The Environmental Accords 5/21

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The Urban Environmental Accords are a set of objectives for an urban future. These objectives are set for an urban future that would be "ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable". As well as these set of objectives are based on existing best practices and applied to issues like energy, waste reduction, urban nature, transportation, and water. The Environmental Accords were created on June 05, 2005. On this date, San Francisco hosted United Nations World Environment Day, during which Mayor Gavin Newsom presented mayors from around the world with this unique opportunity to create the Urban Environmental Accords. Since then, the Urban Environmental Accords have been signed by more than a hundred mayors who have begun applying accord principles in their own cities across the globe. In addition, since then San Francisco has been adopting three Urban Environmental Accords actions per year. All together, there are 21 Environmental Accords. These 21 accords are separated into seven different categories. The seven categories that the Environmental Accords cover are Energy, Waste Reduction, Urban Design, Urban Nature, Transportation, Environmental Health, and Water. Each category contains three different Urban Environmental Accords.

S&EP - SP7: Engaging in argument through evidence

I used evidence to defend my explanation. I created a brochure for my Redesigned Urban Village using the Urban Environmental Accords, providing three Urban Environmental Accords as evidence. For this assignment, I had to create a brochure type document for my Urban Village. I chose three Environmental Accords and listed them down on my brochure. As well as I wrote a paragraph for each of the three Environmental Accords, stating how my Urban Village will reflect and show these Accords in its environment. I formulated evidence based on solid data when I stated that my Urban Village will provide a compost bin and a recycling bin next to every trash can following Environmental Accord #6 using the fact that Accord #6 is to implement "user-friendly" composting and recycling programs as evidence. I examined my own understanding in light of the evidence. I used to think that the 21 Urban Environmental Accords were just about helping to protect the environment generally, but because of reading through the different Environmental Accords for this assignment, now I think that the Urban Environmental Accords are separated by seven specific categories Energy, Waste Reduction, Urban Design, Urban Nature, Transportation, Environmental Health, and Water. I collaborated with my peers in searching for the best explanation. I did some research on the 21 Urban Environmental Accords which I discussed with my table group and elbow partner. Together we figured out all of the different 21 Urban Environmental Accords and how they impact the environment of an Urban Village.

XCC: Cause and Effect

The cause and effect relationship that occurs in the 21 Environmental Accords happens between the specific accord and how it impacts the environment of an Urban Village. The actions of one of the Environmental Accords effects the environment by improving energy, waste reduction, urban design, urban nature, transportation, environmental health, and water. As well as the outcome of each of the Urban Environmental Accords not only benefits the environment, it also impacts an Urban Village by improving quality of life. For example, action #13 is to develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years. This impacts the environment by encouraging more public transportation to reduce the amount of fossil fuels that are released by individual cars. Less fossil fuels released into the atmosphere, means less pollution in the environment. As well as this action also helps the Urban Village by providing a more affordable public transportation system to the community.

The Different "Spheres" of the World 5/14

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Humans have impacted the world greatly. Don't be flattered because I don't mean in a beneficial way. What I'm trying to say is that human activities and actions have damaged the Earth's environment. This takes me to the 5 "Spheres" of the world. Earth's system can be separated into five major subsystems; air, land, water, organisms, and ice. These five subsystems are called "spheres". More specifically, they are the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), biosphere (living things), and cryosphere (ice). The atmosphere is the layer of gases surrounding a planet. Humans activities effect the atmosphere by causing air pollution in many different ways, including the use of transportation that requires gas, working in factories that give off fossil fuel gases, and using items that give off smoke. The lithosphere is the rigid outer part of the Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle. The lithosphere is impacted by humans because of erosion. Natural land cover is disturbed as new cities are built because this new development can result in very high levels of erosion. As well as deforestation to clear land, damages the quality of land. The hydrosphere consists of all the waters on the surface of the Earth, such as lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans. Humans can impact the hydrosphere by creating water pollution. Water pollution occurs when humans let out oils and trash into bodies of water. In addition, humans can redirect the course rivers take make by creating dams. The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living things and their relationships. The biosphere is effected by humans when humans cause species to become endangered and go extinct. Humans cause this to happen by clearing out the homes of different species in order to build cities. The final sphere, cryosphere, is the frozen water part of the Earth's system. Climate change is a big impact on the cryosphere and all of the fossil fuels that are let off from humans makes the Earth warmer. The cryosphere protects the Earth from getting too warm, but when the ice melts from global warming, it impacts the affects the entire planet's energy balance.

