For my paper, I will attempt to answer the question of whether or not beach nourishment helps or harms sea turtle nesting. I hope to prove that the effects of beach nourishment help sea turtle nesting more than it harms it.
What I know as of now pertaining to sea turtle nesting and beach nourishment, is that beach nourishment is a risky process that is used to preserve the nesting grounds of sea turtles. This process is required because after years of waves crashing on our shores, the sandy beaches alter their slope. Slope is an important factor in which sea turtles use to decide whether or not to nest on that beach. Beach renourishment is an attempt to preserve a suitable slope that sea turtles will continue to come back and nest on the beaches. However, at the same time, the sand used to renourish the beaches might be a little bit different from the sand already on the beach. If it has a different color, texture, size, shape, or any of various characteristics, the sea turtle may choose not to nest on the beach even though the slope is fine. One reason that explains this is the fact that sea turtles develop differently from many other animals. They are all the same gender when the egg is laid, but teh temperature at which the egg is incubated determines the gender of the sea turtle that hatches from the egg. A darker colored sand will incubate eggs at much higher temperatures than a light colored sand, and therefore the sea turtles will try to find a beach with sand more suitable to their needs.
Of the things I have yet to find, I am still trying to find statistics as to how many renourished beaches are no longer suitable to be nesting grounds, compared to how many successfully preserved a nesting ground. I am also trying to find out how the people in charge of a beach renourishment project goes about determining which type of sand to use. I hope to find a more descriptive summary as to the process of beach nourishment. For example, how does anyone actually move the sand, or how do we know the sand we are using will be accepted by the sea turtles.
Of course there is the opposing argument to mine, there are people who will say that beach nourishment is harmful. Their arguments range from the quite obvious including the possibility that sea turtles will not accept the new sand we use, to the less obvious such as the fact that the process can be harmful to the environment as well. It can bury other animals alive, like a small bird hunting on the beach when all of a sudden a large amount of sand is dumped on top of it, or even a rare fish near the ocean's edge. It also has the possibility of introducing new preditors, depending on where the sand comes from. One fierce preditor of the unhatched sea turtle is a special type of fire ant. If they are already living in the sand you use to renourish beaches, you introduce a preditor to the species you are trying to preserve.
So far I have looked at a study on the effects of beach nourishment and the likelyhood of sea turtles to continue nesting. I have also looked at a source that focuses on the sea turtles preditors. In addition I have found a source that talks about a new type of sand that scientists are trying to create to use in the beach nourishment and sea turtles reactions. and finally, I have a source that talks about why we should continue to keep preserving sea turtles and why they are in need of protection. I am trying to find statistics at the current time, but so far I haven't been able to find what I am looking for.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Plagiarism
After reading Trip Gabriel's "Plagiarism Lines Blur for students in Digital Age," I come to agree with him. He writes that one of the reasons plagiarism has increased in these modern days, is because of the fact that information is so readily available. He claims that it creates the notion that no one owns any of the information, and that it does not need to be cited. This is particularly the case when the author has not been specified. He claims that it distorts the meaning of ownership, and therefore, students don't feel they are doing anything wrong by copying and pasting. (Gabriel 108).
I agree that the lack of publishing information is part of why plagiarism has increased. In a hard copy book, you have an entire page dedicated to the publishers and copyright information. There you can find the author, the publisher, the date it was published, where it was published, and pretty much everything you need to make a good citation. However, when you turn to an online source, it can be so difficult to find any type of information covering who wrote the information or ideas that you are using. It can even seem impossible. I myself at times have grown so frustrated trying to find information I could use to cite an article I was planning to use, that I decided in the end to find either another article that has the same information, or I would just simply take out the entire example, so that I wouldn't have to cite it.
As much as I agree that the lack of a publishers information can be a part of the problem, I have my own theories as to why plagiarism occurs. One possible reason is that some people simply don't know how to cite a source, or don't realise how important it is. However, this is no excuse for plagiarism. Especially not in a society so full of technology that someone could very easily find a website such as http://www.easybib.com/ which cites pretty much any source for you. If you're using an online source, usually you can copy and paste the html into the http://www.easybib.com/ page and it will find all of the publishers information that has been made available to you, and sometimes more than you would have found, making a much better citation than you could have done yourself.
Another possible reason some people plagiarise, is that they simply forgot to cite a source. It was completely unintentional, but in all the information they used, sometimes you forget to cite one or two of your sources. I have made this mistake in the past myself. One time I had to do an oral presentation, accompanied by a powerpoint presentation. I had to cite all of my sources on the powerpoint, and then write an essay saying pretty much everything I covered in the oral presentation. Then, I had to cite all of my sources a second time in the essay. However, I forgot to cite one of my sources in the essay, but since I cited it in the powerpoint, my professor was kind enough to overlook it, while making a note for me that I needed a citation there. The fact is though we are only human and sometimes when dealing with many many sources, we sometimes make a mistake and overlook one or think we already cited it when we didn't. We do forget things.
