PBL Final Reflection

To me, this PBL has been an amazing way of learning. I have gone from knowing practically nothing about whales to knowing so much. I have learned about how they are endangered, what they eat, how much they eat and so many other extremely interesting things. I have also learned that the growth of Samana is affecting the whales incredibly due to the water pollution, noise pollution and the amount of boats going in and out of the bay. This made us realize that it has been our fault why the whales are affected. Lastly, I learned that the whales are just incredible creatures, and they are a great part of our environment.

To me the structure of the project was pretty good, but there were some areas that could have been better. For example I think that the reflections should have been done om paper since the process of making them was long and confusing. Other than this I think that it was a great structure. I enjoyed the schedule of the trip (other than waking up early) as well as the shared document and the activities we did. To me this was an incredible experience.

Whaling PowerPoints

Overall, I think that the power points were full of great information but heartbreaking facts. The power points helped me realize how bad whaling really is. The pictures they had also sent us a huge message of what the whaling companies do to the whales. I strongly believe that they should try to stop all or at least most of the whaling companies since there are already tons of other ways to get energy. Once again, I believe that whaling should be stopped immediately.

Shared Document Reflection

Overall, I believe that sharing a document while completing our our action plan was a huge success. I liked it because it helped us be able to work on the same document at the same time and not have to be waiting until another one of us finishes. It also allowed us to share our ideas with each other while we are writing. Due to this, it prevented the possibility of forgetting what we were going to write just because only one person at a time could do it. Lastly, I liked it because we could express ourselves and also revise what each other wrote. I think that the shared document was a great idea!

Trip Reflection

To me the trip was everything that I could have hoped for. I extremely enjoyed my time on the bus even though it was a little bit messy. Also, I enjoyed the boat ride but thought that we had to wait too much time (2 hours) before we could finally see whales. But even though we waited long, I definitely think that it was worth the wait since we were lucky to see whales breaching, doing tail lobs, moving their flippers, and many other great movements. We were also able to see a mom with its calf. Cayo Levantado was also very cool since we were able to swim in the great warm waters and play all sorts of cool beach games. The ride back home was exhausting, but I definitely think that it has been one of the best school field trips that I have ever taken.

Survey Question

Do you think that Humpbacks are being bothered by the economic growth in Samana?

Reflection on Videos and Quote

After watching these two movies and the quote, I have finally realized that all these things are actually interrelated. In the movie “The Diversity Code” I realized that humans depend on animals for things like food, medicine and investigation. For example, without investigation how would we find out that animals like cone snails could give us life-changing medicines? If we kill the animals we will also be practically killing ourselves. Also, we will be destroying the web of life. The web will become unbalanced which may lead to things like epidemics and species being extinct. If we don’t balance the web out, I believe that we will be looking at a very rocky future. In the quote by Chief Seattle I understood that everything is somehow related. I also understood that without the animals us humans would not be able to survive just like some animals won’t be able to survive without us. Lastly, in the Star Trek movie I found out that we might need animals like whales in the future for reasons that we might not even know today. In the movie I also realized that some species are being killed very rapidly and that the web could be damaged because of this. Basically, what I want to say here is that all three videos and quote want to tell us the same message: we need all these animals and we need the web of life to survive, so don’t kill them! To me, humans have not realized yet how bad this situation can be if we let it go even farther out of hand than how it is now. It gets harder to solve every day. I honestly think that if humans keep letting this go out of hand everything will go out of place and disasters like animal extinction, natural disasters, and epidemics will start increasing and increasing. We humans have to start investigating about what we can do to help increase the animal population and try to balance everything out. Also, after watching these movies and quote I have become more aware of what are situation can be in the future and how hard it could further down the road. My last comment is that, once again, humans have to start acting fast before everything gets out of hand. And for the human race to survive everyone needs to play a part in the balancing of the environment with the needs of us humans.

Whale Research so far...

So far I have found the whale research very interesting especially with all the new things that I have been learning about whales and about the growth economically of Samana and the Dominican Republic. I have learned that Samana's economy is growing incredibly every year. For example I learned that once it was only occupied by a few thousand people while now over 35,000 people live there! I also learned that with the growth of Samana, the humpback whales that come here every winter are starting to get bothered by the crowded cities. Lastly, I learned that the tourism in Samana also grows incredibly every year.

Do you have a sense of humor?

Honestly, I first of all felt very sorry for the whale because of its death and how they were going to get rid of it. But in the other hand I thought that this video actually was very funny with all the explosives and the idea of exploding the whale. I also thought it was very funny when all the pieces of whale went flying in the air! But I felt really sorry for the persons car that got squashed by a huge piece of the whale. Overall, I thought that this video was extremely funny and hope that we are able to see more videos like it.

Reflection Questioins 1/19/10

1- How much space do the humpacks need to reproduce?
What might be the consequences if the waters where they reproduce are polluted?
How can we the kids help and protect the whales?
How much money does the economy want to get for Whale Watching?
Do the whales feel comfortable near humans?

2- Some things that we have to keep in mind is that the internet is very public and that practically anyone can see your name and your facebook profile. We also have to keep in mind that we shoudn't put a lot of personal information in places like blogger, facebook, etc. Lastly, we also have to keep in mind that we shoudn't put any last names or locations.