This last semester in research team has been one that was bittersweet. My team members, Kasey, Troy, and Evitt were the best possible picks for a group because our team seemed just so effortless and the work we made together and presented to our Garden partners worked. We all found our strengths and used those strengths towards our own wicked problem. My work and collaboration efforts have changed from semester one to semester three. Major part of that being who I’m working with. The most IMPORTANT thing when working in a team is that everyone pulls their own weight, and do so in a timely manner. This is exactly what my team did every. single. time. without fail. This group has honestly spoiled me for the future because now I know how good it CAN be. Moving to next semester, I can’t wait to see where our project will be and I can’t wait to see it inside of the Garden.
1a.) Demonstrates ability and commitment to collaboratively work across and within community contexts and structures (30%).
These two documents display my effective collaborations throughout the semester. My team is very lucky considering we have gotten along from the start, which is one of the main reasons I think that our team has submitted such top tier work.
1b.) Connects and extends knowledge from academic study to civic engagement (35%).
The first piece of evidence is the mock up of our questions to be sent to Garden staff. These questions were sent to Robbie Hart, Ashley Glenn, and Sean Doherty. My team needed insight from our Garden partners to ask their input on certain aspects of our implementation plan. Our group needed insight on where we could find a true Indigenous voice that could speak on the plants from their perspective. We also needed thoughts on how to make our tour inclusive to those blind and deaf.
The second piece of evidence is notes I took from one of our visits at the Garden. My group got a detailed tour of the Native Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and heard all of the stories from Ashley about the ins and outs of each plant along with their uses. I took very detailed notes keeping in mind where our groups would be moving to.
The last piece of evidence is my second reflection. In this reflection, I analyzed and made connections between the feedback heard from other classmates as well as the staff. This feedback was used to help us finalize our product.
4c.) Applies knowledge and skills to implement sophisticated, workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives (5%).
This photo showcases our scope from our feedback received from the Gardens. At first we were going to make a huge tour with all of the Indigneous plants, but then Sean pointed us here to this spot in the MyGuide and explained that it would be very helpful to start with the plants noted in the “Native Plants”. This helped us dramatically to move forward with our new idea in mind.
These are notes that were made during class week that my team met with Sophia to see where our groups overlapped. These were our thoughts on what needed to be tackled at the Gardens the week after when we met with Ashley.
7.) Skills for Lifelong Learning (20%).
Since we did not have any huge writing assignments in our first semester of research team, I decided to pull from our first SA and compared that to our last reflection. My insight and also my improvement in how I write is something to note.
12a.) Helps collaboration move forward by articulating the merits of alternative ideas (20%).
These screenshots are of my conversation with Robbie Hart. I took it upon myself to email staff members with questions that my team and I had come up with to try to make more connections with the staff. Sean also responded, but Robbie’s responses were incredible for our group and very helpful.