currently

plant motion

2009-12-02T13:56:00.001-08:00

Nutrition: Basil has lots of nutritional value. It is a great source of Protein, Vitamin E , Riboflavin and Niacin, a Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Copper and Manganese. Many of these nutrients are very healthy for the body, This is why Basil is a many used ingredient in many foods. Not only does it taste great but it is very nutritious.

Basil originated from Italy and traveled and then traveled to England from the crusaders and from then on began to travel the world to everywhere.

Fun Fact:Thai Basil's name means "Won't be exchanged even with gold" in Chinese.

Artist Statement

2009-11-20T13:37:00.001-08:00

Through seemly random images and a creepy soundtrack, we will attempt to get the viewer to feel empathy for the destruction of our environment.. All of the scenes symbolize something different that has to do with deforestation and how the world will is affected. Our project relates to environmental science because trees are a big part of the environment and as people are tearing them down for raw goods and to make farmland, we as a planet are losing habitats and oxygen. We wanted to show that humans are doing damage to the planet and to themselves through a video with no dialogue. This topic is so powerful it doesn’t even need dialogue. Through different images we will show that younger generations are affected by a problem they didn’t create, and that people will ultimately suffer from their destructive behavior.

Our visual shots include:
a. Girl in white (younger generation) running through forest to symbolize the younger generations wanting to reverse time and run away from their problems. There will be a man in a business suit (corporations) running past the younger girl trying to run away from the crisis at hand.
b. Show light coming through the leaves of the trees which symbolizes there is hope left if people could see it and stop cutting down trees.
c. A woman (Mother Nature) sitting in front of a projector where images of burning trees are projected on her crying face. This symbolizes that Mother Nature is unhappy that her trees are dying.
d. Overlooking 163 on bridge to show the trees in the middle of the moving car lights. This symbolizes the merging of industrial urban life and the forest.

Our audio includes:
a. Breathing symbolizing that trees give us oxygen
b. Leaves moving
c. Falling Trees
d. Fire
e. In the forest noises
f. Strange deep synth beats to give an eerie vibe
g. Discordant melody

Sources
Fearnside, Philip, M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: The Effect of Population and Land Tenure." JSTOR Dec. 1993: 9. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Joanne, Burgess. "Timber Production, Timber Trade and Tropical Deforestation." JSTOR May 1993: 8. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Houghton, R.A.."Tropical Deforestation as a source for greenhouse gas emissions." Tropical Deforestation and Climate Change 11 Nov. 2009: 13. Tropical Deforestation as a souce for greenhouse gas emissions. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Nelson, Gerald. "Deforestation, Land Use, and Property Rights: Empirical Evidence from Darién, Panama." Land Economics 1 Jan. 2001: 2. Land Economics. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

Moran, Emilio. "Deforestation and land use in the Brazilian Amazon." SpringerLink 21.1 (2009): 21. Springerlink. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

"8 Basic Ways of Preventing Deforestation". Ezine Articles. Fiset, Nathalie. 2007. http://ezinearticles.com/?8-Basic-Ways-of-Preventing-Deforestation&id=508793 (Visited 10-21-09)

"Five Tips for Preventing Deforestation". Education Articles. 2008. http://edu.udym.com/five-tips-for-preventing-deforestation/ (Visited 10-21-09)

Borade, Gaynor. "Facts about Deforestation." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Buzzle.com, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. .

Rogge, Daniel. "Deforestation and Landslides in Southwestern Washington." University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. University of Wisconsin, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. .

Taylor, Leslie. "Rainforest Facts." Wealth of the Rainforest - Pharmacy to the World from Raintree Nutrition, Inc.. Raintree, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. .

Wilson, E.O.. "The Future of Life." World Book Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. .

annotated sources

2009-11-10T08:50:00.001-08:00

Most of my sources had only their abstracts to display. In order to access more amounts of information, I am considering creating accounts on these different sites.

Fearnside, Philip, M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: The Effect of Population and Land Tenure." JSTOR Dec. 1993: 9. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

This is an article about the forestland lost in Brazil. Lots of Brazil is made up of the Amazon rainforest. The actual site wasn’t able to give enough useful information, but I took down its information in order to later access it through other means. Its abstract mentioned interesting statistics that got way deeper into how Amazonion land is deforested. I learned that about 70% of deforested land is attributed to medium sized and large ranches.

Joanne, Burgess. "Timber Production, Timber Trade and Tropical Deforestation." JSTOR May 1993: 8. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

I found this article at the same website as the previous citation. I think it would be an investment to create an account with JSTOR, so that I would have easier access to these articles. This piece specially talked about the cause of deforestation, like the timber industry, and what the deforested land is used for.

