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Biodiversity and natural resources provide essential goods and services, support economic development, and maintain planetary health

Human activities like deforestation, pollution, and climate change alter Earth’s natural systems, leading to biodiversity loss and environmental degradation

Living sustainably involves reducing resource consumption, supporting eco-friendly practices, and advocating for environmental policies at individual, community, and national levels.

. Surprising was the industry’s significant environmental impact and the challenges it faces in transitioning to sustainability

I contributed by researching sustainability initiatives and collaborating on recommendations to promote sustainability within the industry.

1. Biodiversity and natural resources provide essential ecosystem services, sustain livelihoods, economies, and cultures, and offer recreational and aesthetic benefits.
2. Human actions altering Earth’s systems include deforestation, pollution, overexploitation of resources, introduction of invasive species, climate change, urbanization, and unsustainable agricultural practices.

3. Living sustainably involves reducing consumption and waste, conserving energy, protecting natural habitats, promoting sustainable agriculture, fostering education and awareness, and supporting policy and governance for environmental protection.

4. This project deepened my understanding of sustainability by highlighting the intricate balance between environmental, social, and economic factors in sustainable agriculture practices.

5. The most surprising information about sustainable agriculture was the significant impact small-scale and regenerative farming methods can have on soil health, biodiversity, and overall ecosystem resilience, which often outperform conventional industrial farming practices.
6. I was proud of how the project turned out over all.

1. We see a healthy environment that can build off each other from the different species and resources to make something great.

2. Making clothes that raise the carbon emissions which negatively affects the atmosphere

3. By preserving their resources and cutting back on things that use fossil fuels

4. It made me see what materials were sustainable and how clothing is more than just fashion

5. That water was used to make clothes and water scarcity is caused by the clothing industry

6. I was proud of the way it turned out and I did the slides and found a majority of the research

Unit Essential Questions:

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?

Healthy ecosystems

What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems? Burning fossil fuels

How can individuals, communities and or nations live more sustainably? Recycle Reflection Questions:

How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability? Developing natural resources

What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why? Waste management leads to pollution and I never knew that.

How did you contribute to your groups project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project?

I helped with the slides and the physical design. I am most proud of my groups physical projects

Reflection

1. The importance of biodiversity is evident in the way that the sustainability of the environment is dependent on it since everything balances something out in some way.
2. Human actions associated with altering earth systems is making conscious decisions to help our environment such as not catching a certain species of fish to allow them to repopulate, or changing their source of power to allow for less carbon emissions (I.e. solar power, hydropower, wind turbines, etc.)

3. People can learn to live more sustainably by staying educated and doing research on the current state of the environment to know if they need to change power sources

4. This project helped me understand sustainability in the way that it isn’t only inanimate resources, but the sustainability of an industry is also determined by the workers and the working conditions.

5. What surprised me most about the clothing/fast fashion industry was the extent of the harsh working conditions and the lack of fair pay
6. In this group project I shot and edited the video for the slides. I was proud of the way it turned out, and the way that we were able to figure out something for the physical model before the presentation.

The value of biodiversity is that it helps maintain our ecosystem and keeps Earth’s natural natural processes. Some things humans do disrupt the Earth’s natural systems are smoking, driving, deforestation because they throw the Earth’s natural systems out of wack. Humans as a whole can be more sustainable by using more natural resources and also limiting certain things they do such as overfishing and illegal poaching.

This project has helped deepen my understanding of sustainability because it made me think deeper about the resources that were being used in each everyday product. Nothing really surprised me because I know a good bit about the cleaning industry but something I didn’t know about was something called allergens which turned out to be stuff we eat on a daily basis such as eggs,wheat, peanuts etc. I did contribute a lot to our project because I feel like I found really good resources and also came up with some good ideas with how we should represent it as well.

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?

The biodiversity and natural resources of the Earth are valuable because they provide crucial services like clean air and water, support people’s livelihoods, enrich our cultures, and offer opportunities for scientific exploration.

What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems?

Human actions such as deforestation, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and climate change are altering Earth’s natural systems.

