I took GNED 261, my first fully-online course, during a winter intercession. I was nervous about the online setting and the challenges of independent learning, but overall I was successful in the class. In addition, it helped me make discoveries about my own learning style and how I can more effectively study material. This class was essentially an introductory course in conservation science. We learned about environmental history, evolution and ecology, issues related to the conservation of biodiversity, and the role of human beings in harming and protecting our planet. This class forced me to examine the realities of how everyday human life negatively impact the environment. For example, I had never considered that keeping a well-manicured lawn was harmful to the enviroment by discouraging indigenious plant life to grow. One of the biggest take aways I got from this course was that if we truly wish to extend the life of our planet and the lives of the species that it houses, we as humans will need to do more than just “consider” making sacrifices to our lives as we know them. Meaningful and immediate change is vital, for the sake of the environment.

One of the assignments we completed in this class involved taking a survey on ‘footprintcalculator.org’ to determine our individual ecological footprint based on our current lives. I was surprised to find out that based on my eating, transporation, shopping habits and my house, it would take two planet Earths to sustain my energy consumption if everybody lived like I did. We then had to consider what changes we could make to our lives to reduce this impact.