While the lack of publisher information or not realising the importance of citing may be the reason for increased plagiarism, it certainly isn't the only reason. There must be many more reasons that even I have not been able to mention, but plagiarism is still inexcusable.
I agree that the lack of publishing information is part of why plagiarism has increased. In a hard copy book, you have an entire page dedicated to the publishers and copyright information. There you can find the author, the publisher, the date it was published, where it was published, and pretty much everything you need to make a good citation. However, when you turn to an online source, it can be so difficult to find any type of information covering who wrote the information or ideas that you are using. It can even seem impossible. I myself at times have grown so frustrated trying to find information I could use to cite an article I was planning to use, that I decided in the end to find either another article that has the same information, or I would just simply take out the entire example, so that I wouldn't have to cite it.
As much as I agree that the lack of a publishers information can be a part of the problem, I have my own theories as to why plagiarism occurs. One possible reason is that some people simply don't know how to cite a source, or don't realise how important it is. However, this is no excuse for plagiarism. Especially not in a society so full of technology that someone could very easily find a website such as http://www.easybib.com/ which cites pretty much any source for you. If you're using an online source, usually you can copy and paste the html into the http://www.easybib.com/ page and it will find all of the publishers information that has been made available to you, and sometimes more than you would have found, making a much better citation than you could have done yourself.
Another possible reason some people plagiarise, is that they simply forgot to cite a source. It was completely unintentional, but in all the information they used, sometimes you forget to cite one or two of your sources. I have made this mistake in the past myself. One time I had to do an oral presentation, accompanied by a powerpoint presentation. I had to cite all of my sources on the powerpoint, and then write an essay saying pretty much everything I covered in the oral presentation. Then, I had to cite all of my sources a second time in the essay. However, I forgot to cite one of my sources in the essay, but since I cited it in the powerpoint, my professor was kind enough to overlook it, while making a note for me that I needed a citation there. The fact is though we are only human and sometimes when dealing with many many sources, we sometimes make a mistake and overlook one or think we already cited it when we didn't. We do forget things.
While the lack of publisher information or not realising the importance of citing may be the reason for increased plagiarism, it certainly isn't the only reason. There must be many more reasons that even I have not been able to mention, but plagiarism is still inexcusable.
Friday, February 18, 2011
research topic
I haven't quite settled on one topic yet. However, the one that I am most likely to choose is the effects of beach nourishment/re-nourishment on sea turtle nesting. As a biology major, this is something that interests me a little, and I have a little bit of knowledge about it already.
First off, a well known fact is that sea turtles nest, or lay their eggs, on beaches buried in the sand. What many people don't know is that their nesting grounds are disappearing, and the sea turtles are very selective about what kind of sand they lay their eggs in. There are a lot of factors in which sea turtles use to decide whether or not to lay their eggs on one beach or to find another. Waves crashing on the shore eroding the sand away over the years changes the slope of the beach which is one of the factors. If the slope isn't right, a sea turtle wont lay their nests there. With the sea turtles nearing extinction, activists have decided to pour sand on the beaches where they do nest to preserve the slope and conditions sea turtles require to nest. However, while the process they use can potentially preserve a nesting ground, it can also destroy one if it invites new factors that the sea turtle does not find favorable. My topic, if I do decide to go with this, would discuss the pros and cons of using beach nourishment/re-nourishment to attempt to preserve a sea turtle's nesting grounds.
First off, a well known fact is that sea turtles nest, or lay their eggs, on beaches buried in the sand. What many people don't know is that their nesting grounds are disappearing, and the sea turtles are very selective about what kind of sand they lay their eggs in. There are a lot of factors in which sea turtles use to decide whether or not to lay their eggs on one beach or to find another. Waves crashing on the shore eroding the sand away over the years changes the slope of the beach which is one of the factors. If the slope isn't right, a sea turtle wont lay their nests there. With the sea turtles nearing extinction, activists have decided to pour sand on the beaches where they do nest to preserve the slope and conditions sea turtles require to nest. However, while the process they use can potentially preserve a nesting ground, it can also destroy one if it invites new factors that the sea turtle does not find favorable. My topic, if I do decide to go with this, would discuss the pros and cons of using beach nourishment/re-nourishment to attempt to preserve a sea turtle's nesting grounds.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
bibliographic annotation
(33), In Scopus. "ScienceDirect - Molecular Brain Research : From Wild Wolf to Domestic Dog: Gene Expression Changes in the Brain." ScienceDirect - Home. Web. 09 Feb. 2011. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T07-4CPDNY7-2&_user=3569841&_coverDate=07/26/2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1635189330&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000060884&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=3569841&md5=fda5506194dcff5d9a67ea834c234759&searchtype=a.