How can individuals, communities, and or nations live more sustainably? People, communities, and countries can live more sustainably by encouraging responsible consumption, resource conservation, support for renewable energy, waste reduction, preservation of natural habitats, and advocacy for sustainable policies.

How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability? This project opened my eyes to a topic that I didn’t have any prior knowledge about and made us think creatively about how we can build a brand that is sustainable toward the environment.

What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why? One surprising thing about sustainable technology like windmills is the rapid advancement and innovation in their design and efficiency.

How did you contribute to your group’s project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of in terms of your overall project? I contributed to the information on the slides about our company logo, why we are sustainable, and assistants on the physical model.

-What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?

They provide clean air, water, food and things like that. We wouldn’t be able to live without them. They also support the ecosystems that are on the Earth.

-What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems?

We do things like deforestation, pollution, overfishing, habitat destruction, and contribute to climate change. This interrupts the wildlife and natural cycles of the Earth.

-How can individuals, communities and or nations live more sustainably?

We can recycle, turn off electricity and water when we aren’t using it, use public transportation, take shorter showers, and plant trees.

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth? - Biodiversity is so valuable because without biodiversity life on earth would be almost nonexistent because all the different earthly processes could not be carried out. What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems? - deforestation, incorrect fishing methods, pollution etc are associated with altered earth systems. How can individuals, communities and or nations live more sustainably? - Lower greenhouse gas emissions, eat sustainably, use less electricity, recycle, drive less How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability? - Having to find sustainable sources for everything deepened my knowledge of sustainability because it showed me how easy and how many solutions there are to moving to a more sustainable life. Also, having to look deeply into where everyday items come from really showed me how unsustainable our society is. What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why? - I was very surprised that so much wood is put to waste when making furniture, I would think that a lot would be used because of how much furniture is made. How did you contribute to your groups project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project? - Acting as a creative leader for the group, allowing peers to add and subtract to our vision, efficiently executing the vision of our group, and making room for all present groupmates to pitch their ideas. I also, filmed and edited our commercial in full.

Without Biodiversity and natural resources of the Earth, it would be harder for biotic factors/living organisms to survive. Some human actions associated with altering Earth’s natural systems are burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Individuals, communities, and or nations can live more sustainably by lowering their eco-footprint by using less water, less transportation, reusing clothes, recycling, replacing single-use products like plastic, etc.

This project deepened my understanding of sustainability because it made me think and research more about sustainability in the food industry. This project allowed me to think about the food industry and how to make it more sustainable such as it being healthier and more easily accessible. The project also made me realize that sustainabilty will make a better environment and make the world better however it can take long due to how much we need to work in order to make industries more sustainable. For my industry, I was mostly surprised about the eco-footprint being 13.7 billion metric tons because I didn’t expect the number to be that big even though I expected it to be a lot. I contributed to my project by helping in all of the checkpoints, collabortaing with my group to brainstorm ideas (the names of the company and restaurant, the actual restaurant and fishery, plus the blueprint/layout), working on the slideshow, and assisting with the physical model as well. To end my reflection I am proud of how well everything came together especially because my group and I were stressing about not finishing in time.

Unit Essential Questions: 1. What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?: biodiversity means that an ecosystem is stable. higher biodiversity performs higher functions and organisms rely on each other to survive. without biodiversity, ecosystems will die and species will end.

2. What human actions are associated with altering Earth’s natural systems?: pollution, deforestation, driving/transportation, cooking, hunting animals

3. How can individuals, communities, and or nations live more sustainably?: individuals could walk or bike instead of using cars/fuel-based transportation, communities can carpool together or help each other to build solar panels, etc, and nations can enforce laws to make sure that businesses and people live more sustainably.

Reflection Questions:

1. How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability?: it made me understand how easy it is to research ways to be more sustainable and how much our basic needs and wants affect the environment even when we don’t realize it.

2. What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why?: I’m surprised that the clothing industry is the second-biggest consumer of water. I knew that it required a lot of water but this surprised me because I did not think it would be that wasteful.