Houghton, R.A.."Tropical Deforestation as a source for greenhouse gas emissions." Tropical Deforestation and Climate Change 11 Nov. 2009: 13. Tropical Deforestation as a souce for greenhouse gas emissions. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

This site actually took me to a 137 page pdf of different articles. Each article focused on a negative impact of deforestation. Just scanning through the article, I could see lots of statistics, which will provide some nice concrete resources.

Nelson, Gerald. "Deforestation, Land Use, and Property Rights: Empirical Evidence from Darién, Panama." Land Economics 1 Jan. 2001: 2. Land Economics. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

This article suggested an interesting point, in the rights of indigenous population of deforested land. How can land in the Amazon and other areas of South America be purchased, when there have been people living on that land for years?

Moran, Emilio. "Deforestation and land use in the Brazilian Amazon." SpringerLink 21.1 (2009): 21. Springerlink. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

It is nice to collect data of a similar subject on a geographical variance. Earlier, I researched deforestation in the Panama, and here I found some great information on the Brazilian Amazon.

Senior Project Annotated Sources

2009-10-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

What percentage of the Earth has been taken over by industry and people?

Source: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/050311_urban_living.html

I found this website very helpful and interesting because the facts they put out were defended by evidence based on test by scientist. They said that within the first test they found that 3 percent of the earth's land mass is covered by urban areas. Though with and enhancement in their equipment that percent has raised up to 50 percent. I also found this very true because the website provided a map showing the areas that are covered. They determined these facts by taking satellite photos at night seeing the amount of light on the surface.

Who would we say is responsible for much of the deforestation today?

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/15744218/Technology-and-Development-A-Discourse-on-Urban-Life-and-Modernization

Though this website shows a pdf of an actual article on the subject and it a but hard to read to provided very interesting thoughts what or who is responsible. One idea that it provided was that the invention of technology is the cause of this urban life we live today. Why, because when you have technology life enhances in speed and productivity. Places that once grew there own food or built their own homes now have technology to do that for them, in return of money, So when people resort to this urban lifestyle we need a plot to develop and resources causing deforestation.

Response to Class Critique

2009-10-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

The critique we conducted today I feel were helpful because eventually we will be exhibiting our final products to an audience so it was nice have an audience (of the sort) before hand to gather their opinions. Some feedback that i feel was helpful was getting questions on how we were going to illustrate the severity of deforestation without of scenes of actual deforestation itself. This question definitely gave myself my group things to think about. We don't have it all figured out quite yet though we now know what an audience would be expecting to gain for our film.

essay

2009-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Travel Through Time

Soil, a matter that is one of the most important things on our planet. Why, because it is the base of all living things that grow. Without soil there would be no plants therefore no animals and in all, none of us would survive. That’s why it is very important to take notice of that and of the way we are treating our soil today .

Lets go back in time about 60-70 years ago when we still flowed in our natural ways of farming. The soil was rich in quality, filled with many nutrients vital for a healthy growth. Those nutrients didn’t arrive from artificial fertilizers, pesticides and many other chemicals used in the agricultural system today. The methods used in the past was a natural cycle, this cycle included the matters of seasonal rotation, fertilizing the crops with a organic compost, and letting nature take its toll. By sticking with this cycle, soil would then enrich itself with the natural nutrients left by growing crops on the farm.

By growing crops corresponding with the season this would keep the soil at flow with the different nutrients of the various seasonal plants. So with every season came new crops, that brought different nutrients to the soil. By having a variety of crops growing on the same plots of land, this would then keep the nutrient levels balanced with a flow. This left little need for fertilizers because the cycle was taking care of that factor on its own. Though if so needed, the fertilizers were an organic based compost of other plants and organic matter decomposed to create a nutriently rich compost that is then spread about the crops.

How pleasantly simple and natural does this all sound, so why have things changed we now ask ourselves. Things have changed with the introduction of industrialized chemical farming. Chemical farming was introduced around the time of when World War 2 was coming to an end. During that time our knowledge of chemical use highly increased. We created many chemicals that we then found illuminated many of the difficult factors of natural farming. Things such as insect invasions, hard labor, keeping the soil cycle at flow, and the harvest. By the use of these chemicals things became much more convenient for the farmer.

By the rapid use of these chemicals, we also created a new method, monocultures. Monocultures was a method to produce a mass amount of the same crop. By growing a mass amount of the same crop, this crop will absorb much of the same nutrient needed for that plant, that then would be sucking the soil dry. As we seen before all plants give off different nutrients into the soil that then keeps the soil rich, but by having the same crop growing next to each other across a large plot of land, that then closes the nutrient cycle. This is a huge problem in the soil cycle because it is not in a flow, so this then calls for chemical fertilization.

