The rationale for the observation assignment is that after studying textbook material, and varying forms of media, seeing and hearing children in real time observation cements knowledge of child development age characteristics. Observation #1 focuses on "The First Two Years" or what is referred to as infants and toddlers. The ideal observation experience is an environment where several infants or toddlers can be observed. This reality was a major reason for the acquisition of the GCC Child Development Center. Students used this campus site, or other community resources for observations. Due to the current pandemic, change may be a necessity. In its place, well chosen videos enable observation data. Professor Baumann Riddle is available for suggestions on suitable videos.It is an excellent idea for students to download the appropriate California Desired Results (Links to an external site.)Developmental Profiles (Links to an external site.) (DRDP). This will help in knowing what to look for!OBSERVATION EXPERIENCE: When performing an observation or viewing a video, it is recommended that one half of the allotted time be used to observe several children of similar age interacting in the environment. This can be followed by a second time frame where one child is selected to be observed. Taking notes the entire time, will enable a RUNNING RECORDthat has rich data from which to compose the required essay. The required follow-up to the observation is a presentation written according to a particular format. It includes a Running Record, where all that was seen and heard was written in "note" form. The essay paper is focused on the Developmental Domains, using the Running Record as a guide, but delving into each item in more detail! There is an Introduction, a paragraph on the Physical Development and Health of infants or toddlers, a paragraph on the Cognitive Development of infants or toddlers, a paragraph on Social and Emotional Development in infants or toddlers, and a Conclusion. You will have a minimum of three papers for each observation follow-up: 1. Cover Sheet; 2. Running Record; 3. Essay paper.Here are some videos provided to use:

Marine Parks: Essay for EvaluationFor this assignment, you will have a chance to practice your skills at analyzing and evaluating an academic article in a short essay. Some important standards to uphold in your essay are clarity, precision, and relevance. More than 20 years ago, my own critical thinking professor said that academic writing should, “Say what you mean, only what you mean, as clearly as possible.” That stuck with me through the years and it is advice that I always hand down to my students. It served me well and it will help your own writing if you remember to apply it. Here are the instructions for your essay:From Chapter 5, read Essay 2, Marine Parks, pp. 116-117. Write a one-page essay (about three paragraphs) that answers the following:1. What is a “marine park”?2. What three reasons does Bill Daly consider for keeping marine parks open? Why does he ultimately reject each of these reasons?3. What does Bill Daly think should happen concerning marine parks? What are his reasons?4. Do you agree with Bill Daly about marine parks? Why or why not?Be sure to organize your essay into paragraphs and use proper grammar and punctuation. If you use any outside sources, be sure to cite them. You may use either MLA or APA if you like. It is also acceptable to simply copy links to your sources at the bottom of your essay, as long as you make clear how you are using those sources. For instance, you might say:“According to Dr. X, …..” or,“In the 2018 article, Such and Such, Dr. X says….”At the bottom of your essay, then, you would just copy in the link to the article so I can click on it for access. You may have professors who emphasize the use of APA or MLA. As such, you could use this essay to practice one of those styles. To be clear, though, what I care about is you showing your sources and how you are using them. I am less concerned with how you do that, just be consistent in whatever you choose. The essay you are evaluating is an excellent example of academic writing. In fact, I think Daly’s is the best example I have seen of a short essay for students at the 2000 level to model in their own writing. As you continue your college career, you will be asked to write more and more. If you are new to academic writing, a good strategy to keep in mind is to simply model the writing style in the materials you read for your classes. You will find most writers have a style. Study it and copy it. Don’t copy the content, of course, (that’s plagiarism) but do model the same tone, organization, and sentence structure. If you do this, you will find that your writing will improve, but also that your own style will emerge over time.Here are some links I found that might help you to further understand the content of this assignment. The Case Against Marine Mammals in CaptivityChange for Animals FoundationWhale and Dolphin ConservationChicago Tribune ArticleEthical Issues & Climate Change: Our Rising OceansFor this assignment, you will be learning about how NASA climate scientists arrive at their conclusions concerning sea level rise and you will have a chance to consider some consequences of sea level rise. You will also see how "climate change deniers" generate their claims and learn about the tactics they use in their attempts to popularize these claims. These are the topics of the Vice News Documentary: