Gregory Hendricks

The article titled Eradication of black rats Rattus Rattus from Anacapa Island written by Gregg Howald, Josh Donlan, Kate Faulkner, Steve Ortega, Holly Gellerman, Donald Croll, and Bernie Tershy studied the removal of an invasive species of rats from an island ecosystem.  Anacapa island is an  island off the coast of California in the California Channel Island chain east of Santa Cruz Island and north of Catalina. Their method of eradication was to disperse a rodenticide aerially staggered over 2 years.  The rodenticide they used was  brodifacoum, an anticoagulant which was incorporated into bait which they dropped upon the island.  They monitored soil quality,  populations of birds, and of a native rodent to ensure that the soil quality and the native populations remained with an impact was mitigated.  The native population of rodents (deer mouse) were eradicated along with Rattus Rattus, but they were successfully reintroduced, and recovered to pre-eradication levels quickly. Their method of mitigation for the bird populations was to capture birds who were susceptible to poisoning, such as the raptors which fed upon the rats. They also tested the marine environment for impacts and found that there was no significant impact on marine life from the use of brodifacoum.  This eradication proved to be an example of the cost and effort needed to eradicate harmful invasive rodent species fromm island ecosystems. The project cost 1.8 million dollars and involved the heavy mitigation measures required to keep native populations safe.

Orfield, Gary, and Chungmei Lee. The Civil Rights Project, “Why Segregation Matters: Poverty and Educational Inequality.” Last modified January 2005. Accessed February 22, 2014. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED489186.pdf.

Segregation has been a big issue surrounding educational inequality for a long time, and segregation in schools had been increasing since the 1980s (until 2005, the time this article was written). However, some people believe segregation is irrelevant and that all schools can be made equal with the right programs. However, there is very little evidence that shows “separate but equal” in schools can work on a large scale, and the authors believe it is not possible. This study looks at the affects of poverty and segregation on academic achievement and graduation rate.

This article’s topic is educational inequality, more specifically, it focuses on segregation and its effects on overall student performance. The research question here is: Does poverty segregation and racial inequality have an affect on school performance?

There were several types of data used to answer this question in-depth. First, public school enrollment by race for each region was looked at. The authors then showed readers proof that Latino enrollment has been increasing in several U.S. states. Racial composition of schools was also looked at in the context of the race of the student that attended them. The percentage of students in each racial group was also presented for schools dominated by minority students and schools dominated by white students.

Moving onto economic factors, the percent of poor students, by race and year, in schools attended by the average student was examined. In this case, poor students are considered students who qualify for either free or reduced lunches. In addition, the distribution of public school students by poverty for 2002 to 2003 was studied. Then, racial composition of low poverty, high poverty, and extreme poverty schools for the same time period was analyzed. Furthermore, these compositions were examined even more closely by region. Then, graduation rates for the largest central city school districts, metropolitan countywide districts, and suburban districts were studied.

The author’s used the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) common core of data to gather their various data. The authors looked at percentages and ratios to find patterns in the data, including whether some data show increases or declines in certain results. They try to find national trends using the data. They also use the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI), which is a method of calculating completion rates to estimate the probability of a student graduating on time.

This article is very thorough and uses an impressive amount of data to research and support its claims. The recommendations are well though-out and detailed, so it would be possible for someone to apply them after reading this article, although they could be difficult to apply. Overall, this research was important and interesting, and offered detailed evidence to support its argument that segregation is a relevant factor that needs to be taken into consideration during the creation of policy.

Green Houses

The title of the article “An empirical test of self-determination theory as a guide to fostering environmental motivation” by Rebekka Darner is rather self-explanatory. This study focuses on exemplifying what leads children in classrooms to be motivated to protect the environment. It builds off of a concept called Self-Determination Theory, or SDT, which is used to predict the likelihood that a person will carry out a certain behavior, even when unprompted. According to the theory, each human behavior stems from one of five main types of motivation: (1) amotivation (no specific catalyst toward behavior), (2) external regulation (behavior to obtain a reward or avoid punishment), (3) introjected regulation (behavior linked to self-esteem, e.g. to avoid shame or guilt), (4) identified regulation (behaviors one wishes to integrate into their identity, but has not yet done so) and (5)  intrinsic regulation (behaving simply for the pleasure of the behavior).

Typically, environmental educators attempt to trigger an integration of these different types of motivation, so that students feel accountable to act environmentally responsible unconditionally because they are willing to, even when it is not pleasurable.

In the study, two different post-secondary environmental biology classes were observed at a community college in San Diego. One was a course with an average environmental biology curriculum, and the other was the same class, but guided by SDT theory principles. Part of the SDT theory focuses on the need for the three social needs to be met: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Following the end of this course, all students were given at 24-question questionnaire called the MTES psychological instrument, which measures motivation toward pro-environmental behaviors. Although the total sample size was extremely small (at only 27 students, all from varying backgrounds), the results showed that there was a significant difference in the amotivation section: those with the SDT-guided course scored much higher in this subject category.

