Portfolio Project Assignment

Help Save a Natural Area

Conservation is an interdisciplinary subject where everyday actions of humans have an impact on environments around the world. To help solve these impacts, it is important to understand how our actions affect the environment. For this portfolio option you will choose a natural area that you want to ensure will be around for many generations. It can be any natural area such as a coral reef, a local pond, the savannahs of Africa, etc. You will produce a paper about the threats your natural area is facing and how we can help overcome them. You will also create a pamphlet that you could use to spread the word about the issues your natural area is facing and encourage people to help save it. Your paper will address the following elements:

1. Describe your natural area, including what species live there, the climate is like, the geography, and the role of humans in your natural area.

2. Discuss the threats facing your natural area. Is climate change causing problems there? Is there a problem with habitat loss? Is pollution causing problems? What else affects your area?

3. Describe how these threats facing your area affect other natural areas as well. Are the threats strictly local threats, or do other places experience them as well?

4. Discuss solutions to the threats facing your natural area. What solutions have been presented by others? What solutions can you think of based on what you know?

5. Choose one way you can help save your natural area. Try it out and record data to show how your changes will have an impact. Collect trash there. Start recycling for a week. Volunteer to weed out invasive plants. Reduce the amount of time you spend in the car for a week. Is your house drafty? Look into ways to reduce the loss of heat/cool air and try one out. Reduce the amount you use the heater or air conditioning by increasing or decreasing the setting a few degrees. What else can you think of to do? This must be a change in your habits from before so you can record data on the impact your change had.

a. Discuss why you chose the method to help that you did and how it went.
b. Present the data you collected from before and after the change to show the impact your change had.
c. Is this something you could continue to do? What would be the impact on the environment if you did continue to implement this change?

Requirements:

• Your written paper should be five to seven pages in length, not counting the title and reference pages, which you must include.

• You need to cite at least ten sources for this assignment, Six of these sources must come from academic journals.

• Your paper must be formatted according to APA Requirements.

• Pamphlet - In addition to the paper you also need to complete a pamphlet. This pamphlet can be aimed at any audience of your choosing. The purpose of the pamphlet is to educate your audience about the issues your natural area is facing and motivate them to help! Make sure you use plenty of properly cited images. Support your pamphlet with at least two properly cited references.

1. Discussion:

a. Submit a short paragraph indicating that you will be focusing on a natural area, identify the natural area you will use for your project, and why you chose it. Feel free to use a natural area you have discussed in class already or pick a new one. Also, start thinking about what actions you might want to take to help your natural area

2. This is your time to act in the name of conservation! At this point you should have narrowed down your idea to help save your natural area; now, put it into action. After a week of trying your method to help conserve your species, write up a paper discussing how it went. Be sure to address the following questions:

1. What action you chose and why you chose it.

2. What planning you needed to do ahead of implementing the action. What data you recorded before implementing the change.

3. How you implemented your actions. What exactly was it that you did?

4. How things went while you were implementing your action. Were there any unforeseen obstacles?

5. The data you recorded while or after implementing your change and how it compares to the data from before you implemented the change.

6. Present the data in a figure.

7. Did you incur any benefit from the change in your actions? Were you happier? Did it save you money? Did it bring more animals to your yard? Did you feel better knowing you were helping save a species?

8. Will you continue to implement your action? Why or why not?

Requirements:

• Your written paper should be three to four pages in length, not counting the title and reference pages, which you must include.

• You need to cite at least two sources for this assignment, outside of the textbook. The CSU-Global Library is a great place to find resources.

• Your paper must be formatted according to APA CITATIONS.