Week 10: Final Fieldtrip to Downtown Fort Myers

            Our last and final field trip of Honors Colloquium was a trip to downtown Fort Myers, Florida.  We got on the bus and headed down to the heart of Fort Myers.  Our first stop was the Southwest Florida Museum of History in historic downtown Fort Myers.  Here we learned all about the different Indians and natives, as well as the collection of antique artifacts scattered around the Museum.  In addition, we learned that Fort Myers was one of the first forts built along the Caloosahatchee River in order to serve as a base of protection.   

            We then traveled to the main streets of downtown Fort Myers, where we found streets filled with historic buildings, restaurants, antique stores, and boutiques.  Downtown Fort Myers is home to the Burroughs Home and Gardens, the city of Palms Park, the Edison Ford Winter Estate, and much more.  Professor Wilkinson gave us the opportunity to go out and explore historic downtown Fort Myers on our own.  Classmates, Tessa, Morgan, and I decided to venture out together.  First, we went window shopped along the main street and went into a few of the boutiques to shop.  The window shopping made us hungry, so we decided to stop in the local pizza shop for a bite to eat.  Peers from other classes had told us that the pizza place had the best pizza in town, so we decided to give it a try.  Inside, we saw other fellow classmates as well as Professor Wilkinson.  After dinner, our class met up as a whole and went to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Fort Myers.  At the top of this building we were able to see almost all of downtown Fort Myers!  As the sun was setting, our class we took pictures and were in awe of the beautiful scenery that was before us. A wonderful ending to a great trip!

            The Honors Colloquium course is a class that is worth taking!  I learned so much about our natural environment, widened my ecological perspective and developed my own sense of place.  Thanks Professor Wilkinson for a great semester!

Week 9: Are you willing to take the Challenge?

           During the Honors Colloquium Course, students had to participate in group projects called Challenge Group Projects.  We had to group up with other students in the class to work together collaboratively as a cohesive team in order complete the project.  The project consisted of teaching the class about the "challenges" or issues presented in a specific chapter of the book Plan B.  My challenge group consisted of fellow classmates, Shannon, Gretchen, and Myself.  We had to thoroughly read the chapter, propose solutions and conduct research as well as put a thoughtful presentation together to fully understand the issues in the chapter and make sure that the class understands and gets a full synopsis of what the chapter has to offer.  Our chapter incorporated three main issues of Chapter 2: Population Pressure: Land and Water.  First, overpopulation leads to more demand for food which leads to overuse of land for crops and soil erosion. Another issue from our chapter is so much stress on grain dependability has decreased the water supply.  The final issue included the elimination of aquifers and cutbacks of crop production could come at the same time. 

            It was a fun experience to teach the class about our particular issue and show our classmates what we researched and worked hard on.  It was also particularly interesting to see the concepts that the other groups had worked on for their challenge group presentations.  I liked learning about the other chapters and seeing the similarities and differences between the different groups methods of presenting.  On our guidelines, Professor Wilkinson suggested that we try to incorporate some sort of humor for comic relief and Saksham, Jessel, and Andrea's group did that successfully and kept the group entertained and alert.  I feel that this project gave us the opportunity to further learn about sustainability, the government roles, social, political, and economic perspectives as well as what we can do as individuals to improve our environment and achieve sustainability.

 

Week 8: FGCU Nature Hike!

Professor Wilkinson leading the campus hike!

           Our class field trip, which was a campus hike through the nature trails of Florida Gulf Coast University, was definitely a unique experience and one of my favorite trips we made as a class.  Florida Gulf Coast University has over four hundred acres of land dedicated to the preservation of nature and the environment at large.  The land serves as the wildlife's habitat to many Florida native plant species and animals.  In addition, the nature trails can be a place where students can seek relaxation and develop appreciation for the aesthetic surroundings.  Our Honors Colloquium class began our journey into the woods on a Wednesday afternoon.  The class started the trip by walking right out of our classroom, past the Student Union building , and across FGCU Blvd. making our way to the preserve area and the FGCU nature trails. 

            As we entered the nature trail, Professor Wilkinson warned us about walking through the swampy area, as the water could get to be knee deep!  I felt anxious to plough through the murky, knee-deep water, but also excited to experience nature in this unique way in the backyard of our own campus.  I could feel the cold water seep into my converse shoes and felt the long grass wrapping around my ankles.  As we made our way through the swampy area, our class, led by Professor Wilkinson, made our way to a trail on dry land surrounded by tall trees.  We followed the path which led to an area with picnic tables for students to gather and hang out.  Through binoculars, I saw a large owl perched at the top of a tall tree.  I was particularly excited to see this because it is my sorority's, Chi Omega, symbol.   I was pleasantly surprised with the beauty of the nature in our university and how our university preserves nature.  I definitely look forward to returning to the nature trails of FGCU!