We all depend on and impact the environment, yet rarely take any time to consider the environment throughout our daily lives. The goals of this text are to increase your awareness and understanding of your environment. Where does your drinking water come from? Where does your garbage go? Have you fallen victim to greenwashing? How is climate change affecting the planet? What are some solutions to the many environmental problems in the world today? These and many other questions will be answered throughout this text. It is our hope that not only will you have a better knowledge of your environment after completing these activities, but you will also become an advocate for a healthy planet through your actions as well as sharing what you have learned with others.
Kassandra Einfelt, co-author of this first ever edition, Environmental Explorations has been teaching environmental science at Hawkeye Community College for fifteen years. Her passion for the environmental health of the planet helped sparked an interest in writing this lab manual. Her observations in the classroom and the need for online resources helped foster ideas seen in this publication’s lab exercises. Co-author Dawn G. Keller was instrumental in bringing this publication to fruition and together they look forward to the ever-evolving discipline of environmental science and continued updates of this lab manual.
Dawn G. Keller has been teaching Environmental Science for more than 20 years. She has always been interested in the environment, with her favorite topics being waste management, food production, environmental justice, and women’s issues. In her spare time, she enjoys inline skating, running, gardening, playing the ukulele, and reading (hopefully with a cat in her lap). She lives in Waverly with her husband, daughter, cats, and dog.