3. How did you contribute to your group’s project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project?: I was the one who chose the clothing industry, and I did a lot of checkpoint 1 and 2 which were important research documents for our industry

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?
The values I see in biodiversity and natural resources help make the world run and keep everything balanced What human actions are associated with altering Earth’s natural systems? The biosphere is associated with human life and actions and human actions that affect nature are deforestation and burning fossil fuels. How can individuals, communities, and or nations live more sustainably? We can all live more sustainably by not using transportation as much to reduce emissions and try to use less electricity.

Reflection Questions: How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability? This project deepened my understanding of how to be sustainably by making it seem like it was real life. What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why? The information we chose to research about the food industry was from the USDA for different years and how the food industry impacted the earth. How did you contribute to your group’s project? Provide specific examples. I help create the business plan and make the physical model layout so we knew where to put everything when we were ready to glue things on. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project? I was proud of how our physical model turned out and how we were able to explain why we chose to create a restaurant using fam grown crops.

Link to website: https://sites.google.com/slabeeber.org/restaurant/home

Humans actions that effect biodiversity include things like deforestation and bycatch There is a lot of value in biodiversity, some people like to take action towards it while some do, the value is high because it can impact our world and everything in and on it We can live more sustainable by using resources that don’t harm the environment or using them less Sustainability can be used in multiple ways If hospitals use more sustainable resource the environment could be way better I contributed with doing checkpoints and giving feedback on idea that were brought to the group

This is the website link

https://sites.google.com/slabeeber.org/ptecompany/about-us

Healthy ecosystems help to maintain the Earth’s natural processes. Burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock are increasingly influencing the climate and the earth’s temperature. By reducing energy needs. It gives me a bigger understanding of what material is sustainable/ better for the environment. That brand will use unsustainable material for clothes because they produce more products instead of using sustainable material. I continued by reading some of the slides. Getting the actual project done on time.

Unit Essential Questions:

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?

• Biodiversity and natural resources benefit humans by providing ecological services, economic opportunities, cultural significance, and scientific knowledge.

What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems?

• Human activities like deforestation, pollution, overfishing, and climate change are disrupting Earth’s natural systems.

How can individuals, communities and or nations live more sustainably?

• To live sustainably, people, communities, and nations should focus on adopting renewable energy, practicing sustainable consumption, conserving water, protecting ecosystems, promoting sustainable agriculture, and raising awareness about sustainability.

Reflection Questions:

How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability?

• It has made me look at the bigger picture more often, and to think about how something affects everyone and not just me.

What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why?

• Mainly that the food industry generates more than 1.3 trillion dollars worth of food in a year, and we still have major problems like world hunger and stuff.

How did you contribute to your groups project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project?

• I worked with my group members on the checkpoints, and I also contributed money towards building our 3D model and I also help out with actually building it as well.

Unit Essential questions(Answers) 1. The value that we see in biodiversity is that there are so many options. 2. The human actions that are associated with the altering earth systems are burning fossil fuels, cutting down trees etc. 3. We can do things like grow your own food or conserve water

Reflection(Answers) 1. This project deepened my understanding
2. I wasn’t really surprised about anything about our industry 3. I contributed to my groups project by making all the slides and looking up the recipes for

The value of biodiversity offers many resources that humans and animals need to survive, such as shelter, food, and a balance to the earth as a whole. Sadly many human actions alter the Earth’s natural system such as deforestation, overfishing, burning of fossil fuels, and many more. Individuals can try to cut down our electricity and even their transportation, by having a timer for their lights so that they can cut off or they could try to ride their bikes to and from the place if they can.

This project helped me to understand there are many different ways to be sustainable other than using expensive solar panels for everything. When researching the clothing industry’s Eco footprint I didn’t know that making clothes has a large water usage, they surprised me. I never really knew how certain clothes were made and what was involved in collecting resources and processing them to then be turned into material. I contributed by finding sustainable practices we could use for our clothing company as well as taking all our information and putting it on slides. I also helped with the making of our physical model by buying materials and working during lunch to get some stuff done. I was really proud of all the information we had found as well as the teamwork put into finishing the final product.

