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.