By: Megan Munkacsy … In the first 10-14 days of a monarch caterpillar's life, it will eat 200 times it's body weight in milkweed leaves1. That's the equivalent of an average house cat eating over 111 sixteen-pound bags of cat food in two weeks or less. Once fed, the caterpillar hangs upside down and sheds its last skin as a caterpillar, turning in on itself to liquify all of its insides into stem cells, and rebuild2.

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By: Andrea Miralles-Barboza … This week in our Environment and Society class, we had the chance to discuss the relationship of humans and the environment with environmental anthropologist Dr. Christy Miller Hesed and political scientist Dr. Isabella Alcañiz.

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By: Maria Rodriguez … This week we are talking about Science, Technology, and Society. This discipline, which explores the relationship between science and technology and their social context, was developed in the 1970s, and originally evolved from the field of Laboratory Studies.

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By: Alison Thieme … If asked, “what is Earth’s value?” how would you respond? Is your response a comment on the importance of Earth, or a number estimate? While most people have a sense of the intrinsic value of our environments, it can be challenging to estimate the monetary value of the natural world. We can use examples like the quantity and price of apples to begin to understand valuation of objects, but with only one Earth, can we afford to consume it like an apple?

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By: Isabel Sullivan … The readings for this week were The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis, by Ruth DeFries1, an excerpt from Our Common Future, produced by The United Nations2, and “A safe operating space for humanity,” by Johan Rockström et al.3. Each of these readings discusses sustainability in some form and how complicated and interconnected environmental issues are. While reading The Big Ratchet, a movie called The Prestige4 came to mind.

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By: Faith Taylor … This week Dr. Paolisso referred to culture as the lens through which we view nature and honestly I didn’t think too much of this statement until I sat down to write this blog post. If culture is the lens through which we view nature, I think that lens is more like a kaleidoscope than a pair of glasses.

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By: Amanda Rockler … Complementary colors are any two hues positioned exactly opposite each other on the basic color wheel. Look at each color below, from left to right and right to left. Color scale. Image by author … When a gradual amount of each color's complement is added, the resulting mixture becomes less and less intense until the color is totally neutral. Achieving the color you want is all a matter of balance.

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By: Katie May Laumann … After a semester of exploring five approaches to the study of environment and society (ecological, anthropological, political, sociological, economic, etc.), students were faced with one final challenge. They were to develop proposals to integrate cultural and natural resource management in the National Capital Region (NCR) National Parks. Working in four collaborative groups, students identified challenges and solutions to integrated management.

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By: Shannon Hood … The readings for this week drew me to think a lot about home construction. As the daughter of an architect and builder, I grew up looking at building plans with my dad and walking around in framed homes. Years ago, it was standard to have many walls and doors in homes, with much delineation between the kitchen, dining room, living room, study, etc. Plenty of walls; a good sturdy home.

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By: Brendan Campbell … Do you remember that feeling of receiving a bad report card and knowing that you'd have to show the report to your parents? If you are anything like me, that feeling is all too familiar. Now imagine if your backyard was going to receive the same type of report card based on its ecological health (instead of how well it remembers the quadratic equation or the process of cell division). Would your backyard "pass"?

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