Reflection on my Colloquium class experience

I am going to be completely honest; my expectations for this class before the semester started were pretty low. I knew that Colloquium was a required class and I had heard rumors that it was a really boring class and was just about the ‘boring’ environment that surrounds us. My experience came nowhere close to my expectations. Colloquium was a class I thought I would dread coming to every week, instead I really looked forward to my Tuesday morning classes (and that’s saying a lot as it was at 8am!!) with Professor Borden, especially when we went on field trips. I’m not sure if I loved it more than the average student because I am not from Florida and so I really was learning so many new things every class, or if it was because I got lucky with an amazing professor and a great group of class mates, but nevertheless I have really loved Colloquium and I am sad that it is over.

I think the thing I learnt that was the most meaningful was my contribution to the environment surrounding me. Everyone knows about global warming and recycling etc and how it impacts our world, however I never really thought that me recycling, or me picking up a few bits of trash would make a difference. How wrong was I?! If I take one thing away from this class it will be that my actions DO have an impact. I really learnt this during people’s service learning presentations and throughout the lectures and field trips during the semester. Every little really does help. So that’s one thing that has definitely hit home with me, and I am going to really try from now on to take better care of the environment around me. After all, it is looking after me too!

The parts I enjoyed the most were of course the field trips! I loved learning about things first hand, and being able to touch, and sometimes even taste, difference plants and species. It really helps me to learn something if I can experience it, so this really helped me when it came to the quizzes. I particularly enjoyed the Downtown Fort Myers field trip, just because I really didn’t know anything about the history of Fort Myers and how pretty it was down there, so it was a really educational, yet also, scenic and enjoyable field trip. My least favorite part of the class was probably some of the reading’s in the University Colloquium text book, just because at times they would drag on and weren’t very easy to understand. However, all parts of a class can’t be thrilling and exciting so it wasn’t bad at all!

What surprised me the most about this class was the knowledge that our professor had. Professor Borden was absolutely amazing and I loved hearing all the extra facts and stories she had to tell us. She is a truly inspiring woman and is doing so much in the environment and with birds, it was a real honor to be in her class. I also loved learning that she was a part of designing the Uncommon Friends Fountain in Fort Myers, I thought that was really cool. Professor Borden made the learning fun. I am sure that colloquium, with the wrong teacher, could be a very tedious class. Not mine though! And I really do owe that all to the fact that Professor Borden went the extra mile every class to make it exciting, innovative and educational for us all.

Overall, I loved my Colloquium class experience! I learnt SO SO much and love how I am now able to identify certain plants and animals when walking around campus and the beach. I am definitely a more environmentally educated and conscientious person after taking this class, and I would really like to thank Professor Borden from the bottom of my heart for making my Colloquium experience so awesome!!!

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Interesting plants and species I discovered...

Being from England, the species and environment are obviously very different so I was really excited to get out in South Florida and explore this semester! I am going to share with you all some of my particular favorite species and plants that I was introduced to this semester. ENJOY!!!

The Neem tree I think is one of the most amazing trees I, personally, have ever seen! It is from India and to say it has some practical uses is an understatement. People call it the pharmacy tree, as it literally can provide so many ointments and medicines. The stems of the tree can come in very handy, as if you crack them in half you can use the inside part to clean your teeth, and it really works! How cool is that? Neem oil can also be used as mosquito repellant, which in India can be a life saver. I wanted to use some of it on our field trip, as I was being bitten alive!

Another plant species that I found really quite amazing were the fresh moringa leaves we saw at ECHO as well. They are so nutritious and can really save a child’s life, if they are not getting the nutrients they need for survival from everyday food. In just 100g of fresh moringa leaves they contain the following:

7 x vitamin C of oranges

4 x calcium of milk

4 x vitamin A of carrots

3 x potassium of bananas

3 x iron of spinach

2 x protein of milk

Pretty incredible right?!

