Unit 7 Reflection

This unit was about the environment and how things affect it. We learned about the populations of animals, like how they rise and fall with disease, natural disturbances, and predators. Ecosystems are very interdependent as we learned with food webs and pyramids. Healthy ecosystems can be seen by how many tertiary or quaternary consumers there are. Since only 10% of energy is passed on to the next level of consumer, larger predators must be given enough energy from the consumers below it. I thought that it was very interesting how the 10% rule worked because it made a lot more sense to me as why there are more secondary consumes versus quaternary consumers. Successions are also very important because they can refresh the resources and restart a population if it was invaded before. Humans stop forest fires when they actually are helping is one of the many things that we interfere with when we shouldn't.

The growth of a population also depends on predators, like the boom bust idea about how they depend on each other greatly because their existence is life or death for the other species. We also viewed the different problems pertaining the environment like overexpolitation, habitat loss, and introduced exotic species. There are things we can do to solve the problem such as identify and protect the hotspot.

I wonder about what projects NASA and the government are working on that they are not telling us. I also want to learn more about the types of companies and industries that are exploited nature so that we stop helping them I have some questions about energy moving around in ecosystems, like whether different ecosystems have different total energy levels that change over time. I want to learn more about the ways we can help everyday and how we can work together.

In the Biologist Conservation project I learned a lot about solutions to global warming and its affects on ice. I did most of my research in Ice911 and I ended up calling the CEO of the company, which was a very exciting experience. She told me more in depth about the company and what she wants to accomplish in the future. I learned about the Antarctic environment and what the native animals eat.
( http://rachelbsciblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/antarctica-threats-video.html )
The dividing of tasks went well but having the group members complete the tasks to the grading requirements was hard. I felt like I had to step in but in the end I am proud of the project. The collaboration could have been better but we had to do most of it during break because we lost a member. I felt I was assertive in the group but I was also too passive in some situations. I would do the work where the other members lacked instead of making them fix their own work. Next time I should communicate with them better and make sure that they know what is expected of them to complete. I can't be covering for everyone the next time and be more assertive in that way.