Water in the California desert Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Water in the California desert - Research Paper Example As the climate continues to change the appearance of the planet,those who inhabit it, are faced with the various issues that come with such changes occurring in the first place. In times of considerable rain occurring,the concern becomes the potential flooding that would require specific plans in place,in order to aid those most affected. The same would also be said in instances were there would be a lack of water in the given environment that would also lead to problems that would need to be addressed in order to aid the general populous in the surrounding area, as well as any other regions that may be impacted. One such region to consider, in terms of discerning as to whether or not they would have a noticeable issue with water, would be the southern part of California.Different factors would be in place, in terms of assessing the situation in its entirety and determining whether or not the area of Southern California, would in fact have an issue with water availability. In terms o f describing the region of Southern California, "California's 25,000 square miles of desert can be divided into two basic zones; the Mojave, or high desert, and the Colorado, or low desert. Each of these areas contains unique fauna and flora, as well as other natural resources that make them an important part of California's present and future. California's deserts are home to two National Parks (Death Valley and Joshua Tree), a National Reserve (East Mojave), and California's largest state park, Anza- Borrego," ("California's", p.1). With the above mentioned importance that this region of California would have, it would remain essential to answer any problems that may arise for the area, which in this case, would be the issue of water shortage. Different organizations would be in place, with the essential purpose of gauging the water levels present within their locale. In the case of Southern California, according to testimony provided by the chairman of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, in his testimony before a Senate committee handling such an issue, the director would outline what he felt were the issues facing the region, in testimony that would go toward the assertion that, in terms of a potential water issue for the region of Southern California, they would in fact be facing such a problem. In terms of describing the group that Timothy F. Brick would represent, "Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the nation's largest provider of imported water to an urban area. The population in its service area is more than 18 million, and it is projected to rise to 22 million by 2030. Metropolitan is comprised of 26 member public agencies that service an area spanning 5,200 square miles and six southern California counties," (Childs, 2007). As an organization that would represent a wide a rea and would service multiple counties within the region of Southern California, in terms of making the assertion that there would in fact be an issue with the availability of water in the area, they would be an organization that would know what they were talking about. In the period of time just before the Director would give his testimony, the area of Los Angeles alone, would have received an alarmingly low amount of rain, which in turn, would have translated into an issue for the overall water supply. From a political standpoint, the Governor for California would set forth with a plan to handle the continuing issue of water deficiency that areas within the state, such as California would continue to see. As those involved would allude to, there would be methods possible in the process toward remedying the issue and seeking the best possible outcome. In terms of the political legislation suggested from the state level, "The plan is comprised of four policy bills and an $11.14 billion bond. The package establishes a

APA Research Paper on State Standardized Testing for eng 102 class

APA on State Standardized Testing for eng 102 class - Research Paper Example The response to the questions from all the students is given in a consistent way by all the students. The conditions and the procedures for tackling the questions are also consistent among all the students. In addition, the tests provided are often standardized, that is to say they must be according to the education level and knowledge of the students [Moon, Brighton and Hall 2007]. State standardized testing is common in the schools in the US. However, the practice is accompanied by several problems or challenges. One of the challenges or problems caused by the practice is that it results in frustration and resentment among gifted learners in the educational institutions in the US. In most schools in the US, state standardized testing is a common practice. In schools, there are several students with different abilities. Schools comprise of physically challenged children, mentally challenged children, slow learners, medium learners and lastly the special group of gifted learners. Tho ugh there have been a lot of criticisms of the US, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has forced the standardized testing in public schools. Standardized tests are often prepared by very talented people who believe that the level of mastery among all students is the same or similar. These people often prepare the test with the aims of testing the knowledge of a student in a certain subject in relation to the knowledge of other students in the same subject. They also test a student’s strength in a certain paper for example mathematics as compared to the student’s strength in a different paper for example science. However, this comparison of the knowledge levels among different students of the same grade level has resulted in frustrations and resentment among the gifted students as earlier mentioned. Gifted students in institutions are students with good memory, high understanding ability and are therefore fast learners. The standardized tests also do not measure to the quality of education that is always expected of the students, [Popham 1999]. In educational institutions where the standardized testing system is practiced, teachers often concentrate so much on the performance of their institutions. Therefore, they tend to concentrate on all students in the classroom. A class consists of students with different abilities. When a teacher concentrates on all the students at ago, this is a great disadvantage to the gifted learners. First, the pace of learning becomes slow as opposed to the expectations of the gifted learners. The slow learning is due to the other physically challenged children, mentally challenged children and the slow learners present in the same class whose pace of understanding is very slow. The learning system also becomes repetitive because the teachers often prefer to re-emphasize on the weak areas of all the learners as shown by their outcomes or results in the standardized tests. The repetitive learning also is a disadvantage to the gifted learners who prefer fresh and new challenging tasks other than the same old content. The slower pace of learning and the repetitive learning is due to the emphasis on the state standardized testing system and this has at a greater level caused frustration and resentment of the gifted learners in the education institutions in the US. "Standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of