Student Developed Projects

The following are projects developed by students at the completion of the class. They were asked to develop background information on a North Carolina environmental topic, identify some good resources, and then develop an activity that a teacher could use in class to teach an aspect of that environmental issue.

Rare Species – specie, which is rare, is a specie that’s population is low to begin with. This means that that is specie naturally has low numbers.

Threatened Species – A "threatened" species is defined as one that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future

Extinction is a natural process that has been occurring since long before the existence of man. Normally, new species develop, through a process known as speciation, at about the same rate that other species become extinct. However, because of air and water pollution, forest clearing, loss of wetlands, and other man-induced environmental changes, extinctions are now occurring at a rate that far exceeds the speciation rate. As much as 20 percent of the world's species could be gone in the next 30 years.

Everything on earth affects each other. When one species becomes extinct, it not only affects that population but it affects the other species as well. Because we have so many different plant and animal life, this provides us with a variety of food and medicine to choose from. When a species is extinct, it is gone forever.

Things should be cut back that effects animals and plants. Deforestation and urban sprawl should be minimized.

Funding or research and conservation is being given to organizations like WWF and Commonwealths. These organizations are helping to identify threatened species, threatened ecological communities, the development of recovery plans and for on-ground conservation projects

Laws have been passed as to what you can and can not do with a piece of land and where you can and can not build.

Use two poster boards. Find an endangered Specie and draw it on the poster board the full length (actually, it depending on the number of facts you have). Turn it over and cut it up into puzzle pieces and on each puzzle piece, make up a question from the lesson you just taught and write it on the back of each of the puzzle pieces. On the second poster board outline the endangered specie and outline each of the puzzle pieces. In the spaces of the puzzle pieces on the second board, write the answer to each of the questions listed. Have the kids pick up a puzzle piece of the floor or table and match it to the answer on the second poster board. This would be fun or you and fun for the whole class. Some examples of questions to ask the class are as followed:

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/species.cfm - World Wildlife Fund - This site is helpful for all audiences. This site talks about a select few of animals but it goes into detail about each. Also this site talks about ways in which we can help out.

Background- KP

Air pollution is a very widespread problem in the US and in the world. Bad air is usually thought of as smog, but it is actually the result of ozone and particulate matter. Particulate matter, or PM, is “a mixture of particles that can adversely effect human health, damage materials and form atmospheric haze that degrades visibility.” (http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/cap/pollutant-desc.tcl#EDF-077). PM is classified into different categories by their size. The smaller the particles are the higher the human risk is. People and animals are exposed to PM on a daily basis and its effects include damaging lung tissue, contributing to cancer, and weakening the immune system and defense mechanism against foreign object in the air. PM includes:

Another main cause of air pollution is Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). The main source of SO2 in the air is the burning of fuels that contain sulfur, such as coal, oil, and diesel fuel. Among the main places that give off SO2 are coal and oil powered plants, steel mills, refineries, and pulp and paper mills. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are the last of the three main things that most are most threatening to the air. VOC’s are chemicals that add to the creation of ozone. VOC’s contain many different specific chemicals and are given off mainly by automobiles, chemical manufacturing facilities, dry cleaners, and paint.

All these problems are specific to North Carolina. Air pollution is a universal problem and the same things affect it everywhere.

Create 2 healthy environments for these plants, each with a lettuce plant, a lichen plant, and a plant of a common weed. Over a period if one month take equal care of both environments with water and sunlight, but expose one to the emissions of diesel fuel and keep one inside away from any fuel emissions.

In the environment that is exposed to the emissions of diesel fuel the lichen will die, the lettuce will be considerably less healthy and there will be little effect on the common weed.

The purpose of this activity is to show the students the effects of SO2 emissions. I think that this is a good activity because it shows that it has a different effect on different things.

Any of numerous mineral, vegetable, and synthetic substances and animal and vegetable fats that are generally slippery, combustible, viscous, liquid or liquefiable at room temperatures, soluble in various organic solvents such as ether but not in water, and used in a great variety of products, especially lubricants and fuels.