S&EP - SP7: Engaging in argument through evidence

I used evidence to defend my explanation. I played a playlist of educational games on "Legends of Learning" that dealt with human impact on the Earth and taught me how we can start improving, providing the information that I learned as evidence. I formulated evidence based on solid data when I stated that human activities damage the atmosphere by creating air pollution using my knowledge that gas emissions from transportation mobiles, fossil fuel gases that are given off from human made factories, and smoke that is burned from humans cause air pollution, as evidence. I examined my own understanding in light of the evidence. I used to think that deforestation of areas in order to clear space for cities effected the lithosphere most because of soil erosion that deforestation causes, but because of playing the educational games and learning new information, now I think that deforestation is a huge impact on the biosphere because of the lost of homes of animal species. I collaborated with my peers in searching for the best explanation. I did some research on the different "spheres" of the Earth and how human activities greatly impact them, which I discussed with my class and the people at my table. Together we figured out how humans effect the environment of the Earth and the Earth's "spheres" with our actions.

XCC: Cause and Effect

The cause and effect relationship that occurs in the different "spheres" of the Earth happens between us humans and the well being of the Earth's environment. More specifically, the relationship revolves around the actions and activities humans take in daily life and how this effects the "spheres" of the Earth. For example when humans let out fossil fuels into the atmosphere, this not only affects the atmosphere with air pollution, it also causes the global warming. Global warming is the act of the Earth getting warmer. When the Earth gets warmer, it effects the cryosphere by melting ice. This is important because when the ice melts, it effects the entire planet's energy balance and encourages global warming. Another example of this relationship is when humans cause water polution. When we release oil, trash, and other toxic items into bodies of water, it of course pollutes the water and contaminates it. However, this action also affects the biosphere by killing any species that live in these contaminated bodies of water.

Acid vs. Base 5/7

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An acid is a chemical substance that neutralizes alkali and is able to dissolve some metals. Acids are usually a sour tasting liquid. You will most likely be able to find acids in foods you eat and drinks you consume. Examples of acidic substances are lemon juice, coffee, or tea. However, these acids aren't very strong, meaning that they aren't harmful and won't be able to burn through metals. A base is a chemical substance that is slippery to the touch and has a bitter taste. You will be able to find bases in cleaning products. Such as soap, baking soda, and ammonia. These products aren't very strong bases either, which is why you are able to use them to clean with no harm done to you. You can measure how acidic or basic a product is by using a pH scale. To use a pH scale, you put some of the product on a piece of litmus paper. If an acid is poured on the paper, it turns the litmus red. If a base is poured on the paper, it turns the litmus a blue color. This means that the more red the litmus paper is after the experiment, the more acidic the substance is. As well as the more acidic a substance is, the lower the pH level is on the scale. For bases, the more blue the litmus paper is, the more basic the substance is. The more basic a product is, the higher the pH level on the scale. You can tell that a product is an acid if the pH level ranges anywhere on the scale from 0 to 6. In contrast, you can tell that a product is a base if the pH level ranges from 8 to 14. In addition, the lower the pH level of an acid and the closer it is to 0, the more concentrated the acid is. The higher the pH level of a base and the closer it is to 14, the more concentrated the base is. You may be thinking, what does it mean if the pH level of a product is at 7? Is there an in between? The answer is no, if a substance has a pH level of 7, this means that the substance is neither an acid or a base. This means that the substance is neutral. An example of a neutral product is water or H2O. 

S&EP - SP7: Engaging in argument from evidence

I used evidence to defend my explanation. I conducted an experiment that tested the pH level of different acidic or basic products and filled out a worksheet about the pH level of acids and bases, providing the results of the experiment as evidence. I formulated evidence based on solid data when I stated that the more red the substance was when it was tested, the more concentrated the acid was using my observation that the lower the numbers got on the pH scale, the more red the substance had to be and the lower the pH level of a substance means that the substance is a stronger acid, as evidence. I examined my own understanding in light of the evidence. I used to think that when a substance had a pH level of 7, it just meant the substance was in between and was both an acid and a base, but because of learning about neutral substances now I think that when the pH level of a substance is 7 that means that it is neither an acid or a base, but a neutral substance. I collaborated with my peers in searching for the best explanation. I did some research on how to use a pH scale to tell if a substance is an acid or a base which I discussed with my class and the people at my table who conducted the experiment with me. Together we figured out that the lower the pH level and the more red a substance is, the more acidic the substance is. As well as the higher the pH level and the more green or blue a substance is, the more basic the substance.

XCC: Patterns

The pattern that occurs with using a pH scale to measure if a substance is acidic or basic, deals with the pH level of the substance and what color it is when tested. I observed this pattern when conducting an experiment in class that allowed me to see how acidic or basic a substance was based on its pH level. During the experiment I saw that after testing out the substances, all the acid products were a pink to reddish color and all of the base products were a green to blue color. When testing an acid product, I noticed that the more red the substance, the lower the pH level of the substance. Which lead me to figure out the the lower the pH level of a substance, the stronger and more concentrated the acid is. As well as the higher the pH level of an acid, the weaker and less concentrated the acid is. In contrast, I noticed an opposite pattern with bases. When testing a base product, I noticed that the more green the substance got, the higher the pH level of the substance on a pH scale. With this information I found that the higher the pH level of a substance, the more concentrated and stronger the base is. In addition, the lower the pH level of a base, the less concentrated and weak the base is.