Bachelor of Science in Environmental Education - By Aileen Stillman

I received a polite request... and now public here an interesting post about the world of "Degree on Science"!!!

by Aileen Stillman (http://www.bachelorsofscience.org. )

Picture found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/4945130263/

Those who study environmental education want to find out how the earth works. They study the systems and biospheres of the earth and find out how people affect them. As you can imagine, this is a very broad subject, so choosing which direction to go can be confusing for a student looking to get their degree in environmental education.

Program Description

As with most other degrees, the course requirements necessary to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Education depend entirely upon the college or university you attend. However, there are a few general requirements you should expect from most of these programs. By the time you get your bachelor’s degree, you should be able to come up with learning programs that promote environmental literacy and encourage others to protect and improve the environment.

If you are the type of person who really wants to make a difference in the world and want to help others appreciate our environment, this may be the degree for you. During your time in school, you will study many environmental subjects and learn effective teaching methods, as well as observe environmental education programs and gain leadership skills. When you graduate, you will be able to work in various educational and recreational organizations, including schools, parks, nature centers, outdoor programs, zoos, aquariums, and museums.

Types of Degrees

There are many different kinds of degrees a student can pursue at the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral level. Again, the requirements for each of these programs will depend on your school, but you will have to choose a focus in order to be successful in your future career. The following is a list of some of these degrees and a description of each.

·        a)  Science – The most common focus for environmental education majors is science. With this focus, you will most likely take courses in ecological studies and biology and learn how humans affect the environment.

·         b) Engineering – When you focus your studies on the engineering aspects of the environment, you will learn to create and engineer infrastructures, packaging, and products that are good for the environment. You may also have the opportunity to focus on wastewater management and air quality control. Most environmental engineers go through to get their masters and/or their doctorate degree in order to get the proper education necessary for this career.

·         c) Policy – With this degree, you can get the education necessary to work in the government and focus your efforts on the environmental issues in your public policy position. In your courses, you will gain an understanding of the economical, business, legal, ethical, and cultural issues that go along with issues in our environment.

·         d) Health Care – This degree is a lot less common than others, but if you do find a program that offers this focus, you will be able to learn how environmental factors affect our health.

·         Social Science – This perspective focusses on how environmental issues affect individuals, families, and cultures. This may be a part of a social science degree as well depending on the program.

·        e)  Business – Many businesses want to know how they can perform in a way that is better for the environment. In your courses, you will learn about different aspects of business as well as ways to improve the environment.

Aileen Stillman is the creator of 

bachelorsofscience.org, which is a site devoted to educating readers about their opportunities should they decide to get a Bachelor of Science degree. She enjoys writing articles about the environment and pursuing a science career.

UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon visit Gaza

From UNRWA web site: 
The UN Secretary-General receives a briefing about the UNRWA environmental zero impact school in Gaza. 


Yes, it is the green school with the treatment wetland and the reuse of treated waters!!! thanks Mr Ban!!


read the full story at:

http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1236



...

World Environment Day - Blogging competition - treatment wetlands for green economy

“I just entered to win a trip to Brazil for UNEP’s World Environment Day 2012. Read my blog post and discover how the Green Economy includes you."

Green, green, green is the color of all the treatment wetlands (TWs) that I have designed, more than 100 up to now. I use a simple calculation spreadsheet, I start from some numbers that characterize the polluted wastewaters  whether of human, animal or industrial and finally I get a number from that formulae. This number is the area of the TWs, a constructed wetland that is similar to a natural wetland that are the one you can find in a river bank, on a lake shore, in a river delta… somewhere in the wet area of the Earth. 

The water quality improvements in natural wetlands had been observed by scientists and engineers for many years and this led to the development of TWs as an attempt to replicate the water quality with the target of water purification before final discharge. TWs are designed with modern engineering systems for 50 years.

Well I’m speaking about a green and sustainable way to clean up polluted waters! A way that originates from Mother Nature. There are not just traditional systems with a lot of pumps that functions all day long, there are not only expensive plants that use chemicals products to reduce pollutions, there are not only plants made with concrete walls and steel pipes. We can follow a natural and green solution, environmentally friendly, able to recreate a green area and working with simple materials. Most of the pollutants are organic, like Biological or Chemical Oxygen Demand, nitrogen or phosphorus. All of these are natural and can be reduced by natural systems.

