ZGE 4301

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Name/Group Name: All Organic Date: __________

Section: 3CPE-1A

Activity 1
SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Critical thinking involves a set of skills that help us to evaluate information,

arguments, problems, inquires and opinions in a systematic and thoughtful way.

Objective:

This activity is intended to enhance critical thinking and explain how the scientific
method has actually been used to solve scientific problems and evaluate arguments,
inquires and opinions.

Procedure: Select two (2) news articles from the newspapers or online resources about
local environmental issues, development or new discoveries. Analyze and evaluate the
environmental issues or news using the scientific methods. Attached the chosen article
or news and cite your sources.

Article A: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/devastated-by-a-typhoon-community-
foresters-in-the-philippines-find-little-support/

Article B: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220812114038.htm

Based on you selected article answer the following questions:

1. Identify the problem. (You can make your own problem based on the article)

Article A
Problem 1 : Can community foresters restore the destroyed forest?
Problem 2: A bacterial species closely related to deadly citrus greening disease
is rapidly evolving its ability to infect insect hosts, and possibly plants as well.

2. How did they research for the problem? What methods were used?

A. The researchers determine the problem through the process of how the authority
helps the community on rehabilitating their location.

B. The researchers determine the problem through a wide variety of human activities,
on both land and ocean. The methods used by the researchers are Mesoamerican Reef

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case study, Quantifying N Pollution from multiple sources, Estimating N discharge, and
Assessing habit overlap.

3. What are the hypotheses?

a. let the communities strengthen and fortify their environment  

b. Stop cutting trees and start planting new ones

c. Rehabilitate the destroyed forest

There is no quantify relative contribution between;

A.leaching crop production,
B. runoff from livestock production,
C.sewage wastewater generated by permanent residents and tourists to N
loading in each watershed basin of the MAR region,
D. the extent to which these excess nutrients overlap with coastal ecosystems.

4. What are the experiments made?

a. The researchers started an experiment that allows the people in that

community to rehabilitate a lot faster than usual and also with the help of the authorities
and other natural personnel.

b. The Research was implemented to track the source of nitrogen pollution that
are affecting the barrier reef. When the research was first conducted, in tropical system
such as coral reefs in which it has much poor nutrient waters and therefore they
adapted to their conditions.

5. Did the experiment prove or disprove the hypothesis/es?

a. The experiment was approve for it is supported by the hypothesis because the
rehabilitation of their community was a lot easier if there are the only the one
doing it so by allowing more authorities and personnel to help the is much
efficient.

b. As they are continuing their research, they rejected their hypothesis in which
case that leaching crop production, leaching crop production, runoff from

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 livestock production,sewage wastewater generated by permanent residents and
tourists to N loading in each watershed basin of the MAR region, the extent to
which these excess nutrients overlap with coastal ecosystems. Truly affects the
barrier reefs.

6. What is/are the conclusion/s?

A. After the researchers observed and finished their experiment, they can
conclude that the experiment about rehabilitation as their priority solution to
fix their destroyed community was a great response to the calamity. In
addition, they also said that if another big one hit them and 60% of their area
is still destroyed then no further improvement happened to their community.

B. The results are indicative of the complexity of the pollution issue -- even land
use changes and agricultural expansion very far inland can have impacts to
marine ecosystems Additionally, the researchers found that high biodiversity
habitats were more exposed to plumes originating from smaller, coastal
watersheds. And while tourism represented a very small proportion of the overall
pollution, the watersheds that contributed the most pollution tended to also have
high number of tourists or be near those that did.

References:
University of California - Santa Barbara. (2022, August 4). Tracking nitrogen pollution:
Researchers trace the source of nitrogen pollution affecting the world's second largest
barrier reef. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 22, 2022 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220804145629.htm