HeidrylB's Site

Letter:

Dear Honorable George Heyman, MLA

Recently, I had done a research project on urban sprawl and it’s effects on us and the environment. Once learning about the effects it has on us and the world around us, I realized that there are many flaws to this system, to the point where the cons outweigh the pros.

I would like to bring to your attention that we are wasting so much energy in continuing to build and encourage low density cities. CO2 emissions are rising unnecessarily due to urban sprawl, thanks to the car inefficiency that it brings. We are losing so much of nature thanks to the acres upon acres of single-home houses. Our drinking water is being polluted. And not only are we wasting energy, we are also increasing our risks of many health issues due to the unhealthy sedentary lifestyle it encourages and causes.

Though I suppose we cannot do much about the currently existing low density cities other than promote energy efficiency as much as possible, I do hope you do come to realize that building more low population urban areas is doing more harm than good.

 

Heidryl B

Port Coquitlam, BC

 

Reflection:

1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your Sway?

• What is urban sprawl?
• What are the pros of urban sprawl?
• What are the cons of urban sprawl?
• How does urban sprawl relate to energy?
• How is quality of life impacted by living in high density cities compared to in low density cities?

2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

• Some familiar tools I used were PowerPoint, Google and Word. I also used Citation Machine, which is a site that I had used previously, but only once or twice, but for this project I tried to use it as much as I could.

Some new tools I used were Creative Commons and Gale Engage. I tried looking around for good sources on Gale Engage, but I found that a lot of them were very wordy and hard on the eyes, so I decided to look elsewhere. (Or maybe I just had bad luck) I had also used QuillBot to help paraphrase some articles so I could understand what they were trying to say, as a lot of them had advanced vocabulary that I couldn’t understand.

3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?

• First, I searched up the very basics of the topic like what it was since I had only heard of urban sprawl once before. And in doing so, I found a few really good sources that covered almost all the information I needed. With the basic knowledge I had acquired, I started to form questions. I wrote all my notes, questions, and sources on 1 Word document, then pasted them into the PowerPoint. To ensure that my sources were reliable, I checked the web address to make sure it was legit, and checked the website’s homepage/about section. I got all my images from Creative Commons, except for the graphs, which came from my information sources.

4) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

• I wish I was able to take more time after school to finish this project/manage my time better, but I was always very tired and lacked the motivation, and now I’ve had to leave some parts unfinished. I wish I could’ve managed my time better so I could’ve put a bit more time into writing a letter, and found a better way to arrange the graphs so that they’d be neater and more readable.