What we Did
The Secretary of the Future project was our first project of sophomore year. During this project, we covered a wide variety of concepts and topics. Using the ideas we learned in class, we were given the task of creating and trying to implement a policy change to a plot of land anywhere in Novato, California. This policy change had to effect the site for the better and be environmentally friendly as well as big safe to all of the organisms living in the area. We also had to make predictions about how the policy change would effect our site and what it would look like in 50, 100, 300, and 1,000 years into the future. My group, Ashley Smith, Jeffrey Suter, Diamon Tesfay, and I chose O'Hair Park, a plot of land located next to San Marin High School as our site. The policy change we came up with included adding numerous things. The first was to add 3 weather resistant picnic tables near the hiking trails so hikers could easily stop for lunch, or just take a break and sit down. This would promote human activity, and O'Hair Park would get more use. The next thing we decided to add was 2 bathrooms. These would be constructed by a combination of professionals and volunteers to ensure that the job was done safely and correctly, while also keeping the cost down. The last thing we decided to do was make changes to the irrigation. Using underground irrigation pipes, we would re-direct some of the water from Stafford Lake and have it flow back into the currently dried up creek that winds through O'Hair Park. This would greatly reduce the dustiness in the area. re-nourish the soil, and promote plant growth in the area. The included presentation below contains any other details you may need regarding our project.
Our Project
Content
Here is a list of al of the topics and concepts we learned in order to complete this project.
Biotic- living organism
Abiotic- non-living organism
Biology- the study of the living world
Ecology- study of the interactions between living things and their environments
Individual- a single living organism
Population- a group of homogeneous individual species that live in the same habitat
Community- populations of different species interacting with each other
Ecosystem- how the communities interact with their environment
Biome- group of ecosystem that have the same climate and similar dominant communities
Biosphere-where all of life exists in the world, earth
Food web- a bunch of mixed up food chains
Autotrophs- organisms that produce their own energy
Heterotroph- organisms that rely on others to get energy
Nutrient cycle- movements and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter
Carbon cycle- series of processes by which carbon compounds are inter-converted in the environment
Nitrogen cycle- series of process by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms
Water cycle- journey that water takes as it circulates from land to sky to land
Weather- day to day condition of the earths atmosphere
Climate- the average year after year conditions of temp and precipitation in a particular region
Primary succession- succession takes place on surface where no soil exists
Pioneer species- first species to appear in succession
Secondary succession- disturbance changes existing community without removing soil
Biotic- living organism
Abiotic- non-living organism
Biology- the study of the living world
Ecology- study of the interactions between living things and their environments
Individual- a single living organism
Population- a group of homogeneous individual species that live in the same habitat
Community- populations of different species interacting with each other
Ecosystem- how the communities interact with their environment
Biome- group of ecosystem that have the same climate and similar dominant communities
Biosphere-where all of life exists in the world, earth
Food web- a bunch of mixed up food chains
Autotrophs- organisms that produce their own energy
Heterotroph- organisms that rely on others to get energy
Nutrient cycle- movements and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter
Carbon cycle- series of processes by which carbon compounds are inter-converted in the environment
Nitrogen cycle- series of process by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms
Water cycle- journey that water takes as it circulates from land to sky to land
Weather- day to day condition of the earths atmosphere
Climate- the average year after year conditions of temp and precipitation in a particular region
Primary succession- succession takes place on surface where no soil exists
Pioneer species- first species to appear in succession
Secondary succession- disturbance changes existing community without removing soil
Reflection
I thought this project was very helpful and gave me a very deep understanding of all the concepts we covered. To start off, my group and I did great work together. Everything we did was in depth and included lots of detail. We never disregarded anyones ideas, so creativity flowed freely throughout the project. Unlike a lot of other projects i've done, my group was aware of the timeline we had from the beginning, rather than scrambling to get everything done in the last few workdays. The very first thing we did when we started this project was create a timeline so we knew exactly when things needed to be done. This seriously helped us stay on track and manage our time wisely. Another thing we did really well was divide up all the work. Throughout the project, my group and I were always dividing up tasks that needed to get done. By always helping each other and sticking with our timeline we not only finished on time, but we finished early, giving us lots of time to tweak minor details and finesse our presentation. However we did need to work more on staying on task during work days. Due to the fact that we finished early, we spent more time talking to each other than trying to find new things to do on our project. Due to this we could've been more thorough on certain aspects of our presentation. Despite the few challenges, our group still produced a great project with lots of detail that successfully change O'Hair Park for the better.