The graph below shows how many millions of gallons of oil each source puts into the oceans worldwide each year.

Down the Drain: 363 Million Gallons

Used engine oil can end up in waterways. An average oil change uses five quarts; one change can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water. Much oil in runoff from land and municipal and industrial wastes ends up in the oceans. 363 million gallons.

Road runoff adds up
Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill.

Routine Maintenance: 137 Million Gallons

Every year, bilge cleaning and other ship operations release millions of gallons of oil into navigable waters, in thousands of discharges of just a few gallons each. 137 million gallons.

Up in Smoke: 92 Million Gallons

Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the oceans each year. Particles settle, and rain washes hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans.

Natural Seeps: 62 Million Gallons

Some ocean oil "pollution" is natural. Seepage from the ocean bottom and eroding sedimentary rocks releases oil.

Big Spills: 37 Million Gallons

Only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans is due to major tanker accidents, but one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles. 37 million gallons.

Offshore Drilling: 15 Million Gallons

Offshore oil production can cause ocean oil pollution, from spills and operational discharges.

Clean Up Process For Oil Spills?

Animals- they try to take the animals that they can and bring them to an animal hospital where they can clean them off and try to get the oil off of the feather and skin. Then they begin to warm them back up, because a lot of times the oil will cause the body to drop. Then they will start to feed them and nurse back to health the ones that they can and then put them back into there natural habitat.

Water- Un like the animals where some of them can be saved and washed off and renewed the water cannot be cured that easily. Some of the clean up can be down physically, but a lot of the clean up has to be done naturally because there is to much oil for it all to be clean up. The water will never be the same again, but as time goes on the concentration of the oil will go down till eventually if that area stays clean for a while then it could go back to being normal.

Air- As silly as this sounds oil spills in the water hurt out air too. When there gets to much concentration of oil in the water it sometimes ignites from the ship and the water starts to burn because it is mostly oil now and not water. The fumes then put carbin dioxide into the air that can contribute to global warming and also acid rain.

Laws That Help Keep Oil Under Control

The Colonial Pipeline Company based out of Atlanta Georgia, which has under ground pipelines that have spilled oil into wetland areas in North Carolina places. More Info: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-28-15.html

Labs

1) Take a flask and put color water into the flask and then add vegabtible oil. Shake the flask of the clear container up and then let the students watch as the oil and the water separate into two different levels. Stress that the two do not mix

2) Take some glue and you can color it black to act like oil. Spread it onto feather that you can by at a store to show how sticky they feather get for the birds. Also you can use this to show how messy the clean up part is because the clue will not come off in one shot. Labs goal is to give kids an idea of how oil really does effect animals and also how it effects the clean up process for the animal care givers and the animals themselves.

Early 90’s people found lots of dead fish. Water tests showed microscopic, animal-like cells of a previously unknown species, now called Pfiesteria piscicida.

Pfiesteria is what is known as a toxic dinoflaggelant. It is plant and animal like—eats each other but also photosynthesizes. It is part of a group known as “harmful algal blooms.”

Other toxic dinoflaggelants cause what is known as “red tide” or “yellow tide” (among others). Dinoflaggelants are in lots of water, and most are harmless. Pfiesteria outbreaks aren’t too lengthy. Toxin releases last only a few hours or a few days. The outbreaks are also very localized.

It thrives in stagnant waters, and it is believed that they release their toxic material release is triggered by fish excrement, nitrogen, and phosphorous. It is believed that runoff waste from hog farms has made this problem worse.

It is believed that the fish kills result from two things involving the pfiesteria. 1) the toxins that are released from the pfiesteria causes sores on the fish to develop, thus killing them, and 2) since pfiesteria is an algae, it takes away the oxygen in the water that the fish need when it dies.

Human illnesses have been reported from coming in contact with pfiesteria as well. People have developed sores on their body where they came in contact with the water, and memory loss, confusion, and stomach problems have been reported.