Despite the low sample size, this study is interesting because it is the first of its kind. The main lesson from this article? People are people first, and students second. This method of thinking could change the way that environmental education is taught both inside and outside the classroom. My theory is that part of the reason why outdoor education can be so successful is that most outdoor educators are trained to focus on providing a psychologically safe space for their participants.

Link to Article:

http://0-web.a.ebscohost.com.books.redlands.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=a3070488-1460-4be6-940a-c22ddd94d43d%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4214

Sustainable Development: Growing Green Communities

Carol Potera
Environmental Health Perspectives , Vol. 113, No. 5 (May, 2005) , p. A300
Published by: Brogan & Partners
Article Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.books.redlands.edu/stable/3436224

The article above, written by Carol Potera, discusses the new sustainable development movement of green communities. Nonprofit Enterprise Foundation of Columbia, Maryland, announced to the world that their company planned to build 8,500 environmentally friendly, affordable homes through a new Green Communities Initiative (GCI). This initiative committed $550 million, over the course of five years, to developers to build housing unties that promoted health, conserved energy and natural resources, and were located near public transportation, jobs, stores, schools, and social services.

The first recipient of funding through the Green Communities Initiative were the Denny Park Apartments, that were being built in Seattle, Washington. The Denny Park Apartments were built by the Low Income Housing Initiative (LIHI), which actively works to develop and manage affordable housing units in Seattle. The Denny Park Apartments were built with numerous energy-saving features, including:

1. Located along an east-west axis – this allows the housing units to capture more natural light through oversized windows, in turn reducing energy bills.

2. Central gas boiler – this boiler supplies hot water and heat to all the units. Architect Brian Sweeney, manager of development for LIHI, states, “Gas is more efficient and less expensive than electricity in Seattle.”

3. Ventilation fans – running continuously reduces humidity and mold growth, a big problem in Seattle’s moist climate.

4. Energy efficient lighting and occupancy sensors.

The building itself was constructed with many sustainable and healthy building materials, including the following:

1. Metal roof and metal siding – this eliminates petroleum-based products, such as asphalt roofing shingles and oil-based exterior paint. These materials will not have to be replaced for an estimated 50 years.

2. Interiors – used caulks, paints, adhesives, and other construction materials that have very low levels of volatile organic compounds, ensuring healthy indoor air.

3. Carpets – carpets are made from recycled plastic products.

4. Rainwater – rainwater run off will be caught off the metal roof, will be purified by gravel filtration, and then recycled to irrigate the landscape, including a communal garden for the tenants.

Although green building can cost about 2% more to build, the self evident long-term energy and health benefits are passed on to the tenants, and the community. More grants are being award to different cities around the US through the Green Communities Initiative. This initiative isn’t interested in one aspect of being green, but bringing a certain level of greenness to every project. GCI prides itself on having a high level of criteria, that includes meeting standards for water conservation, healthy indoor air, using environmentally friendly materials, good operations and management, and ideal location. Dana Bourland, senior program director at the Enterprise Foundation says, “Our goal is to transform the marketplace and shift the way we build to achieve health, environmental, and economic benefits in communities” , something everyone should be able to agree with.

Asha de Vos. et al. collected surfacing and diving behaviors of a small population of Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus) that have been found to be genetically different from the Blue Whales found in the Atlantic ocean. The whales that are located in near the tip of Sri Lanka have a different vocals and also considered to be Dwarf Blue Whales, meaning that they are only about 4 meters shorted than Blue Whales found in the Atlantic. The primary question that was being asked was to quantify diving and surfacing characteristics of an isolated population of whales.

In order to answer the research question the team has both land focal follows for the whales as well as a small boat that would travel along side the whale to monitor and collect respiration data and diving patterns. The time at first surfacing, length of surface time, number of blows, and the time at final dive would all be written down in order to quantify the information. There were also different definitions for the ways in which the whale would fluke or if it would fluke at all.

The respiration data were separated into two categories, shorter surface dives and longer deep dive. The data was analyzed using a goodness of fit test and a chi squared test for r. The Monte Carlo method was also used to analyze the different probabilities of surfacing patterns. A Markov chain was also used to help analyze the data and found that there was a significant difference between the theoretical patterns and the Markov chain (p<0.0001). Surface to surface dive were much more common than surface to deep and it was noted that there was never a deep to deep dive. 55% of the deep dive had a fluke, 42% high arch and 3% lazy fluke. There was no significants between fluking and the absence or presence of whale watching boats (p> 0.05).

The overall information that was received from this article was that there is not a significant behavioral difference between the Blue Whale population in Sri Lanka and the one in the Atlantic Ocean. However, if you want to see a fluking Blue Whale you have a better chance in Sri Lanka.

