This being my first synthesis post for ENVS 220 it only makes sense to give some background on what ENVS 220 is. Fundamentally, ENVS 220 is a methods course in which we learn and understand how to do ENVS. For example, we began the class at the start of the semester by reading and analyzing sources that discuss the causes and effects of landscape change. Which we subsequently tied to our labs where we began researching land use and cover change on Lewis and Clark’s campus as well as the surrounding areas, Collins View neighborhood and River View Natural Area. By tieing what were studying in class to what were investigating in our lab research we get a better impression of what doing ENVS is like outside of the collegiate relm.
Additionally, the four question types (descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, and instrumental) sit front and center as we read and discuss sources. For class one day we read a group of articles from the United Nations published in subsequent years outlining the greatest problem areas that face the human race. To go further we looked identified questions for the problems they outlined and discussed in small groups how each question type related to these issues. From the we began working on our concentrations. To start we began by looking at concentrations students had done in the past in order to see how they are structured. Then we chose one of the past concentrations and created questions based off of the question types for the concentration we chose. Later we we tasked with coming up with an idea for our own concentration and finding at least five sources that would support out concentration. We then had to make a draft concentration proposal which we recently received feedback. In the lab aspect of the course we have been examining land use and cover change in the Lewis and Clark area. For the first lab we set up a 90x90m area in which our 30x30m centroid was located. We set up a Kestrel Drop to record temperature and humidity data in our centroid. Over the next couple weeks we also recorded the canopy and group cover data for our centroid as well. We then compiled all of our data for the twelve centroids that other groups had collected so that we were able to graph our data in a way that compared it to the averages of each of the three areas as well as other sites in our area. This series of four labs concluded with each group creating a story map to summarize and conclude our findings for our examination into land use and cover change in the areas surrounding Lewis and Clark’s campus.
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December 2018
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