Jaiden DeBoe

Month: November 2025 (Page 2 of 2)

Draft Outline of 2 Project Ideas

November 27, 2025 /

Group #2: Sonia Sheryr and Jaiden DeBoe


General Project Theme: Water Education


Project Idea #1: How does the type of classroom activity influence student engagement regarding water conservation.
Proposed Research Question: How does passive vs. active learning strategies effect student engagement on water conservation education?
Proposed Hypothesis: When active learning strategies are used for water conservation education, students are more likely to pay attention and participate.
Keywords: Education, Student engagement, Active learning, Water conservation
Found Review Articles: “Alternatives to ‘Chalk and Talk’: Active Vs. Passive Learning – A Literature Review of the Debate”
Found Research Articles:
“Where’s the evidence that active learning works?”
Found SciComm Articles:
“Millions of Views, But Does It Promote Learning?”

Project Idea #2:
How do real world challenges, such as access to clean water, affect children’s mental health and school performance.
Proposed Research Question: Do water equity challenges, such as poor access to clean water or flooding, cause a student’s grades and mental health to decrease?
Proposed Hypothesis: Being exposed to challenges related to water equity will cause a student’s grades and mental health to decline.
Keywords: Mental health, Flooding, Clean water, Academic performance
Found Review Articles: “The effects of household water insecurity on child health and well‐being”
Found Research Articles: “Water, food, and mental well-being: Associations between drinking water source, household water and food insecurity, and mental well-being of low-income pregnant women in urban Mozambique”
Found SciComm Articles: “Making waves: Mental health impacts of inadequate drinking water services”

Midterm Reflection

November 27, 2025 /
  1. Exam. How did the first exam go? What study strategies did you use? Do you think these were useful?
    The first exam did not go as well as I thought it would. Before the exam, I mainly reviewed the Jigsaw Preps and Reading Reflections in order to prepare. These methods turned out not to be extremely effective, as I did not perform as well as I expected.
  2. Grading Contract. Review your grading contract and assess yourself (See the ePortfolio Midterm checklist). Are you on track to earn your contracted grade? Include 5 sources (e.g., participation, project) of evidence to support your assessment. Are there any revisions you want to make?
    I believe I am on track to earn an A. I have performed all make-up work whenever I was unable to attend class, I have completed every group assignment successfully, such as Jigsaws and Research Project Outlines, I have contributed to group conversations, and all my work shows care and effort.
  3. Engagement. We have 2 jigsaws, 2 lectures, and 2 chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass left in the semester. What are 3 things I can do to keep you engaged in the second half of the semester? Group activities, more engaging lectures, and class discussions of Braiding Sweetgrass would help make the rest of the semester more engaging.
  4. Research Project. To what extent do you feel that you and your research partner(s) have been successful on your research project for CODE220 thus far? What are 3 changes you wish to implement moving forward? I believe we have done a good job at describing our research process and finding credible sources. In order to be more successful in the future, we must complete the assignments ahead of time, keep in touch throughout the week, and ensure we all have the same plans in mind.

Week 7 Reflection

November 27, 2025 /
  1. In “Picking Sweetgrass”, Kimmerer encourages us to consider the degree of reciprocity in our transactions.
    a. How adequately do you think our money-based economy provides for reciprocity? (Kimmerer asks herself on page 177, “How do we consume in a way that does justice to the lives we take?”)
    I believe that our modern economy has a lot of shortcuts in order to ensure that the rich and powerful spend less money on goods or services that take a lot of effort from the lower class. For example, Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire founder of companies such as Tesla and the Boring Company, avoids paying taxes by changing his income status. Musk receives salaries from his multiple different companies in the form of stocks and cryptocurrency, which are not taxable. So, technically, his income is $0 a year. Along with that, multiple US companies, hoping to maximize their profits and enrich their owners, often outsource their product manufacturing to
    countries in Asia and Africa, where the people working on the products can be paid less than a dollar an hour.
    b. In what ways might the convenience of all of our “taking” — what Kimmerer sees as the rampant consumerism of modern life — complicate our participation in this reciprocity? The sad truth about being having a lot of money is that it is never enough. As people start to earn more money, suddenly their income goals start to rise. A million dollars a year is not enough, they want 10 million. After a couple years, they want 100 million, and all that money has to come from somewhere. Many of the millionaires in our modern society get rich at the expense of the poor. This unfair distribution is a result of the upper class paying less for a good or service than what it is actually worth. c. What do you think about Kimmerer’s conclusion that “[n]ot everything should be convenient” (179)? Rewards that are easy to earn are generally not as well appreciated if they were easy to attain. For example, designer clothes are not just valuable because they look better than generic store brand clothes, they are valuable because they are difficult to attain. This is why you often notice that people who just recently became rich wear a lot of designer outfits, while people who have been rich for years are less picky about the clothes that they put on. Once you no longer have to put in much effort to earn money, money means less to you, but when you’re working towards a project to get you rich, the money means everything to you. d. How might the rules of Honorable Harvest find adoption in our modern economy? What choices would consumers have to make in order for that to happen? In order for Honorable Harvest to be adapted in our society, our entire food industry would have to go through a drastic change. The food we currently get from crops is done so in a mass harvest that does not take time to acknowledge the life force of the plants. If we wanted to start performing practices, such as asking for permission from the plant, that means fruit and vegetables would be a lot harder to put onto shelves in supermarkets. This change would force consumers to either switch their diets or grow their own produce. e. How might cultural values stand in the way of such adoption? (Recall Kimmerer’s description of early European who regarded the rules of Honorable Harvest as laziness.) Many people may not understand or care about the cultural significance of such practices. Having access to an abundance of food is something that we take for granted nowadays. We do not truly comprehend the idea that the food we eat comes from multiple different forms of life that all play an important role in nature. f. Now focus on how this applies to the question of energy. Kimmerer says, “By no stretch of the imagination is coal given to us” (p. 187). Might the rules of Honorable Harvest be applicable to energy consumption? While the Honorable Harvest only focuses on caring for life energy, its rules can be applied to other forms of energy as well. Practices such as not overusing electricity or fossil fuels in order to save some for others could be done to stop the misuse of energy as a whole. g. What are some of the choices that Kimmerer is asking us to think about in this chapter? One of the ideas that Kimmerer questions is why we buy food and produce in supermarkets that come from animals and plants that are slaughtered at mass. There is no celebration of life or gratitude for resources involved in the process of bringing food to our grocery stores, simply killing in order to get the products that we want and need

