Carmen Tristan
Biology
4400
1 April, 2003
The interpretation of sustainability relies on who is speaking!
Supervising a two-year-old is like “nailing Jell-O to a tree,” goes the old saying. Maybe getting the staff and students at Dominican to agree on a definition of sustainability to maintain the school’s creeks is like “nailing Jell-O to a tree,” but maybe not. Themes of sustainability deal with nature, the economy, society and often all three combined. They are about the pace of modification and about equal treatment among generations. All of us should see sustainability as a constantly evolving process.
Understanding the basic patterns and processes by which nature sustains life and using these essential concepts of ecology to give birth to sustainable human communities can give people the tools to become ecologically literate. Ecological literacy means perceiving the world as an interrelated whole. We can detect relationships between phenomena at different levels from the individual, the classroom, the educational institutions, the district, and the environmental human communities and ecosystems.
The purpose of my project is to create innovative ideas that can complement the ones that may already exist on the Dominican campus to restore and sustain the creeks. I would like to create a grass roots approach. A project that can be student driven as a support mechanism. A project that can involve the faculty, the administration, the Science Club, the student government, and particularly the Dominican neighbors to impact the conditions of the creeks.
This process could become an ongoing project in the way of seminars, science theses and actual work on the creeks. To give the students a sense of “We can do it Too” approach. Through environmental project-based learning, the students can have more responsibility for their learning
With the help of the school’s faculty, students, and perhaps the city of Marin’s water agency, non-profit organizations and consultants, we could enhance the creek’s natural habitat, improve water quality, work on grading and removal of vegetation, erosion control, re-vegetation, trees, grass, shrubs and wildflower maintenance and preserve any endangered species.
I would like to create a grass roots approach that carries the “torch” of restoration and the many environmental issues Dominican faces, as the school continues to grow and expand.