Wetlands

· Wetlands are wet at least part of the year due to soil that is saturated or covered by a shallow layer of water and are usually covered by plants that range from marsh grass to trees.

· Runoff from farms, highways and other areas can wash into rivers and sounds during rainstorms, but wetlands act as a natural buffer by trapping sediment, removing nutrients and detoxifying chemicals before the water gets to the rivers or sounds

· Wetlands are like nature’s sponge, they stop water after it rains and gradually release it, which keeps river levels more constant

· The plants in wetlands can absorb water from floods and wave action, which stabilizes the shorelines.

· Wetlands many fish, animals, and plants—including more than 70% of NC’s endangered population—depend on wetlands as their natural habitat.

· Fish, shellfish, blue crabs, and shrimp are found in the coastal salt marshes, and inland freshwater wetlands also influence the fisheries.

· Wetlands, if properly managed, can produce timber without detracting from their own natural functions.

· Water-filtration and flood-protection due to wetlands saves money that would otherwise be spent on runoff control, water treatment, and property preservation

· Hunting, fishing, and trapping are big industries that wetlands can benefit from.

Place dirt in one half of the tray. Then, pour water into the other half. Observe how the dirt absorbs the water.

In a separate tray, or at least with fresh dirt, repeat the previous steps, but this time, place the sponges next to the dirt, so that they will be a barrier from the water. Observe how the sponges keep much of the water from ever reaching the dirt.

This is the best page about wetlands around, specifically wetlands in North Carolina. It provides general information on wetlands and the plants found there, conservation and restoration plans, an inventory on wetlands in the state and links.

1 example- Test with crabbers in pfiesteria water didn’t test as being any more lesionated that crabbers in non-pfiesteria areas.

This is a game that pertains to some indirect causes of pfiesteria. You are farmer bob, and you release a variable amount of waste each month. You are also in charge of 30 fishies. Every turn you roll a die, and for each unit of die (which stands for 1 unit of hog waste), 1 fishie will die. You go around rolling and producing waste for 1 year, and the person with the most fishies wins.

“Throughout history, the fate of the world's forests has strongly reflected the pattern and intensity of land use by societies”

Deforestation- is the permanent loss and renoval of forests due to other land uses such as agriculture, new settlements, infrasturcture and population growth.

Forestry areas are responsible for covering over half of the earths land mass. They are one of the most important parts of the ecosystem and contribute greatly to all life forms on this planet. In fact, with out the forests, earth would not exist to the level of which it’s at now. No living animal could survive with out plants either for food, shelter and or oxygen.

The biggest reason for deforestation is the overwhelming demand for land, either because of agriculture development or to serve the growing population. A lot of farmers use what is called the “slash and burn” method for clearing forests. There is also a need for food, fibre, living space and recreation for which forests provide. Forests provide people with many products for their everyday lives including lumber, which brings in money from exports, fruit, nuts, dyes, fibers, rubber and other medicinal compounds. The main problem is that no one is replanting and at a steady rate. More trees are being cut down than planted and most forget that it takes the trees to grow much longer than it does to cut them down.

- Oxygen- living things cannot live with out oxygen and plants release this element in to the air everyday. We could not survive with out it.

- Animal population- With the destruction of forests, various species of animals are wiped away. Many larger species suffer from lack of food and shelter from their natural environment. There is a great loss in biodiversity and a great devastation in earth’s ecosystem.

- Natural resources- the loss of natural resources are not only devastating to the animal population but also for the growth of humans in our everyday lives. There are so many products that people rely on for everyday living that if too many trees were destroyed the effects could alter life.

- Global warming- on the most serious casualties from the loss of plant life. Because trees consume carbon dioxide, with out them there could be a rise in the CO2 levels which causes many destructive things such as a change in weather patters like heaver and more deadly storms, drought, flooding and the melting of the polar ice caps.

- Soil Erosion- trees help protect the soil from any harmful erosion that might cause it to become unfertile. Plants also help to maintain the nutrients in the soil and add to it when needed. Trees help to prevent land slides and other things like sustaining freshwater

- Some other things forests provide are aesthetics, recreational, economic, historical and cultural values to human life

The main focus of this lab is to understand the reasons in which the destruction of land and forests can cause the population growth of species to be destroyed.