Chemical fertilization is an artificial way of keeping the soil rich of nutrients. The chemicals substitute the nutrients that would have been there from other plants if we didn’t farm in monocultures but since we do those nutrients are not there so chemicals fill in that gap. They act as the nutrient. Though these chemicals help produce mass amounts of crops they are also producing a mass amount of problems we are continuing to ignore. Those problems such as soil erosion, toxic pollution through the water system and through our bodies because the plants absorb those chemicals and we then eat those plants.

Another highly used chemical in farming today is pesticides. Pesticides were one of the new inventions coming out of the war. Since we plant our crops within monocultures there is always a high amount of the same insect eating away the crop so this calls for pesticides. Pesticides protect the plant by killing off any specimen attacking the plant. This method is not only harming to the insects directly affected by it but it is also harming to ourselves and the soil. Pesticides erode the soil of its natural nutrients it kills off all of the FBIS and just leaves the artificial fertilizers to do the job. With continuing to use pesticides the soil will eventually get striped of all its natural nutrients and we will then turn to chemicals to fill in the gaps.

These problems are only going to continue to grow if we don’t look at our systems of agriculture and begin converting back to our old natural ways of farming. We need to take this issue as a top priority and change. We would not only be helping our environment but helping ourselves. We wouldn’t be injecting these toxins into our bodies, and we wouldn’t be abandoning the soil cycle, we would be bringing back to be therefore bringing everything back to its natural cycle of life.

Annotated Bibliography

2009-10-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

#1. url: http://www.boisystemsolutoin.com/learn/what_makes_goodcompost.html

Question asked: What makes a good compost?
There are many factors in creating a high quality compost. Things such as "oxygen, humidity, temperature are essential to producing a premium, stable & nutrient rich compost."
If the compost isn't consistently turned and obtained things will begin to rotten & toxic odors will be released into the atmosphere.
#2. url: http://www.ehow.com/how_2319112_create_nutrientrichcompost.html

Question asked: How to create a nutrient rich compost?
What you want to do first is create a sort of contained area out of either wood frames, baskets, chicken cage wire etc. Don't make it to large it will then be to difficult to rotate.

Things you can fill your compost with:
- fruits -veggies -eggshells -newspaper clipping -drier lint
-animal and human hair -grass -twigs -leaves -coffee grounds
-other organic material - and air

Use a shovel or pitch fork to turn your compost once a week. Earth worms help decomposition and create nutrient rich fertilizer. Compost can take up to 2 weeks or 2 years to be ready for use, depending on how you tend to it. The result should be dark brown and smell earthy (like dirt).

#3. url: http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/making-compost.html

Question asked: Whats works best in compost?

Compost Requirments:
-Compost size
-Air
-Water
-Heat
-dry matter
-green matter

Socratic Seminar Reflection

2009-10-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

I think that this socratic seminar was very successful in conversation. I think that the by us writing down our questions and trading with one another was a very good strategy to start the discussion. It gave the a prompt to start with.

Throughout the conversation I found myself very overwhelmed with thoughts, every idea that would pop into my head would then get blocked by the problems that then followed. Yes, i think that it is very important to begin with your individual impact, yet to look at the mass majority of our population that does not and doesn't care to think the same way our tiny impact will only go so far. I feel that the main way to affectively change things is to start with the people in power. Though that seems to be impossible now in days to make your voice heard. From what I've seen there are tons of ideas that have been presented to us but yet don't go very far. And I think its because of those corporations that are the ones in power and are controlling all. So how do we get these very powerful corporations to change that is something i can not tell.

We all know that complete change is something we are not likely to see in our lifetime but if we start now that will give hope to the up coming generations. One way we can start is by bringing awareness to the public and making it mandatory in schools to learn. Bringing health and food and business out for the younger eyes to see. That way when it is that they are ready to take control of their own lives they will have a much more mind about the issues we are facing, and might choose to do what's right. Education is key!

Im sure i can go on and on but this is a bit mind bottling for me right now. i am still very confused on what we can do. I am really glad we had this group discussion today because not only do i know my opinion and the way i think of this but many opinions which opens my ming on the way others think.

Best Practices (Bed Prep)

2009-09-29T20:56:00.001-07:00

The main objective of prepping a garden bed is to create a quality rich soil. A quality rich soil includes the nutrients and its structure. My partners and I have all came to the decision that the practice of Double Digging is the best way in reaching that goal.

Double Digging is a method used to get down deep and break up the soil at rest underneath the surfa

ce. The first step in double digging is having strategic method or routine that you st

ick by. This critical to have and understand before you begin digging, if not you'll definitely be overwhelmed by the piles of dirt you have laying around.

Pre-step

Irrigate your garden bed a day in advance before prepping, so that the water as had time to soak through the layer to loosen up the soil.