Scientist Spotlight (Dr. Danielle Lee)

November 26, 2025 /

I think that many people view their interpersonal relationships as “one of a kind” or “unique to humanity”. Even I was a firm believer in the idea that many aspects of human interactions were not shared by other animals besides primates. However, Dr. Lee’s research has shown that these patterns, such as having more than one partner, are common among bird species as well. These resources also make me think about other human interactions that may be shared among different animals. For example, I once read a research article about other species of animals displaying homosexual tendencies, which shows that they may not be as different than us as we would like to think. My only questions now are “How do other species of animals compare to humans and birds?” and “What other tendencies do we actually share with other animals?”.


Dr. Danielle Lee also explores the idea of hip hop being a good way to educate students on natural occurrences. As a young scientist, she was able to draw connections between her research and the music that she enjoyed listening to. This concept makes me think differently about what it means to be a scientist. While a scientist usually derives their passion for research from a curiosity about the world, these curiosities do not have to revolve around academic topics. As
seen in the TED Talk, many scientists are able to connect their personal life with scientific discoveries in order to make sense of them. Not only does this allow scientists to draw true inspiration from their home lives, but it also allows them to share their findings in a way that can connect with people who have a similar personal life to them.

Reflection #5

November 25, 2025 /

With the semester two weeks from ending, I am finalizing the product that I will present to Heartlands in the upcoming semester. I successfully analyzed the results of my survey and managed to include them in my content assignment. Currently, I am reflecting on my work this past semester and planning for the next one. A lot of progress was made throughout this semester, with my product, my group project, and my solo project. While the two projects are nearly complete, the product itself requires a lot more work, most of which will be completed in next year’s CODES course. 

For my content assignment, I decided to go for two separate products, one for Heartlands and one for SIUE. The first part is a document, or report, of the results of my survey, which will be sent to Heartlands. This will mainly serve as a way to show Heartlands the research that I have conducted throughout the year and what the outcome of this research was. It will include the list of 40 professors, along with their emails, and the course they teach which Heartlands could collaborate in. Each educational department mentioned will also be followed by the chairs of said department. I also plan to add information from the survey responses, such as common responses to short answer questions, or percentages. This information will be displayed in the form of pie charts and bar graphs that can best represent the ratios of certain responses. 

In the second half of my product, I will add a brochure about Heartlands that will be given out to professors at SIUE who teach courses related to ecology and environmental science. Forming a connection between two organizations goes both ways, while the priority in this project is for Heartlands to learn how to connect with young adults, it is also important for the instructors at SIUE to know what exactly Heartlands is. This brochure will include events that Heartlands runs, such as the Jingle Hike Challenge, and people who I personally have collaborated with at Heartlands, like Anna. However, one aspect of this product will require another separate meeting with Heartlands. From the surveys, I discovered that several SIUE professors have ideas on how Heartlands could contribute to the average classroom, such as through giving lectures or networking with students. In order to meet the expectations of both parties, I will need to find a solid middle ground on contributions for both the professors and Heartlands. 

Now that the first semester of sophomore year is nearly over, the culmination of over a year of research is slowly coming to a close. Fortunately, the majority of the brainstorming for my product will be completed in these last 3 weeks. I already have the ideas and the early drafts of my content assignment, so I will be able to focus all my attention on implementing the product next semester. The research I have done on this project has taken a lot of time and effort, but I am excited to see just how successful it will be for me in the upcoming year. 

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