Mangroves are pretty common in Florida, however I hadn’t even heard of mangroves before this semester! Shocking! I really loved learning about the 3 different types, especially the rhymes that went with them:

Red red pointy head

Black black checkerboard back

White white bolts on tight

They really helped me to identify the different types of mangroves on our various field trips this semester.

When we went to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary we were lucky enough to see a lubber grasshopper. The lubber is surely the most distinctive grasshopper species in the southeastern United States. It is well known both for its size and its unique coloration. The wings offer little help with mobility for they are rarely more than half the length of the abdomen. This species is incapable of flight and can jump only short distances. Mostly the lubber is quite clumsy and slow in movement and travels by walking and crawling feebly over the substrate. However, their slow speeds can be an advantage to them as predators don’t tend to see them moving!

As we were walking in corkscrew swamp sanctuary I kept hearing what I thought was a pig! I later learned that what I was in fact hearing was the pig frog. They make sounds (oink oink!) just like a pig, hence their name. I thought this was really cool, as I had never heard/seen of any such frog before. Check out this video to see what a pig frog really sounds like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWtve8mJLy8

 I also learnt about another animal that sounds like a completely different animal, the grey cat bird…and yes you guessed it, they sound like cats! Its hard to imagine it unless you hear it, but it is really realistic, it sounds like there are 10 cats close by rather than 10 birds.

I really enjoyed discovering these plants and species that I never knew existed! If you haven’t heard of these either you should go and try and find them! I promise that you won't be disappointed.

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Downtown Fort Myers Excursion

Even though I am in my junior year here at FGCU which means I have been in Fort Myers for 3 years now, I had never taken the time to go and check out downtown. I thought that the downtown area was very run down and wasn't a very nice part of Fort Myers, but how pleasantly surprised I was!! Not only was there a lot of history surrounding the area but it was also a really pretty place.

We started off our field trip walking along the waterfront, which had some really spectacular views. It was so calm, which I really wasn’t expecting in a downtown area, but it really made me appreciate just how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful city. When walking along the waterfront we were able to go and look at this beautiful fountain named the “Uncommon Friends’.  Uncommon Friends is a sculpture depicting a seated Henry Ford, kneeling Harvey Firestone and reclining Thomas Edison gathered around a campfire on a 20-foot island set in the center of a 40-foot diameter pool. In the water around the island are life-size sculptures of a mother alligator and her five babies, a mother manatee and her calf, otters, lots of fish, and lily pad groups that are piped as fountain heads, and  frogs sitting on small protrusions of land that similarly double as fountain heads.

 

As we were driving into downtown we passed Thomas Edison’s house that he and his wife lived in for many years. Mina Edison, who was Thomas’ second wife, gave the Edison Estate to the city after Thomas died and so now the house is open to the public, will definitely be paying that a visit very soon!! Mrs.Edison, on her arrival to downtown Fort Myers, brought in Royal Palm Trees to line the street. They look absolutely fantastic and really give Downtown Fort Myers the grand entrance it to rightly deserves.

Downtown doesn’t just have some historic monuments and a lovely waterside view and walk, it also has some really lovely shops, restaurants and hotels. We were lucky enough to be able to go inside Hotel Indigo, a really luxurious boutique hotel. Thanks to Professor Borden we were able to go up to the rooftop which hosts not only a little pool and sundeck, but also a bar and an awesome view of the whole of Downtown. I definitely wouldn’t mind spending a few nights at the Indigo if I could spend my days wondering around the shops and sunbathing on the roof, and my evenings sipping cocktails by the bar!

So to conclude I would really like to encourage you to take at least a day trip down to Downtown Fort Myers! Between the historic monuments, the waterfront, the shops and the restaurants, you definitely will not be lost for things to do and will really have a fantastic day, just like I did!

