In this unit, we learned about everything that goes into planning into the future of the environment. We were given the question of how our current actions change the future of our environment. We had to create a proposal to a local representative to make a change to a local plot of land. Some guidelines for our proposal was that it needed to be in our area and larger than a football field, we needed to provide a physical or digital model of the site, and we had to have predictions for the site in 50, 100, 300, and 1,000 years. We also had to have predictions for the site in 50, 100, 300, and 1,000 years when our policy change was implemented and effects of our policy change on other sites worldwide. A mini project that our class did, was the Biome Travel Agency. We had to create a short presentation to the class to sell an appealing vacation. Our biome was the tropical rainforest. This project helped us learn about the biotic and abiotic factors in different environments. When making our presentation for the proposal of our site, we had to include a lot of information on our location and all our brainstorming ideas. At the end of creating our presentation and perfecting our proposal, we sent our idea to a representative to give us feedback. Our group decided to refill a vernal pool, Hidden Lake from the water from Stafford Lake.
Concepts we used in the Secretary of the Future
Carrying Capacity - The number of organisms a certain area can support with its resources.
Resources - Supplies in a certain area -Non-renewable resources are resources that can run out, and can't be used over and over again. -Renewable resources are resources that don't run out and you can use over and over again.
Biodiversity - Diversity of life in a particular area.
Niche - The way of life of a species, and what it eats, where it lives, and how it interacts with other species.
Symbiosis - To live together, and happens when two species have a close relationship with each other.
Competition - An interaction that harms both species by competing for a limited resource which reduces the fitness of both species.
Mutualism - A type of interaction where both species benefit from each other
Commensalism - An interaction that benefits one species and does not affect the other species at all.
Parasitism - An interaction that harms one species and benefits the other through a parasite living on or in a host.
Predator - An interaction that harms one species and benefits the other when a predator eats its prey.
Herbivory - An interaction that harms one species and benefits the other when the consumer eats a plant species.
Greenhouse Effect - Heat is retained near the Earth by a layer of gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
Weather - The day to day condition of the Earth's atmosphere.
Climate - The average year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a region.
Pits and peaks of the Secretary of the Future
As our first project of our year in Biology/Biotech, this project introduced us to what the class is going to be like. My group was Liz King, Rachel Houlihan, and Quinton Graybeal and here are our peaks and pits. Our first pit was that we weren't completely sure what we were doing for the beginning of the project. The introduction to the project was confusing and for the first few weeks our group wasn't clear on what we were supposed to accomplish and everything that we needed to have in our presentation. Our first peak was how well our group worked together. Our group was a cohesive mix of personalities and abilities, with a good blend of seriousness and silly. This kept our morale and optimism up, while still getting all our work done. Our second pit was the project itself. I think the change from last years' STEM to this year was so different, that only a slideshow presentation and a physical model wasn't enough to entertain some of our classmates. I think that this caused them to distract others, sometimes our group which slowed down the process. Our second peak was how well our group was able to manage our time. We were able to equally split up the work between the slideshow and making our model. This allowed for us to maximize our time and create the best of our work and handle the project efficiently.