Using an ant farm, a certain population of ants should be placed inside with plenty of food, water and room to live. This represents the earth, as it is now, not to many problems. Then over a period of two weeks, everyday, slowly take parts of the ants ecosystem away, reduce the amount of sand and food supply. Then record daily the population of ants still remaining on the farm.

The purpose is to show how important natural resources are to animals by the number ants who died from the original population put on the farm.

Before there were beaches, the edges of the land were rocky and filled with minerals. Coastal sands are formed by the general breakdown of these rocks and minerals from waves and the wind, and some sand grains even come from loose fragments of seashells that wash up on shore. These sands will accumulate overtime and the wind will blow them into piles called dunes. Dunes will usually migrate unless vegetation starts to grow on them. Beaches, like anything else, are subject to environmental hazards, such as erosion. Erosion will cause beaches to be destroyed over time or even migrated.

Erosion is basically the removal of materials from the earth’s crust, including sand, rocks, and minerals, and the natural transportation of these fragments from the point of removal. Mainly natural things such as currents, storms, winds, and tides cause erosion. Erosion can be a problem in some areas but it can also benefit. For instance, erosion caused by tides can break down one beach but build up another.

Humans cause erosion to take place much faster than just by natural causes. When humans destroy dunes or their vegetation by development, the beaches and mainland are at a much greater risk of being destroyed by the ocean.

Erosion cannot be completely prevented. It is a coarse of nature. What humans can do is to slow down the process of erosion by slowing down progress and protecting the dunes.

The state of North Carolina has approximately 320 miles of beaches. Protection of all of this land is especially hard due to the huge number of hurricanes the state encounters. More than 20 hurricanes have hit the coast of North Carolina since the 1960’s. Erosion therefore is a huge issue for North Carolina. Each time a hurricane hits the state, anywhere from six to twenty feet of sand can be washed away into the ocean. This posses major threats to the surrounding communities and natural habitats. The risk that North Carolina faces for beach erosion has caused the need for several environmental and government agencies to exist, such as the North Carolina Shore and Beach Preservation Association and the North Carolina Coastal Management Program. Both of these are non-profit organizations that use the general $3billion annual tax revenues from coastal towns and cities for beach re-nourishment.

I will describe a tank with a pile of sand at one end and water at the other. Half of the sand has straws sticking in it (simulating vegetation roots) and the other doesn’t. The water is washed onto the sand. The water running back into the pool will carry more sand from the side without straws. This will simulate the importance of vegetation on sand dunes, and the need to preserve them.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/cmse/science/pfiesteria.html

http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/pfiesteria/

http://www.pamlico-nc.com/health.htm

http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/pfiesteria/fact.html

http://www.pfiesteria.org/pfiesteria/pfiesteria.html

http://www.diseaseworld.com/pfiest.htm

http://www.epa.gov/reg3rcei/inthnews/archiv01.htm

Pfiesteria was discovered in 1989 by Joann Burkholder. They classified it under dinoflagellates, which are like algae but they do not use photosynthesis. Pfiesteria preys on other life. They are microscopic organisms that live in freshwater ecosystems. For part of their life they will have a white tale to swim through the water. If is often classified as algae. When the algae blooms the water will become discolored. This is when the toxins become dangerous to humans. Less the 1% of the algae released harmful toxins, but there is a concern because these types of blooms seem to be happening more frequently. There are currently three ways to find pfiesteria in water. 1 is testing the water for the toxin which kills fish. 2. Using scanning electron microscopy to look at the outer plates, Pfiesteria with have five even armored plates that will look similar to baseball diamonds. The 3. way is to use molecular probes. You can easily find the Piesteria, but you can not determine whether it is toxic.

