Your Goal Grade
| A Work | B Work | C Work |
-Misses one class or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates all readings thoroughly -Makes substantive comments in discussions -Completes all assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Work demonstrates intellectual engagement, care, effort, and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates substantially, contributes to vision, works equally with peers | -Misses two classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates readings -Often participates in discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes most SAs on time -Work demonstrates care, effort and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates equally, completes required work | -Misses three classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Completes most readings -Sometimes adds to discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes at least four SAs -Meets minimal expectations on assignments; shows limited growth in response to feedback -Completes required collaborative work |
First-Week Introduction
I chose my five goals because they all showcase things I feel that I struggled with in the previous semester. I want to work harder to achieve these goals and to improve as a student and a researcher. The assignment that makes me the most excited this semester is the 2nd lab where we get to go out and conduct our own research, instead of using other people’s. I think it will be fun and will serve as a way to get first-hand research experience. The one that I think will be the most challenging is the 1st lab, just because I think it could be hard to get people to want to participate in the surveys. To make this semester a success, I want to focus on working hard and keeping on track while not burning myself out like I did last semester. I will remind myself to take breaks and take care of myself while also having my work done as well.
Midterm Introduction
During the first half of the semester, I learned a lot about researching and surveying for information. One thing that I would say I enjoyed the most was when we were able to get all of our information together to originally create the survey. Even though we had to revise the survey before being able to send it out, it was still something that we got to make ourselves and I was proud of that. One thing I’ve struggled with has been knowing all the information needed to do the work as some of the assignments lied upon other factors that took longer than the time originally allotted. However, I was able to work through it and get the work done to the best of my ability. Throughout the second part of the semester, I want to continue working on achieving my goals and furthering my education through this class.
Final Introduction
As this semester comes to a close, I’ve learnt a lot about doing hands-on research and actually getting in the field. I never knew that there would be the setbacks, failures, and successes that we made as a team but I feel like they were all a part of the research process and contributed to how we grew through our research, the class, and with each other. Though there is always room for improvement, I do feel as if I did my best and what I could to meet my goals that I set out to meet and for future courses I hope to continue to do the same, if not better.
Course Goals
Goal 1 (25%)
Based on 1a: I will showcase that I can work with my peers on different projects surrounding parts of our community.
Choose five goals from the CODES Student Learning Outcomes that you’d like to work toward. Choose goals that are relevant to the scope of this course, select artifacts/examples based on activities assigned for this course, and explain characteristics in a way that illustrates how your artifacts/examples demonstrate your progress toward the goal.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| I will communicate effectively with my groupmates as well as help to create a effective and cohesive final product for whatever we are working on. | Discussion Leading Research Lab 1 Research Lab 2 Research Lab 3 Group Meetings/Discussions | Discussion Leading – We would have a cohesive plan for the discussion as well as discussion questions to get people talking about the subject Research Lab 1 – I will help my team conduct the seurveys as well as gather and organize the information from them Research Lab 2 – With the environmental sampling, I will help organize the data collected as well as help decide where the data can be collected from Research Lab 3 – For whichever type we choose to do, I will help conduct the research and compile it into our final project Group Meetings/Discussions – I will help come up with ideas to move forward with any plans we have |
These are both examples of me communicating in my team’s groupchat and giving them updates on the things I was assigned to do. I also helped to make sure that everyone’s voice was heard when making decisions for the group.
This is my portion of the ethnography that the group conducted for Lab 3. I helped to conduct the research and even though I was not there in person when it was orginally put onto our final project, I still helped to compile the data into one place for everyone to see and use.
In this example from my group’s discussion lead (Source Analysis 3), I have my notes for the summary as well as the questions that I planned on asking the group. I did this so that we would have a general guideline for what we wanted to talk about relating to the source material as well as questions to keep the group on track and thinking about the topic.
This was my group’s poster that I created for SIU System Day. This is an example of how I organized the data and responses from our survey in Lab 1 to create a cohesive project that showcased our work and the responses from residents of East St. Louis
Goal 2 (20%)
Based on 10c: I will use relevant mathematics and data to answer research questions and support my ideas.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| I will keep track of any data that myself or my groupmates collect and I will research for other relevant pieces of data to use in defending our claim. | Research Lab 1 Research Lab 2 Final Project Source Analyses | Research Lab 1 – I will organize the data we collect from the surveys to make it easier to observe Research Lab 2 – I will quantify the data we get from the readings and help to correlate it into our final project Final Project – I will be in charge of the data and quantitative research that we do and will organize it in a cohesive manner Source Analyses – I will use the source/sources that we choose to assist us in further quantitative research |
This is an example of a few of the results from our Qualtrics survey (Lab 1). Instead of having to navigate the Qualtrics menu, I had the data organized onto an Excel spreadsheet to make it easier to both share and analyze.
For Lab 2, we conducted both soil and water testing at the lake behind Founder’s and Alumni Hall. During this testing, we found that a lot of the water and the soil are mostly fine for animals and humans to exist around it but there are still things to be desired. With this lake being small and mostly served/upkept by people in the community, it makes sense for these numbers to be in a safer range. My group took these numbers when we went to conduct our ethnography and found that when there are areas that are not as kept up with, the water and soil quality decreases significantly.
