Introduction
I am officially done with my first semester of sophomore year, and I could not be more happy! I have really enjoyed all our garden visits because I just felt that they have been so much more productive and useful to us, and it has just been a great opportunity to connect more with the MOBOT as partners. I believe that I have made tremendous improvements in my own work as well because I have developed a better relationship with school and how I prioritize my schoolwork. I would love to continue this momentum throughout next semester, and I am really excited to see where the rest of the year takes me.
Before I get into each goal individually, I want to take an opportunity to reflect on our final presentation at the MOBOT. The process of preparing for this presentation I thought went really smoothly. I was a little thrown off by working on Project Scope because I didn’t understand it, but after learning and understanding the importance behind it, the scope was a lot easier. My group really pulled together and got it done well. I was really proud of my public speaking during the presentation and I love how much knowledge is actually behind our project that people just don’t see. In order to complete this project, we had to understand the significance and complexity of culture where plants have been colonized and consider the impact this has on what information to use.
Goal 1 (25%)
1B. Connects and extend knowledge from academic study to civic engagement
- Reflection 1
- In reflection #1 I talk about the role digital storytelling could play in our projects with the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Digital storytelling has been something that as CODES students we have worked on in depth and learned about. We think that with our experience of digital storytelling from last semester can come into play as we design what we hope is digital modules for the MOBOT to use. Below I have attached an excerpt from my first reflection of this semester.
Goal 2 (25%)
6B. Demonstrates sophisticated understanding of the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in relation to history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, or beliefs and practices.
- Implementation Plan
- For the implementation plan, I worked on the data collection section. I discussed a variety of ways my group would like to collect data and how it would be useful to us. Specifically, I said it would be important to collect data from oral histories and focus groups. I believe these methods will provide us with the best opportunity to speak with people and gain a deeper understanding of other cultures and their practices.
- Dear Sean letter
- For our Dear Sean letter assignment, I was tasked with writing the ethics portion. As we know, ethics is an extremely important factor in this implementation process and there are ethical guidelines we will want to follow especially while telling stories of other cultures. See the attached screenshot below.
- Braiding Sweetgrass
Goal 3 (25%)
7B. Pursues knowledge and educational experience beyond the classroom
- This semester, I have really been able to see all the connections between CODES and all of my other classes. Being a history major has actually helped me out if anything because my classes give me context to different times and when thinking about the MOBOT we are talking about historically popular practices. For example, I learned a lot about the Colombian Exchange in both of my history courses this semester which really allowed me insight to how long colonist have been attracted to using plants from the Americas or other colonies for their own benefit. I mean plants were literally one of the main selling points in the Colombian Exchange.
Goal 4 (25%)
4C. Applies knowledge and skills to implement sophisticated, workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives
- My implementation plan shows progress in this goal because I discussed data and discussed why it was important that when collecting our data we are mindful of who we are collecting from and what will be the most beneficial to correctly telling stories that are not ours. Especially when we are looking at a problem such as colonial extractive practices, which is a very complex problem that has many layers dating back to hundreds of years ago.
- Dear Sean Letter
- Like I talked about earlier, I was tasked with the ethics portion of the Dear Sean Letter and I think that section was extremely helpful to this learning outcome because it allowed me to prove that I can recognize ethical concerns and address them while still brainstorming and creating a solution that is workable and ethical.
Goal 5 (25%)
9C. Implements solutions to address multiple contextual factors
- Dear Sean Letter
- Not to make it about ethics again, but ethics do genuinely play such a large role in this class. When I was identifying ethical concerns, and not all of them were addressed in the letter, they all play off of each other. If we fail at addressing one, we are essentially giving ourselves paths to miss other ethical concerns. Identifying and working out the ethics plays a part in every part of the project.
- Reflection #2
- Reflection #2 was a self-assessment following our second MOBOT visit. At the visit we got to share our Dear Sean letters and the other research team also presented their ideas. I felt that it was really helpful to hear what the other research team had to say and what their ideas were because it really opened our eyes to the similarities and interconnectedness of our plans. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the combined class between the two research teams but I would love for us to do it again because I hear great conversations were had and there is a lot we are learning from each other.
