PDS AP Environmental Science 5th Period 2010-11

As we approach the final day before the AP exam, have you reviewed the nutrient cycles? Knowledge of these cycles is critical-they tie everything together.  In the fall we learned primary reservoirs, key chemical reactions, and anthropogenic impacts.  I also had each of you write a creative short-story of a cycle.  Here is a good [...]

If you missed today, we discussed the “next” industrial revolution. Did you know it was underway? The last industrial revolution gave us the linear material flow economy we diagrammed this week. While recycling programs do reduce some waste disposal and some extraction, they focus on the “downstream” end of that flow. Today, we learned of [...]

This last chapter, we really started to get an idea of how biogeochemical cycles work and can “malfunction.” Here are a few interesting current events on the topic if you want to learn more: Nitrogen Cycle: Whales Help Fertilize Ocean With Floating Dung http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130437080 Phosphorus Cycle: Manure, Fertilizer Part Of Chesapeake’s Problem http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121565792 Carbon Cycle: [...]

Aldo Leopold is a name you may recall from our environmental history readings.  He is often called the “father of wildlife management,” and you’ll encounter his work again later this year.  He wrote a famous book called A Sand County Almanac and in it, this short story called “The Odyssey.”  It is about “atom X” [...]

So today we I began a little review of basic geology we tried to teach you all in 7th grade. We are up against the test, so I’ll handle scribe duties. Remember, I put the Power Point slides in “the box.” We started by reviewing the “anatomy” of the Earth’s interior. Here is a simplified [...]

In class Friday we discussed the Water Cycle. We began by going over the main reservoirs, the unique properties, and the human impacts. The three major reservoirs are 1. Oceans 2. Ice caps and glaciers 3. Ground Water (which is water that is underground stored in aquifers). The unique properties for the Water Cycle that [...]

Today we started off class by doing a whiteboarding activity. In this activity we got into groups of 3 and were instructed to determine the main reservoirs of nitrogen, its unique characteristics, and the human impacts on the nitrogen cycle. After each group was finished, we brought the whiteboards into the classroom and as a [...]

Today we talked about the phosphorus cycle. Phosphorus, we learned, is very important because it is a main component in things such as phospholipids, DNA, RNA, ATP, and ADP. By looking at the diagram in our book and study guide, we noticed the main reservoir for phosphorus is sedimentary rock, which is part of the [...]

So…I forgot to make sure there was a scribe for this lesson, so I got this one.  Maybe a model of what those that handle other cycles can do? Since we are all “carbon-based life forms,” this cycle is crucial to life.  We reviewed a little biochemistry in class, noting that carbs, lipids, nucleic acids, [...]

Most of our prior studies have been focused on the components that make up our world, but, in reality, the world isn’t made up of individual components, but rather of one complex whole. While categories are useful to understand subject matter, the planet operates as a complex network of interlinked systems. This is the reason [...]