Session 2 /DL Colloquium/Spring 2006

January 16 - 22

Paper 1 due Monday, January 23, Educational Autobiography

Sense of Place: Field Trip #2 The Water Cycle

For those of you who live in Southwest FL, take a look below for good field trip destinations. For those who live elsewhere in the state, check out the "Links" page in the website. Florida's DEP State Parks are found throughout the state. You can see what state park is closest to you by going to the State Park website. County parks are also good for "Field Tripping". Explore the local resources of your " bigger backyard". To meet field trip objectives, it would be best to find a park with a "user friendly" Cypress Slough. If you don't have a cypress swamp (slough) in your local area, visit a freshwater marsh, lake, stream, river, etc.

Choose a field trip site. Take a walk on the boardwalk, or nature trail.

Southwest Florida Field Trip Sites:

Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Sanctuary Road, Naples, Florida (941-348-9151) (entrance fee) ****highly recommended

CREW Land & Water Trust (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed) 23998 Corkscrew Rd. Estero, FL 33928
Phone: 239-657-2253 Fax: 239-867-3230 I strongly encourage that you go to this site with a friend or family. It is a remote site. Check out the website for guided walks and calendar of events.

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve Six Mile Cypress Parkway between Daniels Road and Colonial Blvd., Ft. Myers ($3.00 parking fee) From January-March there are daily guided walks @ 9:30 a.m. AND 1:30 p.m. ***highly recommended

Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium Ortiz Extension, Ft. Myers (just North of Colonial Blvd.) 275-3435 (entrance fee) (This is a good destination if you bring small children on your field trip).

Field Trip Objectives:

• make emotional and intellectual connections with the natural community that you are visiting. Go slow and soak in the sight and sounds.
• understand what a cypress slough (or other freshwater system) is and how it functions (there are good interpretive signs at most park locations).
• understand how water shapes FloridaÕs ecological communities
• understand the concept of a watershed and how interior wetland systems have a relationship to estuarine and marine communities
• recognize how subtle elevation changes in the topography may have profound influence on natural and human-made systems
• understand why these natural systems are critically important to our water supply and quality of life.

Make a journal entry of your field trip experience. Remember that you can draw a picture, write a poem, press a leaf, etc. for a journal entry, but try to capture your field experience in your journal entry. (Revisit the Journal page in website.)

Email me a summary of your field experience and without writing a full scientific paper, describe your understanding of Florida's water cycle and the importance of cypress sloughs (or freshwater systems). You do not need to write more than a two page summary. Please review the overview for Field Trips. This is due January 30 . I expect a full accounting of your experience AND respond as best you can to the Field Trip objectives (see above). You may want to include your EcoVenture experiences (see below).

NEW!! If you like to write, I encourage you to go to this website (this is not a requirement of the class):

FYI: Gulf Coast Writers Association & Friends of Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve Announce a Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry Writing Contest http://www.gulfwriters.org/writers%20contest%202006.htm

EcoVentures Activity: (You might want to do this activity before going on the field trip to acquaint yourself with what you might see). Become familiar with the EcoVentures CD ROM. Take time to explore this program (By the way, this program won the GovernorÕs Environmental Education Award the first year it was available).

1. Install CD Rom into computer

2. Watch the overview movie (8 minutes). To find this, click on icon in bottom right corner of the RU Green State Park page. It looks like a silver laser disk. (The film is geared for a younger age group, but nonetheless is appropriate! After watching film, click on the RiverSite Icon

3. Click on Ecotour Icon

4. Click on lowest magnifying glass

5. Click on some of Plants and Animals on the Screen

6. Read the descriptions

7. Click on the magnifying glass over the river

8. Click on some of the plants and animals

***extra*** Not only does water shape Florida's ecological communities, but so does fire. To understand more about fire ecology:

1. Click on laserdisk icon on RiverSite

2. Click on laserdisk icon at Birnam Woods. Watch EcoVideo

3. Go on an EcoVenture by clicking on EcoVenture icon

4. Click on Fire icon

5. Complete "Presribed Burn" activity

Recap

• Go on Field Trip #2, "Watercycle Field Trip".
• Explore EcoVentures CD ROM

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