BIOL 1003.001, Biological Sciences: THE IMPACT OF HUMANS ON THE ENVIRONMENT & OTHER LIFE FORMS - Due April 20, 2005
In lieu of a lecture during today’s class (April 18, 2005), visit the library and/or find information on the internet via a search engine with a web browser for news stories or journal articles and other information related to one or more of the following topics:
· Human population growth
· Deforestation
· Air pollution (CFC's, greenhouse gases, ozone layer loss)
· Water pollution (industrial waste, petroleum, agrochemical runoff)
· Solid waste and land-fills
· Urban sprawl and land use
· Greenhouse effect and global warming
· Conventional and nuclear war
· Decline in biodiversity and collapsing of ecosystems/biomes
Find at least five articles related to the topics listed above. Read over and review these and be prepared to discuss your findings during class on Wednesday, April 20, 2005. Please work independently to help maximize the amount of information can be gathered collectively by participants in this class. As evidence that you have collected this information yourself, photocopy the newspaper, news magazine, or journal article, or print the first page of each internet-based article. It is not necessary for the purposes of this exercise that you photocopy or print all of the pages of the news article or informational account as long as the citation or web address is printed or written on the first page that you bring to class on Wednesday. Collate these and staple them together. Put you name at the top of the first page so that I can assign a grade to you for participation for this part of the exercise.
The remainder of your grade for this assignment will be determined based on participation in the discussion in class on Wednesday, April 20th. In preparing for this discussion in class on Wednesday, April 20th, keep in mind the following questions:
§ Does the information in the article pertain to you in some real or meaningful way?
§ Is the human impact on other humans, other species, and the environment, negative or positive?
§ What are the short-term consequences of the information provided by the article?
§ What are the long-term consequences of the information provided by the article?
§ If necessary, what are some tangible ways to become involved in creating change in how humans interact with other life forms and the environment?
§ Other thoughts?
GOOD LUCK! IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS DON’T HESTITATE TO STOP BY DURING MY OFFICE HOURS OR CONTACT ME BY E-MAIL AT . I hope to see most of you on Wednesday, April 20, during the regular class period.