Pfiesteria causes ulcerative lesions on fish and kills them along with harming the health of humans. It is a big problem in water with low oxygen and high nutrient loads. Nutrient loads can come form sewage discharges and agricultural runoff. These are involved, but no one knows which facts are more important then the others.

There are currently three ways to find pfiesteria in water. 1 is testing the water for the toxin which kills fish. 2. Using scanning electron microscopy to look at the outer plates, Pfiesteria with have five even armored plates that will look similar to baseball diamonds. The 3. way is to use molecular probes. You can easily find the Piesteria, but you can not determine whether it is toxic.

Robert Koch said

1. It must be shown that the microorganism in question is always present in diseased hosts.

2. The microorganism must be isolated from the diseased host and grown in pure culture (i.e., in a culture containing only that one species of microorganism).

3. Microorganisms obtained from the pure culture, when injected into a healthy, susceptible host, must produce the disease in that host.

4. Microorganisms must be isolated from the experimentally infected host, grown in pure culture, and compared with the microorganisms from the original culture.

Pfiesteria has not been isolated from a fish yet, fish with lesions have been found with out Pfiesteria, and some fish in laboratory exposures got different lesions then the fish in the field.

Pfiesteria is not a disease that can be caught, it a marine organism. Some humans that have fished or water skied in areas where Pfiesteria was later found reported skin lesions, light headedness and fatigue.

Some scientist believe that Pfiesteria is made toxic by the presence of fish. When the organism detects an ephemeral substance that fish secret it becomes toxic. The Pfiesteria then secretes a toxin into the water that makes the fish lethargic so they stay in the area. The toxins injure the skin on the fish and sores and bleeding occur.

Right now the state and several organizations like U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working Pfiesteria.

Environmental Science

Cyrus Atkins

Deer Overpopulation

Background

Deer overpopulation has become a major problem in the United States over the past decades. One state in particular that faces a large deer population control challenge is North Carolina. The population of white tailed deer in the United States has reached the 20,000,000 mark. 900,000 of those deer live in North Carolina. The areas inhabited by white tailed deer stretch all the way from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Coastal Plains, where the populations are most dense. In addition to this the deer know no boundaries. Their presence must be dealt with in not only rural areas but urban and suburban as well.

The effects of deer overpopulation are many and affect a considerable amount of people. From a purely environmental standpoint having too many deer in one area severely affects the ecosystem there. Plant species that are budding and coming back into an area are easily devoured by the deer, which feed mostly on budding plants, berries, etc. When overpopulation problems reach an advanced state a “browse line” develops. This is where the deer in the area have eaten everything that they could possible reach. A “line” can actually be seen from the average reach of a deer to the ground. When the problem comes to this point the herd usually becomes diseased or starves until it reaches a supportable number.

In rural areas deer are often known to eat budding plants and crops important to local farmers. Male deer rubbing their horns also mars trees. In suburban areas deer often stray into yards and eat the rich plant life therein. Residents are not pleased with this, having spent a considerable amount of money on the foliage. The problem of deer on the roads has become an issue in suburban and urban areas. Hitting a deer is hazardous to all involved and can cause death to either party. Deer have also become a problem at airports, namely the RDU International Airport. This airport, standing right next to a state park, has problems with deer on the runways. While fences are in place the deer nevertheless find a way in and wreak havoc on flight schedules and airport safety.

What can be done to control the deer population in North Carolina? To put it simply, responsible hunting is the most economical, effective, and popular form of deer control. Though other methods exist, trapping, fencing, birth control, etc., harvest remains the favorite. Responsible is a key word in this case however. For instance many hunters go out in order to kill that big buck. However to control a population properly it is the doe that must be killed, for one buck can impregnate many does. For this reason the State of North Carolina mandates that after killed a buck, a hunter must kill two does before killing another buck. More than 250,000 people hunt white tailed deer in North Carolina. They kill about 100,000 a year. Hunting licenses provide a source of income for the State as well. Essentially the hunter is paying for a job that otherwise would have to come out of the taxpayer’s pocket. Hunting in North Carolina is the most effective and economical form of deer control used today.

