Charity Fair 12/18/17-12/22/17

I of course know many things about myself, I love cheetahs, teal and my family. But when it comes to projects and school, I always have something to discover. I feel as though my recent work has shown a lot about my work ethic, growth and abilities. Though I have just recently discovered my love for presenting and being social, no matter how sick I feel while doing it. I discovered that when I actually care about something, I don't care what I am doing, i'm helping or acting on that cause. This charity fair I choose the Cheetah Conservation Fund, or CCF as my charity. I love this charity because it protects one of my favorite animals. This is something that I really care about. So when I got up and presented, the fear while waiting for my turn, melted away, I was fearless. That had never happened before.

Backward-Looking

I think that I have gotten better at this kind of work over the years because I have learned what to do and what not to do. I also think that my abilities to make something nice and good have improved. I feel like over the past few years I have been able to improve my work ethic and growth, so that each of my projects grow with me. I think that over all I have improved most when it comes to my presentation skills.

Inward-Looking

My standards for this piece were to get it done and get an A, sell more than half our product and to do it very efficiently. I think that not only did I meet my goals, but I exceeded my goals. I sold out of my products and I made it to finals for choosing a charity to represent our class, this was a great honor because I had never done it before. 

Outward-Looking

When people look at my work I want them to see all of the effort that I put into it. I want them to notice all the small details and finishing touches that we put in to make it better. I also want them to see that we worked very hard to make our product and that we took our time making our product.

Forward-Looking

One thing that I would try to improve upon the next charity fair is being more creative when I come up with a product. This is because I want to be unique and yet our product not be to out of this world and crazy. I also would like to make our slides a bit better.

Is ecotourism helping or hurting our national parks 12/4/17-12/817 (weekly blog)

https://www.nps.gov/slbe/learn/education/classrooms/arrowhead.htm

   

Is ecotourism helping or hurting our national parks? This question has two sides to it and is also complicated. This is because there is lots of evidence backing up both sides of the question. Let's start with the first side of the question, Is ecotourism helping our national parks? Well, yes. In article two, Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting Our National Parks?, it says, "Ecotourism is an industry that promotes responsible travel to natural areas. It can provide income and promote conservation–rather than exploitation–of natural resources. Sometimes, ecotourism is looked at as a solution to a lack of political will or general apathy toward conservation issues. The idea of ecotourism is to enhance the conservation of wild spaces and species in an ecosystem through the promotion of natural resources as a tourist attraction.”. In that same article it also says, "Ecotourism has many benefits. It boosts local economic growth, provides jobs and improves conservation awareness as it stimulates the desire to protect our parks. NPS activities provide more than 200,000 jobs and have $30 billion impact on the economy of the U.S. through visitor spending. Getting outside is also good for people’s physical and mental health, helping with everything from reducing stress to improving memory. Companies are recognizing these benefits for employees, and students’ performance can improve after spending time outside. In addition, our national parks provide a unique American experience, bringing people together to learn about our national heritage. Due to all of these benefits, many people support sustainable tourism.”


Even though ecotourism can be good, it also has a downside to it. In article 3, Keeping Bears Wild - Or Trying - At National Parks, a park ranger at Great Smoky's National Park, who works with protecting the wildlife, most of the time bears, named Williamson says "It's a very difficult window to try to capture, because neither one can behave themselves, humans can't help but get too close to bears or drop food crumbs on the ground; bears can't help but eat the crumbs.". He also says "He can educate all of the bears he wants here, but he can't educate all of the people." This is a problem that many of the parks face. Especially Great Smoky's National Park.


You see people just don't know how much they can effect the environment. Also in article 2, Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting Our National Parks?, Sencer says "Visitors’ poor behavior has been a growing problem, too. especially in national parks. In the past couple of years, the national parks have made headlines several times because of human misbehavior. In 2015, a family interfered with a bison calf in Yellowstone National Park, which they had presumed was in danger because it was alone in the snow. Bison are physiologically equipped to handle the harsh winters in the midwest. In the end, the family’s misjudgment cost the bison its life after attempts to reunite it with its herd failed….Recently, a woman was sentenced for vandalizing sites in parks around the country, something that unfortunately has impacted many parks over the years.”


Not only that but on article 5, Is ecotourism and oxymoron?, Christie Wilcox says "Ecotourists around the world may be inadvertently causing more harm than good, and that certainly seems to be the case in Kona. No one knows how the mantas’ behavior has been altered by the nightly interactions with humans and the artificial plankton aggregations created by their lights...The Kona industry might be “taming” the rays, causing unforeseen harm — in addition to the damage to the reef and rays already documented.”. But no matter what ecotourism, in a way, is neither good, nor bad. It has it's ups and downs. So the answer to the question in paragraph one, is merely one's opinion. So what do you think?






S&EP

SP7: Arguing from evidence.




I used evidence for different articles to construct my opinion on if ecotourism is good or bad. I read 5 articles to help me with constructing my argument and opinion. Then I had to use quotes from the articles and relate them to one another. I then came up with the conclusion that ecotourism was bad for our national parks and the environment.




XCC

XCC: Cause and Effect




Humans cause a lot more harm to the environment then we know of. One of the ways we cause harm is in ecotourism. Ecotourism is good for us humans, but it make things a whole lot worse for animals and the environment. You see, the animals at the national parks get to used to seeing humans in their daily life. This make them tamer when they are around humans. This almost takes the 'wild' factor out of an animal. This then makes national parks more like a 'wild zoo'.

