These quick exercises provide an opportunity for students to interact with the local community and to continue research of topics discussed throughout the chapter.

1. Access “Envirofacts,” a one-stop source for environmental information about your community sponsored by the EPA. You can retrieve information by typing your area’s zip code, city, county, water body, or park name. Or you can select a topic—air, land, water, waste, toxics, radiation, facility, compliance, or other—to find out if the EPA is monitoring any local emissions, sites, violations, or companies. Based on the information provided, how would you rate the environmental quality of your community?

2. The Edible Schoolyard Project, located at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California, was established in 1995. Founded by Chef Alice Waters, the nonprofit organization embraces a “Seed to Table” philosophy, allowing students to experience firsthand the cycle of food production from garden to table via gardening and cooking classes. The organization promotes the establishment of garden-kitchens in schools, with a listing of school gardens throughout the United States. Explore whether a school garden exists in your university or in an elementary or secondary school in your area.

3. Invite a faculty member from the biology, ecology, or natural sciences department to talk about the ecosystem of your college campus. How do your faculty and student populations affect the environmental habitat? How much waste is produced on campus? What environmentally friendly practices are supported on campus?

4. What sustainability programs does your university have in place for faculty, students, and the campus? Is your school part of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment?

5. Whether we look at individuals, cities, or nations, everyone and everything has an impact on the Earth because we consume the finite products and services of nature. As a result, we each leave an ecological footprint, some environmental impact on the amount of natural resources we use and waste output we create. Footprints are calculated for countries by measuring the amount of resources (e.g., fossil fuel, acreage and land, housing, and transportation) consumed in a given year. Individual footprints can also be estimated. To estimate your personal footprint, visit www.footprintcalculator.org/.