Meg Clarke

There is no answer sheet or right answers because all depends on where you live – you’re encouraged to find out! Hopefully something to interest everyone in here, though some might find much of it simpler than others.

‘You live in the big ‘Here’. Wherever you live, your tiny spot is deeply intertwined within a larger place, embedded into a whole system called a watershed, which is itself deeply integrated with other watersheds into a tightly interdependent biome. At the ultimate level, your home is a cell in an organism called a planet. All these levels interconnect. What do you know about the dynamics of this larger system around you?’ (K. Kelly)

1. Point North
2. What time is sunset today?
3. Trace the water you drink from the rainfall to your tap
4. When you flush where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water?
5. How many feet above sea level are you?
6. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here?
7. How far do you travel before reaching boundary of a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours?
8. Is the soil under your feet, more cay, sand or silt?
9. Name 5 native edible plants in your neighbourhood and the seasons they are available?
10. From which direction do storms generally come?
11. How many people live in your watershed?
12. Who use the paper/ plastic recycled from your neighbourhood?
13. Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move?
14. Right here (where you are now), how deep do you have to drill for water?
15. How many days was last year’s growing season here (frost to frost)?
16. Name five birds that live here and three which migrate to and from here?
17. What was the total rainfall here last year?
18. What is the main pollutant in the air you breathe here?
19. Name three wild species that were now found here 500 years ago?
20. Name one exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years?
21. What minerals are found here that are, or were, economically valuable?
22. Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated?
23. After the rain runs from your roof, where does it go?
24. Where is the nearest wilderness?
25. How many days until the moon is full?
26. What other cities on the planet share your latitude?
27. What was the dominant land cover pant here 10,000 years ago?
28. Name two places, on different continents, that have similar sunshine/ rainfall/ wind and temperature patterns to here?