1. Increasing Environmental Awareness through Creative Website Design
Department of Biology
Increasing Environmental Awareness through Creative Website Design
Amy Jo M. Hammett, Ph.D.
BIOL 1023: Environmental Biology
Learning Objectives
What comes to mind when you say the word "Environment"? A pristine forest? In reality, the environment is everything around us and humans are the only animals on Earth who significantly alter the environment. Environmental Biology is a 3 credit hour combined lecture and lab course. The course is all online and is designed to be a study of the diversity of life and interrelationships between organisms and their environment and problems associated with these relationships. Students are informed about humanity's efforts, both past and present, to create a sustainable society. Historical perspectives and how they guide current efforts are foundational to the course. The all online laboratory portion of the course is designed to augment lecture and to help non-science majors appreciate the biological environment. The course is designed for non-science majors and has no science prerequisites.
Find and evaluate information about a current environmental issue of interest and prepare and make a presentation (website) about the environmental issue to include historical perspectives, efforts to ameliorate the issue, and possible future concerns regarding issue.
Use the acquired environmental knowledge to educate others (family, friends, colleagues, etc.,) about the environment and environmental issues
List the environmental issue with historical perspectives and identify the causes and interconnections
Research, evaluate, and propose solutions for solving universal environmental problems and reserving our world as global citizens and becoming civically engaged in solving environmental issues
Apply the knowledge acquired in class to re-evaluate their environmental worldviews, values, and lifestyles
The WEEBLY Website Assignment
What did actual students think?
TOPIC: Students chose a topic out of 50+ choices or suggested their own. They were limited to 2 people per choice.
WEEBLY HOW-TO GUIDE: Students were given step-by-step instructions about how to create an account, pick a URL name & template, how to edit the page, and where to get free open source pictures.
GUIDELINES: Students were given a PowerPoint with specific guidelines: how to research the topic, make an outline, writing prompts, how to avoid plagiarism, picture and reference rules, how to make an outline to guide creativity, and grading criteria.
AVOIDING COPYRIGHT ISSUES: List lots of websites for free open source pictures and explain what that means!
TRANSPARENT GRADING: The assignment is 10% of the final grade. Students have a copy of the grading criteria.
PEER REVIEW: In order for students to be exposed to what other students created, each student evaluated 5 other student websites using the grading criteria as part of their own project grade (50 out of 100 pts).
“It was actually really informative to learn about what public issues really are and how they affect ME. Also, I got to be creative, which is always a plus.”
“It was very challenging and got me familiar with making (a) website and also engaged with some environmental issues that helped me to search about them and understand some amazing facts. It was exciting!”
“It allowed me to try something new and the professor provided time and guidance for the project which made the project fun and unique.”
“Working on the Weebly website gave us a chance to show our creativity.”
“My favorite part of the course was being able to build a website that talked about issues that directly affect me. At first, it seemed daunting and like I would NEVER finish, but once I did, I ended up learning a lot about the world around me/how I can make it a better place for my future kids.”
Possible Topics
Future Directions
Rain Forest-Loss of Biodiversity
Palm Oil and Deforestation
Flint, Michigan Water Crisis
DDT and Bio-magnification
Pesticides/Fungicides-Pros/Cons
Any Renewable Resource
China’s One Child Policy
Water Treatment
Waste Management
Floating Plastic Island- Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Ozone Layer Depletion
Hockey Stick Graph- The Most Controversial Chart in Science
Climate Change
Energy crisis- how to get energy to remote regions of the world
Public Health Issues- access to clean water, air, and food
Urban Sprawl
Water Scarcity
Pollution- Either Water, Air, Soil
Over-Population
Ocean Acidification
Genetic Engineering- Answer to the global food crisis?
The Green Revolution-Norman Borlaug
The Extinction Crisis- Sixth mass extinction of plants and animals
Bee Decline
Oceanic Dead Zones
Desertification
Eco-tourism
Sustainable Farming vs. Current Farming Methods
Invasive species in Texas
Nuclear Power
Recycling
Habitat Loss-destruction, fragmentation, changed use
Sustainable Eating Habits-Beef, Chicken, or Vegetarian??
The most questions were asked about how to create the free Weebly account, so I plan to add a Collaborate Session for students to screen share with them to show them the steps in the process.
This has inspired me to assign more creative assignments. I plan to have students make infographics about a red-list local endangered animal or plant next semester.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the students in the Fall 2018 Environmental Biology Course at TWU who were patient with me as I was creating this project. I would also like to acknowledge Reta “Smiddy” Foreman and Diana Elrod for their great ideas.
All websites were created by students in the Fall 2018 course.