Is Ecotourism helping or hurting our national parks?-WAC

 Ecotourism is hurting our environment. Many people may think that ecotourism is help our environment, that by being an ecotourist, you are being one with nature. This unfortunately is not true. Of course you could still be one with nature, but it is not good for the environment. In article 3, Keeping Bears Wild - Or Trying - At National Parks, a park ranger at Great Smoky's National Park, who works with protecting the wildlife, most of the time bears, named Williamson says "It's a very difficult window to try to capture, because neither one can behave themselves, humans can't help but get too close to bears or drop food crumbs on the ground; bears can't help but eat the crumbs.". He also says "He can educate all of the bears he wants here, but he can't educate all of the people." This is a problem that many of the parks face. Especially Great Smoky's National Park.

Great Smoky's National park is probably the most visited national parks in the U.S. This is a huge accomplishment. But is it really? As Williamson said above "He can educate all of the bears he wants here, but he can't educate all of the people." When you have some 11 million people in your park they are hard to control and they can end up destroying the beauty and the 'wild' factory of national parks. This is seen a lot at Great Smoky's and other popular ecotourism sites around the world. Williamson see's the 'wild' factory almost fade away with bears. They call it habitation. In article 3, Keeping Bears Wild - Or Trying - At National Parks, Williamson says, watching the sow nose a rock aside. "This is how habituation happens. She's just tolerant of us right now. She doesn't even spook when a frustrated motorist honks his horn at the car in front of him. Her two cubs seem oblivious too, as they stumble over downed logs and try to keep pace with their slow-moving mother... They're learning right now," Williamson says. They're learning to not be afraid of humans, which puts them on that slippery slope to becoming problem bears."

Also it is not just happening to bears. In article 5, Is ecotourism and oxymoron?, Christie Wilcox says "Ecotourists around the world may be inadvertently causing more harm than good, and that certainly seems to be the case in Kona. No one knows how the mantas’ behavior has been altered by the nightly interactions with humans and the artificial plankton aggregations created by their lights...The Kona industry might be “taming” the rays, causing unforeseen harm — in addition to the damage to the reef and rays already documented.” In article 1, National Park Service Celebrates 100th Anniversary, Rott from npr says "So she's scaring it off because in order to preserve and protect this bear and these people, it can't be hanging out this close to a road and this close to people. It's good for pictures, but it's not good for the bear."

Not only that but people actually ruin other animals lives and the nature like coral, trees and other plants. In article 2, Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting Our National Parks?, Sencer says "Visitors’ poor behavior has been a growing problem, too. especially in national parks. In the past couple of years, the national parks have made headlines several times because of human misbehavior. In 2015, a family interfered with a bison calf in Yellowstone National Park, which they had presumed was in danger because it was alone in the snow. Bison are physiologically equipped to handle the harsh winters in the midwest. In the end, the family’s misjudgment cost the bison its life after attempts to reunite it with its herd failed….Recently, a woman was sentenced for vandalizing sites in parks around the country, something that unfortunately has impacted many parks over the years.”

Also in article 5, Is ecotourism and oxymoron?, Christie Wilcox says "Lights in all directions from the dozens of dive groups disoriented us, and we were tossed this way and that by the high surge as our dive master attempted to move large, venomous urchins out of the way with tongs so we could sit on the reef. She instructed us to hold tight to the coral — even though touching the coral can kill it — as the water pushed us this way and that." She also says "I tried to remind myself that some of the money paid by all of these people would be used to conserve this place, to protect the majestic animals we anxiously awaited. But looking around, it was hard to believe that any of this was going to help the manta rays."

We may think that we are helping, but we are hurting the animals and their ecosystem. On the whole ecotourism helps us, through providing jobs, getting money, and letting us spend time in preserved nature. Yet it hurts the animals and their lives, by taking away the 'wild' factor within them and vandalizing their habitat. Ecotourism is bad and that is our fault. Here is this quote from article 3, Keeping Bears Wild - Or Trying - At National Parks, Williamson says "He can educate all of the bears he wants here, but he can't educate all of the people." and that is the problem.

Journey of Duct Tape key chains and wallets

      Did you ever wonder how much greenhouse gasses go into the air whenever you travel? Well I know, it turns out that when you fly in an airplane that it emits 0.8 grams of greenhouse gasses per mile. When you ride in your car it emits 0.41 grams of greenhouse gasses per mile. If you ever rode in a truck it emitted 0.17 grams of greenhouse gasses per mile. Finally if you ever rode in a rain it emitted 0.1 grams of greenhouse gasses per mile. Lots of our everyday product are made in China. For most of our products from China to California it goes by plane. From Guangdong, China to us is 5,530.4g of CO2/kg. That is a lot!

S&EP: SP4 Analyzing Data

We analyzed data when we had to find all of the mileage and CO2 emitted into the atmosphere from all of our products transportation. We also had to analyze all of the data that we got from the CO2 emissions and turn it into a description. We also had to analyze ourselves when we thought about how we impact the world with our CO2 emissions.

XXC: Structure and Function

The function of our map depended on the structure of our map. This is because when we made the map we had to do everything in a certain way so that it was interactive and so that everybody knew that one thing came from one place to another. A;so it depended on the structure so that we could get the correct mileage.