TWs are made with local materials and low energy input. Are you in Alaska? You can use local gravel and pipes. Are you in Malaysia? You can use local gravel and pipes. Are you in some states of Brasil? You can find  gravel and pipes there. Need any special parts? No! Need energy for its daily functioning? No! Need high education level to manage it? No! TWs are really simple to do and simple to manage and they are just green, a beautiful green with a lot of flowers inside!

To build up a TWs bed you have to excavate a basin 0,7 m deep, you need a waterproof plastic coating, you have to fill it with gravel or other porous materials and finally plant wetlands species. Then you have to realize the inlet and outlet pipe system to bring wastewaters in and collect the treated waters out of the system.

Also UNRWA (www.unrwa.org) an UN agency that operates in Near East is working to found a green school which has a treatment wetlands in the garden, and I’m proud to be part of this project in Gaza Strip as designer of the TWs!

Well, this is what I do. I imitatenature to improve the environment quality status that is daily threatened by us and by our actions, which cannot always be black or grey. This is green, I’m green, this can be a green economy, the process that I follow to design the treatment systems really derives from natural processes that occur in natural environments. Can someone tell me that it isn’t green? And this green technology can lead to a green economy environment where designers and workers build something  green to treat our non-green waste for a better world.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY - 5 JUNE - RIO DE JANEIRO - BRASIL

from http://unep.org/wed/ UNEP web site:

The UN Environment Programme defines the Green Economy as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

Practically speaking, a Green Economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalyzed and supported by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes.

The 2012 World Environment Day theme is Green Economy: Does it include you? 2012 is also the 40th anniversary for World Environment Day, since the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1972.

In this significant year for the environment and sustainable development, the world leaders will once again meet at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development twenty years after the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992.

Dubbed Rio+20, one of the main themes of this Summit is ‘a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’.

             

WORLD WETLAND DAY 2 Feb 2012 - COP 11

Today, 2 February 2012 is the World Wetland Day. 

Coied from the Ramsar Convention web site I post here below something about this celebrative day.

from www.ramsar.org:

The World Wetlands Day theme for 2012 is Wetlands and Tourism and is linked to the theme for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, COP11: Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation, which will take place in July 2012, in Bucharest, Romania. 

Mangrove Forest, Jozani Forest, Zanzibar

Wetland tourism has benefits both locally and nationally for people and wildlife – benefits such as stronger economies, sustainable livelihoods, healthy people and thriving ecosystems. At least 35% of Ramsar Sites around the world record some level of tourism activity and this percentage is consistent throughout all regions. Of course it is important to consider tourism in all wetlands – not just those designated as Ramsar Sites – since the Contracting Parties to the Convention are committed to managing all wetlands.

The following is the link of the activities done around the world in 2011 to celebrate the world wetland day, take a look!

http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-activities-wwds-wwd2011reports/main/ramsar/1-63-78%5E25047_4000_0__

Here another link. This is about the official materials made in partnership with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), they have created a brochure for WWD 2012 on wetlands and sustainable tourism, and how tourism can benefit Ramsar Sites and all wetlands. 

They have also produced a poster, a flipbook, a comic, and a sticker, all aimed at providing information on wetlands and tourism for you to share and customise.

http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-activities-wwds-wwd2012index/main/ramsar/1-63-78%5E25324_4000_0__

all text, link and the photo take from www.ramsar.org

thanks for the last January: treatment wetland record!

Hi wetlanders, new statistic record in the last month (January 2012): 683 pages views, more than 7400 views in the last twelve months. A lot of followers from more than 100 world countries USA, Canada, Indonesia, India, Australia, Russian Federation, but also from Barbados, Mexico, Qatar, Pakistan, Marocco, Japan and more.

Thanks a lot for visiting this blog, thanks a lot for contacting me. Last January friends from Malaysia, India, Oregon, Argentina and Mexico have contacted me for some questions about treatment wetlands and their applications for leachate purification, as natural site, as traditional vertical treatment bed, and the best question on how to become a wetland designer!

Stay tuned, news will arrive on how to design a bed and something more on floating wetland systems.

thanks for enjoy this site!  
Dave