Oona M. Lönnstedt1,*, Mark I. McCormick1,Douglas P. Chivers2, Maud C.O. Ferrari3. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12209/abstract

Habitat degradation is threatening reef replenishment by making fish fearless. Fish are beginning to act out due to loss of coral reefs. This article summarizes a study on fish within dying coral reefs. Scientists in Australia controlled this experiment by placing fish in the tested locations, observing their reactions to certain environments. Many fish live within coral reefs. However, due to climate change and increasing ocean temperatures, coral reefs have been dying. When ocean temperatures increase to high the algae is released from the coral; the coral then dies. This is process is called coral bleaching, because the coral becomes white. Fish rely on coral for homing and safety. When coral reefs die fish are stranded searching for homes. The stranded fish are out in the open for predators to easily hunt them. The article’s topic question is: why are fish leaving themselves out in the open to die? The article’s research question is: Is there a correlation between dead coral reefs and rate of dying fish? The type of data to answer these questions is the amount of coral life and fish life within a location. The scientists measured the behaviors of damselfish when placed in locations with live or dying coral. They observed each location for 48 hours. They analyzed the data by comparing the gathered info from the different locations. This research is important, because climate and ocean temperatures are continuing to increase. More coral reefs will die, and more fish will lose their habitats. Fish that rely on coral reefs will become less populated. When a population in a level of the food web is low, it can cause other chain reactions to be decreased. Damage to the food web can danger the existence of specific species.

The article “Motivating the Skeptical and Unconcerned: Considering Values, Worldviews and Norms When Planning Messages Encouraging Energy Conservation and Efficiency Behaviors” was written by Laura M. Arpan, Andrew R. Opel and Jia Lu and published in the Journal of Applied Environmental Education and Communication in 2013.

This article tackles a few of the most common question in Environmental Education: Do conservatives have more self-enhancing reasons behind their conservation efforts? How does one target those who are skeptic about conservation and encourage them to live sustainably? And how do different worldviews play into motivation toward a green lifestyle?

Researchers started out by using software which aided in gathering a group of 409 college-educated citizens with diverse personalities in order to serve as an accurate representation of the United States. The group was given a 41-question internet survey to complete, which was based around energy consumption. Each question was put into a category, which pertained either to: Efficiency Behaviors (their energy use and intentions behind it), Political Orientation (Democrat, Independent or Republican), Perceived Risk/Problem Awareness (ex: “Do you think global warming is happening?” and “Do you think the U.S. is experiencing an energy crisis?”), Descriptive norms (“Do others around you try to conserve energy?”) and Motivational variables (reasons why they did or did not conserve energy).

The results showed that there was no association between political party and recent behavior and that descriptive norms and personal moral norms were weakly correlated with recent behavior.  An interesting find was that both liberals and conservatives make efforts to decrease energy consumption mainly for financial reasons.

Essentially, this study goes to show that the most effective way to encourage energy consumption is not through campaigns to protect the environment, but rather through financial motivation, or popularization of the financial benefits of energy conservation.

Determining how happy a state or city is can be tricky because the sample must be representative of the population. A research titled “The Geography of Happiness: Connecting Twitter Sentiment and Expression, Demographics, and Objective Characteristics of Place,” published in PLoS ONE 8(5): e64417, approached this problem in a clever way. Designed by Mitchell, L., Frank, M.R., Harries, K.D., Dodds, P.S., & Danforth, C. M., the study asks and tries to find the answer to the question: What do people’s tweets say about the level of happiness across the United States?

This research attempted to estimate the average happiness of states and cities by evaluating geolocated messages in Twitter constructed by individuals in the area at the time. The concept of happiness was operationalized by attaching numbers to certain words used in the tweet. The researchers used the Language Assessment by Mechanical Turk (LabMT) word list. In the word list, 10,000 of the words have been rated ranging from 1 (sad) to 9 (happy). Neutral words such as “the” scored in the middle of the scale. This method allows one to quantify happiness. The average happiness for a given text (havg(T)) was calculated using a mathematical equation which also takes into account others factors of the tweet.

The type of data used to answer the question was the levels of happiness expressed numerically. The data-gathering method used in this article was examining geotagged tweets. The method of analysis is interpreting havg(T) in the context of the location. Using the proposed operational definition of happiness, the study was able to rank the states from happiest to saddest with the three happiest states: Hawaii, Maine, and Nevada (in that order). The study also found association between happiness and obesity rate and education.

This research has cleverly evaluated happiness. Using tweets as a means of tracking happiness and sadness is different from surveying people because tweets are more immediate response for the current situation and tweets are usually intended for one’s friends or followers. Though I am not experienced enough in math to critic the equation of calculating havg(T), the equation holds much validity. This was demonstrated by showing that there is very strong correlation between the happiness score calculated in the research and Gallup well-being, Peace Index, AHR score, and Gun violence. This study approached the concept of happiness in an unorthodox fashion but proves to provide valuable information.