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My little excursion to ECHO

I am not going to sit here and lie to you all and say I was really excited about our field trip to ECHO. I am not a huge outdoorsy person and thought it would be just a very hot walk around a not very exciting place. Boy was I wrong! I found it completely facinating and a real eye opening experience.
The fact that they are able to utilize every single area of land so effectively, and that each section has a specific purpose was so intriguing to me.
I could write for pages about my outing to ECHO, however I shall try and keep it brief. I would love to share with you some of my favorite aspects of the trip. First of all, the Neem tree, a truly amazing tree that can produce not only medicines and toilitries, but can also be used as mosquito repellant. I never even knew it was possible for a tree to have so many useful products made from it. It's originally from India and people in India would crack the stems in half and brush their teeth with them, AMAZING!
We have been learning about sustainability in class, but it wasn't until listening to our guide at ECHO that I really recognized just how important and effective sustainability is. We approached a duck pond on our way round and I found out that the ducks are providing food for the Talapia in the pond. How do they do this your probably wondering? Well, where they sleep at night has mesh flooring, so that when they poo it goes through the mesh and into the pond. This poo provides food for the algae, which the Talapia then feed on. This really is a great example of sustainability and also the circle of energy and food.
I have had a very priviledged life, and so have never really had to look at the random objects around me and used them for other purposes. However, at the Appropriate Technology centre at ECHO where their moto is "USE WHAT YOU HAVE TO MAKE WHAT YOU NEED!" they are making things everyday. From bicycle powered chain saw's, to rakes made out of planks of wood and nails, they really are using innovative techniques to make very useful objects out of really not much. Truly incredible. I also learnt just how important bio diversity is as well. At ECHO, lots of different plants are planted in one area, this is so if a strain of disease kills one kind of plant, this means that not everything will be destroyed, just one specific species. I thought this was a really smart technique, and something I would never really think of, however it is so important. Especially for people that rely on their plants and produce as income.
Out of the whole trip, the part I found the most fascinating was definately learning about the Moringa leaves. These leaves are just jam packed with goodness, and can be a truly life saving source of nutrition in a third world country.
In just 100 grams of these leaves there are:
7 x vitamin c of oranges
4 x calcium of milk
4 x vitamin A of carrots
3 x potassium of bananas
3 x iron of spinach
2 x protein of milk
HOLY COW!!! That is a lot of stuff! I tried it and its not bad tasting at all, tastes just like spinach.

I can't put into words how awesome and educational this field trip to ECHO was. I have only touched on a couple of the cool and interesting things that are going on there, so if you have time I would really reccommend heading their yourself and seeing everything that are doing there. It will be such an educational and informative trip, and something you will definately not regret!

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My Childhood in a Chorleywood

Birds chirping as my eyes stir in the morning,

The smell of freshly cut meadows pour into my bedroom window,

The silence surrounds me as the rest of the village is yet to awake,

As these factors remind me of my life in the countryside.

I spent my childhood in a little village just outside of London, England. It really was quite an idealic childhood, and one that I look back on with very fond memories. The smell of the countryside is one that I will never ever forget, and one that I miss so very much. The smell of freshly mown grass mixed with horse manure, to many this may sound disgusting but to me it is such a comforting smell, a smell of home. Green is definitely the color I associate with my childhood. Everywhere I looked was green, whether it was trees, bushes, grassland, meadows or fields of corn being grown. I remember my favorite time of the day was going to swimming at 5 am in the morning. Most of the village was still asleep and my Dad and I were normally the first ones on the village roads, but we were never alone as we were joined by all types of wildlife. I would sit bolt upright in the car with my eyes glued out of the window, searching for all sorts of animals. I saw deer, badgers, all types of birds, horses and even foxes. It always gave me great comfort to know that I was living surrounded my so many amazing animals. When I first came out to Fort Myers and was driving to the dorms I quickly noticed the lack of horses on the roads. I guess something I took for granted in my village was the ability to horse ride along the country roads without a care in the world, something I miss so greatly.

Some people love the hustle and bustle of city life, however I would never ever replace my experience of growing up in a small village in the countryside as I got to experience so many unique things that many other people won’t get to experience in a lifetime. And for this, I am very blessed and fortunate.

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