Demonstration

This is a simple experiment to show the outcome of deer overpopulation for the deer. There are two displays, a deer population without control and a deer population with control.

The materials needed are two cups, two deep pans of some sort (pie tin, etc), two sinks, and a smaller cup.

Now turn on the water to a light setting, as to fill the cups but not too quickly.

In the other take the smaller cup and begin extracting small amounts every ten seconds. Pour this water into the pan

The cup that merely fills is the population of deer without control. The other cup is the controlled environment. The water that ends up in the pans is representative of dead deer. The hunted deer come from the cup. The overflow deer are the ones that have died from disease. Either way they are dead. The difference is that the population in the overflow cup is always growing and always dieing off. This experiment works for all ages. The way it is presented is the key to catering to different age groups.

Links

My proposed activity is to go to a stream and a lake/pond and take the ph reading of both of those in a city and in a rural area and compare the two. The acceptable range for drinking water is a 6.5 to an 8.5 on a scale ranging from 0 to 14 where distilled water is a 7. Water with a pH below 7 is considered an acid and above 7 it is considered a alkaline. The pH levels in most natural water ranges from 5 to 8. The ph levels in water near a city can vary greatly depending on what is going into the water. You could note the possible different appearances of the water and different insects and wildlife which you might have seen.

Water pollution has always existed in North Carolina and there has also been a lot of effort to rid North Carolina of this problem. There are many different sources of water pollution but the pollutants can be split up into two main categories. There is the direct type of pollution that comes from factories, cars, waste treatment plants and other such man made things that mainly affects the water quality of cities and other densely populated areas. The other type of pollution is more indirect and is located in ground water and vapors in the air. This type of water pollution comes mainly from human agricultural needs such as fertilizers and pesticides. All of this pollution causes serious dangers such as poisonous drinking water, deforestation from acid rain, unbalanced water eco-systems such as in rivers, lakes, and coastal regions, and even poisoned food due to the fact that the animals also can drink the poisoned water and pass it on to us.

The state of North Carolina has passed over 40 laws and has organizations that are aimed specifically at stopping water pollution. Laws have been passed to help maintain a good quality of water in all the environments thorough out North Carolina. A few examples of these laws and organizations are as follows: There is a 30 foot buffer rule which states that nothing can be built within 30 feet of the water on the coast, the punishment for violating the sedimentation act which limits how much sedimentation is allowed to leak from your site such as a construction site was raised from $500 a day to $5000 a day, there is a straight pipe program which reports septic tanks which are not working properly, in 1999 the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund approved a $5.7 million dollar grant which was for floodplain management for hog farm lagoons, and finally the DOT (Department of Transportation) agreed to pay $17.5 million during the next 7 years to help locate streams and marshes most in need of restoration and another $175 million to help restore them. This wide variety of laws and organizations shows how North Carolina has been attempting in many different ways to improve the water. For more information on laws in North Carolina involving water you can visit http://www.enr.state.nc.us/files/wqimp1.htm. From the hog farms to the rivers to the coast, something is being done on all of these to rid them of any pollution that might exist.

In a recent test by the Office of Water in the EPA (environmental protection agency) it was shown that about 87% of the state's assessed fresh water rivers and streams have good water quality that fully supports designated uses, while 14% are impaired mainly because of things such as urban runoff, agriculture and other such human sources. Only 2% of the assessed lakes in North Carolina are impaired for aquatic life use. About 94% of the estuaries and sounds in North Carolina fully support designated uses.

Almost half the people in North Carolina obtain their drinking water from a ground water supply. The ground water quality in North Carolina is in general pretty good. The main sources of pollution for ground water are leaking pipes and storage tanks that might release things from septic tanks or could release things such as fuels like gasoline.

North Carolina’s Division of Water Quality (DWQ) in 1998 completed its first set of basin wide management plans, which summarizes water quality and strategies for restoring each of North Carolina’s 17 river basins. There were 23 high-priority watersheds in need of restoration and within these 11 smaller catchments that are biologically impaired and will be studied intensely. North Carolina also has been addressing its nonpoint source pollution problems. The DWQ has recently been passing rules that target nitrogen pollution that comes from urban areas and farms.

