Environmental Autobiography

Overview
In this assignment, you will be using information from the readings, videos, and your past assignments (specifically, your short paragraphs on of your own personal values and views toward nature and natural landscapes developed in each lesson) to develop your own “Environmental Autobiography.”

Objectives
This assignment helps you achieve the following lesson objective:

To identify images of important landscapes (e.g., parks, playgrounds, etc.) in one’s past.
To further develop your own values toward nature/landscapes.
To write an “Environmental Autobiography”.
Questions
This lesson requires you to prepare an “Environmental Autobiography.”

We all carry the images and values of childhood landscapes; those environments we encountered, smelled, listened to, explored, and valued during our younger years. The images of these environments affect us in numerous and sometimes subtle ways. Understanding one’s own environmental history provides insight to one’s current environmental values and ideal landscapes. The memorable landscapes of childhood and youth may directly shape adult values by influencing one’s interpretation of current environments.

In this assignment, you are to identify one outdoor environment from your childhood or youth that is important to your own value system and/or is associated with fond memories. Integrating ideas from at least four different class readings, write an essay depicting important and valued meanings you associate with the environment of your past. Briefly identify the environment in both objective (e.g., Where is it? What did you do there?) and subjective (e.g., How did you feel in it?) terms.

The major portion of the essay should be an explanation of your personal environmental meanings that applies conceptual material from class.

Submission Requirements
In this assignment, you are required to develop an “Environmental Autobiography” which allows you the opportunity to express your own personal views and values toward nature and natural landscapes.

All papers should be double spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman) with 1-inch margins and include a cover page.

The text of the paper should be 450 to 500 words in length excluding the cover page and reference page