pictures on the different landscapes ECHO helps to provide food for.

City areas; garden on the rooftop

Hillside areas

Monsoon areas

Here are some other pictures of the plants ECHO grows and the animals they work with.

Buckingham

September 29

My mom came to visit my sister and me from Louisiana. While she was her she stayed at her boyfriend's parents house. She wanted to see me one day so she convinced me to drive all the way out to Buckingham to see her. I had no idea where this place was, or what to expect, but after I left I was glad I had gone. Buckingham was like walking in the book a Land Remembered. All of the sites I saw reminded me of what I had imagined while I was reading the book. There was swamp, cows, bulls, goats, chickens, birds, palm trees, and so much more. While I was reading a land remembered all I kept thinking about was how much I wish I could live in a place like that; peaceful and away from civilization. Buckingham is that place.

 There were herds of chickens everywhere. clucking and running around free as a bird, no pun intended.

 This site especially reminded me of the book so I had to grab a picture. The herd of cattle gathered together reminded me of how Zech and Tobias would graze thousands of cattle across the state.

 This picture reminded me of when the cattle drowned in the swamp because they were trying to find a faster way to get to Punta Rassa. I wonder if all of Buckingham once looked like this?

 Although this horse isn't free to range over the open fields I still had to take a picture because of how beautiful it is.

 These baby goats laying under the trees didn't remind me of anything at first. I just thought they were cute so I wanted a picture. But after I saw this picture again I wondered if maybe this was the type of area Tobias had first built a house at before it was burned down.

 This picture again reminded me of the scene when the cows are eaten by alligators when they try to cross through this swamp. I guess this cows not afraid though because he stayed there no matter how close I got.

 I guess this is the area me and my mom walked around in; the hickory swamp preserve; which is commonly known as Buckingham.