Three of my grandparents have passed away and my grandmother who is still living has Alzheimer’s disease and is not going to be able to complete the questions. However my parents could. My father is in Afghanistan so my mother will have to answer the questions. I asked her what sustainability, ecological perspective and sense of place meant to her. She had somewhat the same answers many of people who were not specifically educated or introduced thoroughly to the environment would have. Sustainability to her meant keeping the Earth as healthy as possible. This meant recycling, reducing gas emissions, and using energy saving devices such as energy efficient light bulbs. Ecological perspective means having the environment in mind at all times throughout the day. This can include carpooling as much as possible if leaving the house, or if purchasing food trying to get organic and when leaving the house to turn out all the lights. To my mother, sense of place means knowing your area on the planet. This means knowing her neighborhood very well, and then expanding out to city, state, nation, and planet. Knowing in this case includes environmental problems as well as other issues in the area.
As far as my taking this colloquium course and all that it has enlightened me on, she is very happy. She knows how much I enjoy nature, and she sees that it has gotten me outside more. This makes her very happy, and even happier that I am learning more about the environment. She also has learned more through me talking about the class. So not only has the class helped me, it spreads it's knowledge and education through students to parents, friends and community.
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