Blog # 6

The idea of styrofoam completely annoys me. As a resident of FGCU'S Biscayne Hall, I regularly eat at SoVi, the cafeteria that is made available to students who live in the dorms. One night when I decided I would take my food to go, I noticed that this facility uses styrofoam containers for to go boxes. I was taken aback because this university is known as a "green" school and is not wasteful with its resources. Next, I decided I would do some research on styrofoam and its effect on the environment. I found out that styrofoam cups do not dissolve in the Earth eventually like other materials do. It just sits there, taking up space and therefore is negligent to the environment. You can recycle styrofoam, like you can paper, but it is difficult, takes a long time, and it is also hard to find someone who will actually do it. Styrofoam also lasts virtually forever, or at least much, much longer than we'll live to be. Paper, on the other hand, is a lot easier to recycle and it will dissolve faster. This useless material also contains chlorofluorocarbons, which are very bad for the environment. All in all, I think that our university should reconsider using styrofoam as a means of containers and find a material that is better for the environment. It’s inevitable that we will use packaged items and that will create some waste. But, we can do our part to change the amount of packaging and waste we put out.

Blog #4

This tutorial was very helpful for me, not only did I learn the fundamentals of researching, but I also learned a lot about the university's library. One of the most important tools I learned from this tutorial was how to search and locate books, journals, and media using the library catalog. This is helpful to me because I no longer have to look for the books in the library, I can just search if they have it and go. Prior to this tutorial, I knew little about the FGCU library and the great services it provides. The library services also provides recommended databases and resources by subject that make it easier to find accurate information. I feel this tutorial helped me immensely and I know now the basics of performing research. I did not know how to site my information correctly in MLA format but this tutorial helped me how to cite information correctly. I also did not know how locate course reserves. Some things that I already knew from this tutorial was how to not plagiarize, what search engines to use, and how to use databases.