Month: February 2024

Evitt Nashed

February 26^th, 2024

      The interviews we had to give as a group were based on freshman athletes that go to SIUE and the main question our group had was if written notetaking or electronic notetaking is better. We had a hypothesis of digital notetaking being the higher outcome. Our group had a feeling that digital notes would be the most used for athletes since it’s the easiest way to access notes.  I decided to give out my interview through Snapchat because the person I was interviewing was pretty busy with their sport. I decided to interview Cullen, a freshman track athlete, through Snapchat since I’ve known him for a while and know his background. I asked him a series of questions and had him give me his response. The questions the group made were very detailed to get a clear response.  He talked about how student-athletes would more likely use digital notes because it can be the fastest and most reliable way to access notes. In his interview, he also talked about how SIUE can offer nice resources to students if they are struggling with classes. He mentioned study groups as an option to help with their studies and to set strict time on just studying. I felt very comfortable interviewing him and sending him the questions because he’s a fellow friend from my CODES class. The experience of interviewing Cullen was pretty good and easy since it was through Snapchat and he answered all the questions.  It was complicated transcribing his response since Cullen and his roommate couldn’t take it seriously, which made Cullen lose focus. Cullen did get all the questions answered successfully though.

   To conclude, I felt as if I could’ve interviewed Cullen in a better way. I feel like in-person would have been a better option because then his roommate wouldn’t be distracting him. Other than that, I feel like this interview went successfully.

Evitt Nashed

Dr. Smith

February 25, 2024

     Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a wonderful speech about how a single story can cause risk. She first starts by talking about her life living in Nigeria, how it was always sunny, and how they ate lovely mangos. Her family came from a very poor village that offered local food and help. She explains the trials and tribulations of her life and connects them to how one perspective of a story can change everything.

      Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about how if we only hear one side of the story, we don’t have the full understanding of the story since all perspectives weren’t put into place. For example, she talks about a neighbor she had in her childhood that her family described only as poor. She only saw that family as poor and nothing else. Once she went to their house, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie realized that the family had certain skills she never knew about. This plays into not knowing the full perspective of a story. She never knew her neighbors were traditional makers, but instead knew them as just poor.

   This TED talk that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave can inform us that many stories matter when it comes to research. We can use this TED talk as a guide to inform us that we should include different sides of the stories when conducting research.

    To describe myself from my perspective, I think I’m a very laid-back person who doesn’t judge other people. I also think I’m a very dependable person when it comes to projects or even friendships. You can always count on me to give you useful advice for anything such as relationships, work, etc.

   Now, other people might have a different perspective on me. For example, an enemy might have a negative side of the story about me. They might think I’m an awful selfish person who has no good morals. Just a random person observing me might have a different perspective about me. They might think I’m rude or judgmental of others just by watching me sit on my phone with my headphones on because I’m not socializing with others. Another example of someone with a different perspective about me would be my parents. They might think I’m a troublemaker who tries to hide things from them because I’m the first child going to a university, but I’m nothing like that, and I’m more of a chill-at-home-and-watch-movies type of girl.

  Having other people’s perspective be the definition of yourself wouldn’t be quite fair to yourself and your side of the story. I think it’s fair to include everyone’s perspective about a person and to not exclude others. Having a good full knowing of a story from other points of view is a lot better than depending on one point of view.

Evitt Nashed

Dr. Hildebrandt

February 5, 2024

Indigenous Knowledge in the Herbarium

        All of CODES class went to the Herbarium at MOBOT to do research on their group projects they did last semester. These groups were to apply their knowledge from their Digital Project to the research we were doing with the archives provided.  Kadynce, Kasey, Troy and I had the group of Indigenous knowledge in the Herbarium. We were to apply the knowledge we knew about indigenous knowledge to the archives that were related to it. We had multiple archives provided from the researchers to go with our group. I really had a very fun, informational day at the herbarium! It was very interesting to know the history about some of the plants.

     The documents that were provided for us were informative about all the different plant species, the causes, location it was found, the description of the plant, etc. Some things these pressed plants had in common was the description of the plant. They all provided very descriptive information about how tall the plant can be, the genus, the color, what climate it’s best fit for, etc.

   (This picture shows the full name of the plant, description, where it was found, etc.)

    These documents provide such useful information for researchers and botanists, but they also can miss some information that can give us good context of the plant. These botanists go to different countries to explore plants for their job and to give as much information as they can. The botanists are the only ones that are “heard the loudest” because they don’t really include other opinions or how these plants could be used in an indigenous way.  Some voices that are silenced would be the indigenous people living in the area these botanists do research at. One researcher from the MOBOT quoted that there is “One voice in a whole country that’s heard.”  These botanists only identify in their perspective and not others.

    The big question is how can we as CODES research members fill this gap of silence? The main way is we can use these building blocks the botanists provided and conduct an interview with indigenous people and how they use their plants. These indigenous people deserved to be heard in their practices of using plants. It is important to get their perspective on a plant because they can be using it in a more beneficial way these botanists never knew about. There might even be a different name they use to identify these plants.

     To end it all, I have learned from this archive trip that botanists can be biased with identifying plants. It is all told in their perspective and not other people. It is important to include the information the indigenous people provide because they can give us useful information on how they use the plant, the name, etc.