Codes Research Teams Second Semester Portfolio

Introduction

Throughout the second semester, I’ve continued to enjoy the CODES research teams. This semester I’ve had the opportunity to not only get closer to my team but also to our community partners. I feel like this semester we have made a lot of progress as a team in terms of our understanding of what NGRREC does but also in terms of understanding one another. This semester has helped me truly feel confident in my decision to not only participate in CODES but also in my decision to be a part of the NGRREC team. This semester I feel like I have continued to improve myself when it comes to both public speaking and written communication. I also feel that as a team we have become better at collaboration and understanding how to effectively work with each other.

Goal 1 (20%) 

Written Communication

I will use appropriate relevant and compelling language to clearly communicate with my research team, the people at NGRREC, and their social media audience.  

NGRREC Social Media Post

One of my greatest challenges this semester was one of the posts I was assigned to create for a NGRREC staff member. This post was to announce the opening of a new summer position at NGRREC, and when originally assigned the post I was told to create something that I felt would do more damage to our social media presence than good. This challenged me to redesign the post in a way that would not only effectively communicate the job position but also draw our audience in and direct them to our site.

What Was Learned?

• How to condense information for a social media audience
• How to respectfully communicate with superiors

Goal 2 (40%)

Collaboration

I will speak up in class and provide input when appropriate. I will also encourage classmates to collaborate by helping engage them. When working in groups I will be an effective team member who can help our group move forward. 

Final Presentation

For the final presentation, we were challenged with the task of combining all of the information about our new summer internship into one presentation that could effectively communicate with our audience. For this project, we decided to interview each department of NGRREC to determine their main goals before combining our information into a presentation about why their work is important.

What was Learned?

• How to collaborate with a large group for a project
• How to design visually appealing slides
• How to effectively communicate my own opinions
• How to section off a presentation into manageable sections

Goal 3 (10%)

Critical Thinking

I will take the assumptions of myself and others and the knowledge I gain through separate sources to create logical solutions to the problems I am faced with. 

NGRREC Social Media Post

This post challenged me to take the information that I have gained throughout my internship and the opinions of my superiors into account to help me design the most effective post possible.

What was learned? 

• How to effectively format a social media post
• How to condense text
• How to consider others opinions in addition to my own
• How to comprise when it comes to design elements.

Goal 4 (20%)

Informative Literacy / Research

I will effectively determine logical and effective research questions. I will use effective methods to answer said questions and identify multiple possible solutions for each question.

CODES 123 Research Proposal

In the CODES 123 class we were challenged with the task of researching a topic, discovering where current research is lacking, and proposing our own research that would cover the lacking subjects. For my research, I focused on the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault on college campuses. In this proposal, I really wanted to focus on understanding their relationship with different groups on college campuses. During my research, it was easy to quickly identify a group that seemed completely unrepresented in the studies that have already been done, male victims of sexual assault. In all of the research that I did, there was only one study that mentioned the possibility of a victim of sexual assault that was not a woman whose main perpetrator was a male.

What was learned?

• How to identify what is missing in research
• How to take a multitude of different questions and combine them into one concise question

Goal 5 (10%)

Skills for Lifelong Learning

I will look both inside and outside the classroom to deepen my knowledge on the things that interest me. 

CODES 123 Research Proposal

For my research, I decided to research the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault on college campuses. As a student sex and alcohol are everywhere, however many people neglect to question how they interact with one another. In this proposal, I really wanted to focus on understanding their relationship with different groups on college campuses. I also wanted to understand how alcohol consumption could affect those around me.

What Was Learned?

• How to write a college-level research proposal
• How to use SIUE’s Library system
• How to set aside one’s own bias to focus on research