1st step

Structure yo

u first garden row in a line. Once you have determined the row where you will begin to dig you can then start. When you begin digging you will want todig about a foot deep with your shovel

and throw the excess dirt aside (on the ground or wheel barre

l) to create a trent in the garden row you have chos

en.

2nd step

Once you have successfully dug up your trent row, you cant then grab your pitch fork and stick it in the ground about another foot and then push the handle towards you so that it can loosen and break up the soil. Make sure that the soil is loosen before moving on and repeating the process.

3rd step

Once the trent have have just dug is complete and is well broken up you can move on and create the next row. Beginning the next row is exactly the same as beginning the first one but the only difference is the instead of throwing the excess dirt aside you are throwing the surface dirt

you are digging out into the trent you just finished to fill it up. And the process will them repeat.

4th step

Here comes the compost! Once you have the bed completely prepped you want to cover it will about 4 inches of compost material and spread it evenly on the prepped soil.

You now have a successfully prepped Garden Bed Hurray!!!!!

Stop motion project.

2009-09-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

The plant I am thinking of growing for this project is a flower. I am not sure on the type though I would I have lots of seeds to pick through. I would like to do a flower because I feel that it would look great on camera when it chooses to bloom.

I am going to grow my flower in my front yard because we just got new soil, so it is great for growing. My front yard also gets full sunlight so that will help to.

Senior Project

2009-09-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

Idea # 1.

One I idea for my senior project is focusing on the issue of deforestation. They I want to present this problem is through a shot animation created by either Flash or Final Cut Pro.

The film will begin with a scene of Fagorn Forest from The Lord of the Rings. It will show the forest undisturbed and in its natural state, all the ents at rest. Then the you will begin to hear tractors and construction workers planning to cut down the forest. Then the ents will begin to wake up cause or the noise and begin talking to each other planning an attack on the intruders. Then all of a sudden the trees will come to life and begin attacking the construction workers out of the forest.

If you remember back The Two Towers it will be an reenactment of the scene were the ents act Soarman.

This I idea is still in progression nothing is set in stone.

Let's Begin!!!

2009-09-04T09:57:00.002-07:00

3 plants wish to grow!

Pumpkins

Most common pumpkin and usually the best growing, is the classic Jack O Lantern. Average wieght is about 10-20 pounds, can grow up to 50 pounds. They need lots of sunlight, up to six hours of sun a day is best. Best to grow during the cooler late summer when tempatures are around 80's and 70's. They need about 110 to 140 sunny days to grow. Plant pumpkins with seeds in hill or mounds of 3 diameters in size.Plant seeds about 6 to 8 inches apart. You want to moist the ground well before planting of when the seed is set it will soak and soften giving a bit head start on sprouting. Want to cover seed with inch of soil.Gently water so you dont take away any covering soil. Don't peek under soil will distrube plant. In about 7 to 14 days it will sprout. They get along with other plants even though their vines spread. They need much water, they are about 80 to 90 % of water.

Onions:

They belong to the allium family and are considered a vegetible. They are easy to grow and grow in a short time period. Depending on the species of onion can take up to 100 to 125 days to grow from seed. Ways in which you can grow are through seeds, seedlings, and bulbs. You want to plant seeds about 3 to 4 inches apart, if double rows then 6 - 10 apart. Also you should leave room to weed. To grow healthty onions need rich and moist soil. Water daily and they need full sunlight. When harvest season comes round you want to pull onions when tops fall off. Then you want to dry onions a few days in opens air.

Onions can be used in many different ways, they can be used as seasoning form in a powder, sautaed with other veggies, grilled to perfections and just plain raw.:)

Watermelon

They belong to the fruit family of course. Watermelon is a long growing season take up to 90 to 100 days to grow. They also need lots of space. You want to sow seeds in hills or rows, you want 3 to 4 seeds per hill. Rows should be up to 10 ft apart. They are in need of full sunlight. Add lots of manure, compost and leaves. Worl well with soil and fertilize regularly you want to use nitrogen fertilizer. When watering make sure the the drains well. Last but no least weed regulary.

Let's Begin!!!

2009-09-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

Curiosity killed the cat.

2009-09-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

What is one thing that you are curious about in the natural world?

Our final frontier, the largest unknown, Space. Space is the one thing in the natural world that I am most curious about. Just knowing that there are things out there that are so much more vast than our world, is so interesting to me. Space if the only thing left that is pure an untouched from any outside influence.Even though we have stubbled into space we have no control on its functioning.

One part about space that I am most curious about is galaxies. To know that our whole solar system and the planets that we know of is just in one galaxy, it makes me wonder what types of planets or life forms are living in other galaxies. Also we don't know how many galaxies are out there blows my mind.