In this example (Source Analysis 2), I analyzed the video and article given which were about grassroot organizations and how they can lead to bigger events happening that can help the local communities. This was important to my group and our project as we were able to take the information about grassroot organizations to guide our projects.
During the Final project, I was in charge of putting the data from the survey (Lab 1) and the ethnography (Lab 3) onto the Scrollytelling. I presented this and used the quantitative data to defend our findings that the main reasoning why many people aren’t out in greenspaces are because of lack of federal funding to the parks.
Goal 3 (20%)
Based on 12c: I will work to stay on track and turn things in on time to further support my peers.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| I will keep on top of my work and turn my assignments in on time | Source Analyses Research Lab 1 Research Lab 3 Final Project | Source Analyses – I will email my source analyses to Dr. Shea without a reminder after the due date Research Lab 1 – I will make sure that we get a proper amount of response the in the allotted time Research Lab 3 – I will make sure that we get a proper amount of response the in the allotted time Final Project – I will make sure that my team’s work is complete and concise by the due date so that we have a cohesive presentation |
In this example, I am emailing Ms. Andrea Barajas in order to get more responses for our Qualtics survey. As we weren’t able to get the responses needed by just sharing on social media, I reached out to her to see if she had any connections in the East St. Louis area.
For Lab 3, we had a lot of difficulty when it came to scheduling when we did our ethnography. Due to this, the process of going to conduct it was delayed. Eventually, however, I was able to help figure out a time where everyone would be available and there would be people at the park to observe.
For my Source Analyses, I submitted each of them onto my Eportfolio either before or on the due date. I was able to do this by staying organized and on top of my assignments and therefore was on time with my work and grades.
When working on our final project, I found that there were many underlying issues that I felt would lead to the presentation not getting completed/not being as concise and together as it should be. To remedy this, I worked to motivate those who I felt weren’t contributing as much as I knew they could be and ensured that when we presented on the final day, that everyone knew what we were presenting on and about.
Goal 4 (25%)
Based on 4b: I will use my research to inform people of issues in the community and find solutions to the core problems that are causing those issues
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| I will use effective research questions to learn about the topic and then use that knowledge to educate the public and work towards solutions | Discussion Leading Research Lab 1 Research Lab 2 Research Lab 3 Final Project | Discussion Leading – When it’s my turn to lead the discussion, I will focus on trying to educate the rest of the class as we present Research Lab 1 – I will use the surveys to access what people already know so we can further educate them on what they don’t know Research Lab 2 – I will use the data from our research to educate people and prove our argument Research Lab 3 – I will continue to see what people still need to learn and attempt to get them athat knowledge in the best way possible Final Project _ I will present solutions in a clear and concise manner |
In this example, I have the questions I wrote for my group’s source analysis Discussion Lead. My goal when writing these questions was to get people to think about the specifics behind the Cahokia mounds and really get them to think about possible reasons/solutions rather than just repeating information they saw in the video.
These are some of the responses to our survey in Lab 1. The question was asking why they are or aren’t satisfied with the greenspace in their communities. The reason we decided to ask this was so that we could take these responses and see what we could do to help these people get the opportunity and the want to be back into greenspaces.
When presenting at SIU System Day, I incorporated Lab 2 data into the presentation and our planning for the future. Since the soil and water testing had gone well on the lake on SIUE’s campus, and we knew that people and animals were able to use and gather by the lake, the group knew that that could be a way to get more people out into the greenspaces of East St. Louis that we were trying to focus on. It would give them a reason to be out in those greenspaces rather than staying inside.
During our ethnography, my group was able to observe the actions of those in specific greenspaces (Lincoln Park and Frank Holten Park), or rather the lack of them. Most parts of both parks were devoid of people and activities and although we could find reasons why (lack of upkeep, dangerous area), we were also able to find out that the people who were there knew what they wanted to do. My group took that into consideration and when planning for what we can do for the future when trying to bring communities back into our greenspaces
Before starting on the final project, the team spoke with a representative from the JJK Foundation and we spoke about how we could potentially work with them in an upcoming semester on a tree planting project that they’re working on. I wanted to represent this opportunity in our final project as a way to lead into what we were looking forward to and hoping to accomplish in upcoming semesters. This also provided potential solutions and/or ways to get to more solutions when it comes to bringing more people into greenspaces.
Goal 5 (10%)
Based on 6c: I will not judge or put down people just for not believing the same things as I do
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| I will stay open-minded and considerate of other people’s views | Research Lab 1 Source Analyses | Research Lab 1 – I will not force people to participate in the surveys nor will I shun them for not knowing certain things Source Analyses – I will analyze different sources in an unbiased manner and give all beliefs the same open-minded opinion |
In this example (Source Analysis 2), I wrote that I agreed with what the video and article were saying about grassroot organizations. As it has been proved in the past, they are helpful when it comes to making change in the government and in local issues/events. Although I personally agreed with what the video was saying, during the discussion I was still open-minded about what others had to say and their opinions.
In our survey (Lab 1), I didn’t want to assume that everyone knew what greenspaces were or what they were used for. So, at the beginning of the survey, I added our definition of what greenspaces were so that everyone was on the same page. In addition, all questions, except for those that made the responsee eligible for the survey, were optional and could be skipped if the person didn’t want to answer it.