This article describes an experiment used to compare the evolutionary changes between wolves and dogs. This experiment was performed by studying the dogs’ ribonucleic acids, also known as RNA and comparing the gene expressions. After studying the gene expressions, scientists have concluded that domestic dogs are still under the process of natural selection. However, the pressures causing them to evolve are completely different from that of a wolf. What they are not sure of is whether the changes in gene expression originate from genetics, or environmental factors and life history. This, in a way, explains the relatively fast means of extreme evolutionary changes, including behavioral changes. This in turn helped lead to the creation of an entirely new species: the domesticated dog.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
"Attached to Technology and Paying the Price" article
For our first assignment we had to read the article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?_r=1
named "Attached to Technology and Paying the Price." This article mainly talks about how technology is rewiring our brains and causing us to lose focus. It cites the Campbell family who have all types of technology which they use constantly. At any given time the father could be using over 10 different applications, using 3 different computer screens at once. It was no surprise to me that he didn't notice an email offering him $1.3 million for almost 2 weeks.
The article talks about how this inability to focus hurts other aspects, such as the ability to cook something without burning it. People get distracted and forget that they have stuff in the oven. This actually happened to me once. I had started boiling some water to amke some soup, and then I got distracted with some technology and forgot the pot was on the stove. All of the water had evaporated and it started to create smoke which I didn't even notice until jsut before the fire alarm went off. Technology really does affect our inability to focus.
It also talks about how technology may have caused the children to recieve poor grades. The son mentioned in the article had a ton of programs and applications available to him on his computer, and he blamed that for his inability to focus on studying. I also find myself sometimes distracted when I'm in the middle of something, but I try to maintain some self-discipline. If something interests me, I might open the link in a new tab, and then add it to my favorites and come back later. Or I might open it in a new window and minimize it until I have finished what I need to get done. I understand that there may be distractions, but I don't believe that means you can use that as an excuse for poor grades. I believe the main reason the son wasn't doing well was because he didn't have good self-discipline, although the distractions did play a part in it.
I do believe that todays technology affects the way we think and our ability to focus. I grew up in a family that didn't like to use a lot of technology. For half of my lifetime we did not have television, if we wanted entertainment we walked to the library and checked out a couple of books. We had a computer but barely ever used it other than to do research for school assignments, upon which we still focused on library books for research. Only in the past few years have our family started accepting new technologies, and I already see the lack of focus in things such as schoolwork. I just installed Skype about a month ago, and it has distracted me a couple of times when I see someone is online and sent me a message. I have a tendency to try to hold up a conversation while I do my assignments or whatever i may have been doing at the time.
named "Attached to Technology and Paying the Price." This article mainly talks about how technology is rewiring our brains and causing us to lose focus. It cites the Campbell family who have all types of technology which they use constantly. At any given time the father could be using over 10 different applications, using 3 different computer screens at once. It was no surprise to me that he didn't notice an email offering him $1.3 million for almost 2 weeks.
The article talks about how this inability to focus hurts other aspects, such as the ability to cook something without burning it. People get distracted and forget that they have stuff in the oven. This actually happened to me once. I had started boiling some water to amke some soup, and then I got distracted with some technology and forgot the pot was on the stove. All of the water had evaporated and it started to create smoke which I didn't even notice until jsut before the fire alarm went off. Technology really does affect our inability to focus.
It also talks about how technology may have caused the children to recieve poor grades. The son mentioned in the article had a ton of programs and applications available to him on his computer, and he blamed that for his inability to focus on studying. I also find myself sometimes distracted when I'm in the middle of something, but I try to maintain some self-discipline. If something interests me, I might open the link in a new tab, and then add it to my favorites and come back later. Or I might open it in a new window and minimize it until I have finished what I need to get done. I understand that there may be distractions, but I don't believe that means you can use that as an excuse for poor grades. I believe the main reason the son wasn't doing well was because he didn't have good self-discipline, although the distractions did play a part in it.
I do believe that todays technology affects the way we think and our ability to focus. I grew up in a family that didn't like to use a lot of technology. For half of my lifetime we did not have television, if we wanted entertainment we walked to the library and checked out a couple of books. We had a computer but barely ever used it other than to do research for school assignments, upon which we still focused on library books for research. Only in the past few years have our family started accepting new technologies, and I already see the lack of focus in things such as schoolwork. I just installed Skype about a month ago, and it has distracted me a couple of times when I see someone is online and sent me a message. I have a tendency to try to hold up a conversation while I do my assignments or whatever i may have been doing at the time.
Introduction
Hi, my name is Christopher, and im doing this as a requirement for my english class. I'm a bio major, and this is my first blog. Never thought I'd make one, but since it's a requirement for class, here it is.
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