Below is a diagram and two charts which help show the current condition of the water in North Carolina.

The chart above shows the percent of assessed water sources in areas and shows what percent meets all uses.

The chart to the right shows the conditions of all the rivers and streams in North Carolina.

Although sedimentation may not be a highly visible environmental issue like urbanization or erosion (both which cause sedimentation) it is still one that has just as many affects and needs to be treated just a equally.

Stick two containers of playdough to one side of the disposable pan, then stick the other two to the other side. It should look like a river is going to run though the middle of the pan. If the pan is too big then you can either use more playdough or make it look like there is a river and a lake. The playdough should be about one inch thick. Place the toothpicks in the playdough on the edge closest to the water (the place where the river bed would be). The toothpicks are going to be vegetation and animals that live along the side of a river. Next take the small rocks and place them along the bottom of the river. The rocks are going to represent cluster of fish eggs. Next fill up the tray, in between the playdough, with water so that you have stream like representation. The water should be up to the top of the playdough but not over it. Next add enough sand so that it covers the bottom and the river overflows.

The purpose of this experiment is to show students how sedimentation works, when the sand is first added the water is cloudy showing how sediment in the river can make it cloudy affect the photosynthesis of plants. When the sand is added the river also overflows and floods the surrounding area making it difficult for the vegetation and animals to survive (As shown by the water around the base of the toothpicks.) As the sand settles students will be able to see the covered up fish eggs and understand how sedimentation can destroy them.

Economics and the Environment

Objective: 1. To open students’ minds to both sides of the urban sprawl issue: The Economist view and the environmental view.

2. To encourage students to think deeply and realistically about issues such as pollution and conservation.

3. To put students into the role of a city official, and force them to draw their own supported conclusions and solutions to these problems.

1. Go ahead and get students minds working right from the beginning. Start a conversation about the growth this area has seen recently. Get students to tell you what they like about the expanding economy, and then ask them to share some of the negative aspects of growth. As the conversation winds down, pose to them the following question:

“Can you enjoy the benefits of growth, such as increased entertainment options and higher quality of life, without any cost?”

2. Ask a question along the following lines: “How then, does a society know when to stop building, or to stop expanding? How do you find the optimal level of production?”

Quantity of Trees

Where the marginal cost of growth is equal to the marginal benefit gained from growth is where the balance between growth and preservation is achieved. You are gaining from the additional construction costs and depletion of natural resources exactly the same amount of marginal utility, or satisfaction.

Benefits refer to whatever good the buildings brought to society. This may include increased shopping and entertainment options in the case of a mall, or increased available medical technology in the case of a chemical plant. Benefits can also be more indirect, such as a decrease in taxes due to rent-paying businesses increasing city revenue.

Costs refer to the sacrifices made in order to grow these buildings. These will vary according to who you ask: The loss of 60 trees to build a gas station may “be worth” more to a farmer than to a woman who passes that way every day to get to work. Since trees and land are not measured only by monetary means, we must also include loss of aesthetic value in the costs. Since this varies by person, the average marginal utility lost should be used.

I would create a very simple computer game, similar to a “choose your own adventure” story, in which the student assumed the role of a city official. He or she would begin with a given budget and have to make decisions about building permits, etc. Each type of building provides a certain amount of profit, and it is up to the student to determine whether or not that benefit outweighs costs. The student will face the consequences of their decisions, e.g., they will face budget deficits or an unhappy public. This is will force the student to really question and decide “how much is too much”, and help them to understand the situation that city officials are in.

Have students write proposals about how to best manage the building/conservation issue in their respective area. Grade it on plausibility, originality, and thoughtfulness to all concerned.

Endangered Species	Air Pollution	Coastal Oil Spills	Pfiesteria
Wetlands	Deforestation	Erosion	Deer Overpopulation
Sedimentation	Water Quality	Urban Sprawl