About

About Me

My name is Ashraf Al Shafaki. I consider myself an amateur ecologist. I have no degree in ecology or biology. I have a BA in English Language and Literature from Cairo University. I am an Egyptian guy living in Cairo, Egypt.

I do have a deep passion for nature and love of anything related to life and living organisms. I am particularly interested in ecosystems and how knowledge of ecology and ecosystems can inspire and inform solutions for our current urban crises.

I hope that one day I would be able to switch my career from being a Corporate Soft Skills Trainer to a career related to ecology, biology and nature.

I love receiving email! Drop me a line at ashraf.shafaki@gmail.com.

About this Blog

Purpose

This blog is an adventure into the ecology textbook Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems. I am using this blog to accompany my reading adventure of the textbook.

Every day, I read one page in the textbook and summarize the main points then blog them here to share them with the world of ecology students and enthusiasts. By doing so, I believe this will help me better digest the knowledge contained in the textbook and perhaps also help me in the future connect with others whom are interested in studying ecology as they stumble upon this blog.

Method

I am using the SQ3R method in studying this textbook:

1. I first survey the part I am about to read,
2. then write down questions in my mind about that part,
3. I then read it,
4. after that I try to jot down main ideas I remember from that part
5. and finally I review the text I had read in order to fill in main information that I had missed out

Structure

In the blog I structure each post into three parts:

1. Questions: I have been asking myself before reading the page in the textbook
2. Digest: A summary or "digest" of that part after having added to it or modified it during the review stage.
3. Thoughts: I add my own thoughts that might include reflections on what I have read and perhaps applications of it in real life and on our present life situations

I hope you would find this blog useful. I hope it helps me connect with many ecology enthusiasts, researchers and students!

Update

I have recently modified the structure of a blog post and the method I go about writing it. Finding that the SQ3R method consumed so much time and that the structure I used might not be the most interesting one for readers, I've come up with a simpler, yet hopefully more interesting, approach. I now read a section in the book and simultaneously write down in the blog any thoughts that pop into my head about what I am reading the textbook.

Update 2

I have now changed the name of the blog from Ecology Book to Habitat Bliss. Instead titles from the textbook as titles for my blog posts, I am now using new titles that I create for my blog posts independent from the titles of the sections of the textbook that inspire such posts.