Essential questions:

1. We see value in biodiversity because it means the earth has a broad variety of components that contribute to the balance of nature. There’s value in our natural resources because we need those for human survival.
2. Many human actions alter earth’s natural systems such as agriculture, urbanization, producing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, and more.
3. Individuals can live more sustainably by doing things like recycling, being more energy efficient (turning lights off, using solar panels), conserving water, eating less meat, etc. Communities can live more sustainably by being more efficient with transportation (carpooling), composting, growing their own food and consuming more plants, etc. Nations can live more sustainably by wasting less, driving less, preventing pollution, etc. All of these things can also be done by either individuals, communities, or nations. These are all sustainable ways for people and whole countries to live.

Reflection questions:

1. This project deepened my understanding of sustainability because I didn’t just get to learn about the broad topic of sustainability, but how each different industry specifically impacts the environment.
2. What surprised me the most about the food industry is how almost 40% of all food is wasted per year, whether from grocery stores or restaurants.
3. I contributed to my group’s project by conducting research, helping create our presentation, and also helped with building the physical model. I am most proud of our overall ideas for making our restaurant as sustainable as possible.

This is our site link: https://sites.google.com/slabeeber.org/restaurant?usp=sharing

What value do we see in the biodiversity and natural resources of the earth?

Biodiversity and natural resources are vital for ecosystem services, economic activities, cultural values, scientific research, sustainability, climate regulation, and ecosystem resilience. Their conservation is crucial for human survival, prosperity, and the health of our planet.

What human actions are associated with altering earth’s natural systems?

Human activities such as deforestation, pollution, overexploitation, climate change, introduction of invasive species, and land use changes have significantly altered Earth’s natural systems, impacting biodiversity, ecosystems, and their services.

How can individuals, communities and or nations live more sustainably?

As a whole society could consider the future more. If they did so, they would use resources in a more sustainable way if there was a risk that resource would no longer be available in the future. We could put laws and regulations in place so that we can monitor our harmful behaviors.

Reflection: How did this project deepen your understanding of sustainability?

This project helped me understand why so many people refuse to ‘go green’. It is very expensive, and most people aren’t able to afford such a sustainable lifestyle, therefore the people who are able to afford it aren’t making much of a difference because the majority can’t afford.

What information about your chosen industry surprised you most? Why?

The thing that surprised me the most about the transportation industry was the amount of good buses actually bring by carrying so many people and running so many of them. In reality it’s helping keep those cars off the streets. It surprised me because I always saw buses as a big pollutant. I didn’t think about the pros and the tradeoffs.

How did you contribute to your groups project? Provide specific examples. What were you proud of, in terms of your overall project?

I did the research part of the project, and I did the slide show presentation. On top of that I created a logo and a business card that could show that our business was really legit. I also helped paint the bus. I’m really proud of the bus and the way the slides came out because I spent a lot of time on them.

Biodiversity and natural resources provide a wide range of values that are essential for sustaining life on Earth, supporting human well-being, and maintaining ecological honor. Some human activities that alter the heart’s natural system are pollution, deforestation, urbanization, and over-extraction of natural resources. Individuals can live more sustainably by minimizing waste, conserving resources, practicing sustainable transport (walking, bike, bus) or even just simply spreading education and knowledge to come together as a community to make a change.

This project deepens my understanding of sustainability by giving an insight into how we can change different systems to be more sustainable. Such as healthcare, business workplaces, and transportation. This project also allowed me to apply what I already know to create a theoretical situation that can be potentially beneficial to the environment. Something that surprised me about the industry I chose ( healthcare) was that hospitals use up to 8 billion dollars worth of money on electricity. I’m assuming it’s because of the electricity and the number of rooms they have, but that was just shocking to me because that’s quite a lot of money. Also to think there are more than 100 hospitals in Philadelphia, together they probably spend trillions. Very shocking… I contributed to my group by pitching in ideas for each checkpoint lot also created our whole physical presentation and did it myself. I’m proud of how our project turned out, everyone knew what we were presenting so our presentation went smoothly. I am also proud of how we executed the information of our physical model.

Dear students,

We will be going over your studies during Seminar. You will receive a grade for attending Seminar and completing your assignments for all 4 quarters. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Ms. Allen