Environmental Health Concerns

For this project you can take a walk around your neighborhood, local park, local trail or State and National Park trail. As you are walking take a look at the living things around you and think about why certain organisms are there? The following are questions to ask as you examine organisms. How does the organism obtain its energy and nutrients in this environment? Are there other organisms that consume the organism you are looking at? Is the organism native to the area or is it an invasive species meaning it was brought in from somewhere else? To be considered invasive, a nonnative animal or plant specieshas to displace one or more natives. Organisms live in a specific area or habitat because it is adapted to both the non-living factors like climate and the living factors like the community. The niche of a species is its place in the community which includes the resources it uses like food and shelter and its role in the community like interaction with others. After you identify an organism you are interested in studying, you need to determine the name of the organism and its niche in the community. A tool that can help with that is Google Lens. You can download the Google Lens App from the Play Store or App store on your phone. This is a free app. Once you download the app, you open the app, focus your phone camera on the organism of interest and tap shutter button (or button with magnifying glass) to search. Google Lens does a search of images and pulls up images most similar to what you focused your camera on. Scroll down to see the list of matches and select the one that looks closest to the organism you are looking at. Click on links to access information on the organism. Read about the organism, look for scientific articles written about the organism, and write a one-page, double space essay about the organism. The following is information you need to include in the essay: You need to indicate the name of the organism you are studying, both its common and scientific name and why you chose this organism. What climate is the organism most adapted to? How does the organism obtain its energy and nutrients in this environment? Are there other organisms that consume the organism you are looking at? Does the organism have to compete with other species for resources? If it does, which species does it have to compete with and how does it solve this competition problem? Is the organism native to the area or is it an invasive species meaning it was brought in from somewhere else? To be considered invasive, a nonnative animal or plant specieshas to displace one or more natives. A picture of the organism needs to be added at the end of the one page essay. You must also cite the source of an article you used to find information about the organism. Your article may come from a newspaper, magazine, scientific journal, or a credible news/journal website on the Internet (i.e. Sciencedaily.com, nationalgeographic.com, etc.). This citation must include the date, article title and complete website URL or magazine, newspaper, journal, etc information.