Our Rising Oceans. Watch the documentary here:Our Rising OceansRead more about climate change here:NASA: Climate ChangeYou have already learned about the nature of inductive reasoning and that inductive reasoning is the backbone of the scientific method. Some very savvy thinkers have utilized facts about inductive reasoning to attempt to sow doubt about scientific claims as they relate to ethical issues. In the video, you will hear about the Heritage Foundation and its role in generating climate change denial. You will also hear that the same organization helped tobacco companies develop arguments denying that their products cause cancer. Question 2, below, will address their tactics. The following two videos will help you to further understand the "problem of induction" and how it factors into these tactics: Skepticism: David HumeThe Problem of InductionFor this assignment, answer the following questions fully:In “Our Rising Oceans”, you witnessed a conference of “climate change deniers” at which scientific claims about climate change are called into question. What are three things that stood out to you about this conference? Explain.At the conference of “climate change deniers”, you heard a speaker state that “observation claims are not knowledge: they are not universal, necessary, and certain.” What this speaker is referencing is called the “problem of induction,” and this problem is simply a fact of inductive reasoning. In short, if a conclusion depends on our observations rather than on necessary logical relationships, those conclusions cannot be guaranteed. Consider the following:“universal” means true in all cases“necessary” means could not be otherwise “certain” means cannot be doubtedWith these things in mind, it should be clear that there is nothing that we know from experience or observation that is “universal, necessary, and certain.” But does this mean that nothing we “know” from observation or experience actually counts as “knowledge?” That would imply that you don’t “know” whether it is day or night, whether the screen you are reading this on actually exists, or whether you even have a body at all! I don’t think, for most of us, that our standard of knowledge is quite that strict.Your supplementary materials above include two YouTube videos that offer short explanations of the problem of induction for your consideration. Consider what you have read here and what you saw in these videos. Here, then, is question 2:Is the problem of induction sufficient to dismiss scientific claims about climate change? Why or why not? In the documentary, you saw some consequences of climate change that are already occurring in Bangladesh. What are three things that stood out to you from that section of the video? Explain what you found significant about these things.Environmental & Animal Ethics: Research AssignmentFor this assignment, you will have an opportunity to practice academic research. There are a number of ways to begin research, but as a student, your library resources are the best place to start. You have a link to the MDC Library on the left-hand tool bar. Click on this link, then click on "Research Materials & Digital Resources." View the frequently used databases and try searching for topics in the library catalog. There are many resources that are available as full PDF's. To access these or other databases, you will be asked to login using your MDC user name and password. If you have any problems logging in, please let me know.As you find sources that catch your attention, view the works that are cited for those sources. Much of research simply involves following up on works cited. If an article or text has met the academic rigor necessary to achieve publication and appear in your database, you can be sure that the works cited/bibliography page contains the relevant sources you would need to be familiar with if you were interested in writing on the same topic.Another way to begin academic research is by using Google Scholar. Learn about it here:Google ScholarFor many scholarly articles, you need access to a database to view the full text. This is why your MDC library account is so important to you as a student. If you transfer to a university, you will have access to the databases available to students of that university, which will likely include even more sources. Also, university libraries have extensive collections where you can simply find the physical text you need and do your work there in a study area.Luckily, Google Scholar allows you to find a number of open resources as well. An open resource does not require a login and you can view the full text without incurring any charge.To practice academic research for this assignment, do the following:1) Search academic/scholarly resources for materials relates to any aspect of environmental and/or animal ethics that interests you.2) Review your findings in order to locate articles/books that are informative on your topic.3) Submit a document to this dropbox that states the topic that was the subject of your search and provides a citation for no less than 10 sources you found. For each source, offer a few sentences stating what you found interesting about it or what issues it raises that you would like to know more about. You are not limited in your research, but some possible topics are:- environmental justice- sea level rise- carbon emissions- recycling programs- ocean plastic pollution- fracking- fossil fuels- endangered species- factory farms- animal rights