What is the purpose? 

• The center purpose of our project is to understand why young adults aren’t engaging in conservation activities and what we can do to help young adults engage in conservation activities. -Zuleyri
• The goal of this project is to determine how to encourage young adults to engage in water conservation efforts in their community – Jaiden
• The purpose of our project is to distribute products that will help young adults become more engaged in conservation. – Ayiana
• The purpose of this project is to work together to fabricate a cohesive and encapsulating display of knowledge over how to get young adults better engaged accompanied by our research that will back it up in a clear and easy-to-comprehend way. – Isaiah
• Our overall purpose of this project was to find ways to get young adults engaged in water conservation and make sure these practices could be used everyday and could be impactful. -Laylah
• The central purpose of our research is to ensure that young adults have the access to information and actions to be able to participate in conservation as they grow into adulthood. We want to be the group to encourage young adults to a path in life that will help them in the long run. -Jasmine 

Who is this project made for?

• This project was made for young adults targeted at 18-25 years old who weren’t/aren’t as educated about water conservation. Also people who need to know more about water conservation and need navigation on where to start. -Laylah 
• Our project is for both our community partner, Heartlands Conservancy, and for young adults in our communities – Jaiden
• Our community partner Heartlands Conservancy -Zuleyri
• Young Adults 
• This project is made for young adults, who is our target audience, as well as Heartlands Conservancy, who is our community partner. – Ayiana
• This project is made for young adults who possess some interest in but hold little to no experience learning about or dealing firsthand with topics related to water conservation or such practices that fall under that umbrella. – Isaiah
• This project is made for young adults here at SIUE and locally ages 18 -25 who don’t have the knowledge , access, resources or motivation for conservation. – Jasmine 

Why is it important?

• Our group project is important because it provides multiple methods of educating people on and reducing the stigma surrounding water conservation. This is crucial to achieving our goal in facilitating the increase of interest or the decrease of factors that lead to non-engagement amid our target population, being young adults ages 18-25. – Isaiah
• This project is important because it can educate young adults on how to contribute to solving problems in their communities. A lot of us are taught about the negative impact of issues such as pollution or contaminated water on our planet, but we are rarely taught what exactly to do about these problems in order to reverse the effects – Jaiden
• The reason why this project is important is because conservation is an important practice that needs to be shared, and there are lots of people who want to be engaged, but just don’t know how to. So, this project will help to bridge that gap between their knowledge and actions. – Ayiana
• Focusing on finding ways to get young adults engaged in water conservation and figuring out those stakeholders is important because young adults have the capability to make a change in society. If we can figure out ways to get them engaged, we can help them build long-term impacts into the environment. -Laylah 
• This social media campaign is important because it helps reach the young adults where they already spend a lot of time and attention. It spreads conservation quickly and in a format that is easy to understand and share. This campaign can create interaction and community by letting people respond, ask questions, and share their own actions. Overall, it turns conservation outreach into something visible, social, and repeatable rather than limited to a single event. – Sam Lee
• Our project is important to allow students access to information , correct habits , and motivation for the future towards conservation that will help them be able to benefit their environment. It is also important for us to provide them with different opportunities to educate on something they may not have thought about. – Jasmine 

What ethical considerations?

• One concern in this project is encouraging young adults to participate in community activities while ensuring that they are willing to help out. We do not want to pressure young adults into thinking that they have to be active in their communities, this should be about volunteering – Jaiden
• Background (such as where a person grew up or how they grew up) etc. -zuleyri
• The ethical considerations are about making sure my posts are honest, respectful, safe, and fair to my audience and partners. I will only share information that is correct and supported. Motivating people ethically is the goal of this project. – Sam Lee 
• The ethical considerations that are important to think about is how our plans will affect the community. We need to make sure we are aware of our actions, behavior, and anything else that can possibly cause unethical conclusions towards the community. – Ayiana
• An ethical consideration of mine is always making sure to inform the people I am interviewing that my podcast project will be publicly broadcasted and only to share information they feel comfortable with. – Isaiah 
• One ethical consideration that I have for this project is to provide a non-pressure inducing environment that facilitates a space of open communication. -Laylah
• One ethical consideration I have for this project is presenting my information and research in a way that is helpful and welcoming and not pressuring. I would not like for my audience to feel any way towards outcomes I have created for them. – Jasmine 

What working practices will you adapt? 

• Since my campaign is about young adult conservation and social media   like the codes and Heartlands project, the best working practices are the ones that keep my content consistent, interactive, and easy to manage within a group. I am going to tie my post to real activities like Jasmine’s event. – Sam Lee
• I am producing a brochure that will allow me to obtain practices such as creating a flyer, distributing it on campus, and informing others. -zuleyri
• The working practices that I will adopt in order to be ready for distribution is to become more organized where I write down my actions and plans in order to stay on top of what I need to do and when it needs to be done. – Ayiana
• I will be using a brochure to display Heartlands to professors at SIUE and a list of professors to show Heartlands who they would most likely benefit from a collaboration with. So it will be important for me to learn to display Heartlands and the professors in a way that is positive, yet truthful. – Jaiden
• Some working practices that I could include in my contribution towards our project is to make sure that the video I create connects to our problem at hand and also making sure that the video is informational so that we can get our problem across but also making it very engaging which is our whole point of our project. Overall, keeping the audience’s attention. – Laylah
• I will ensure that I have a schedule in place to make sure that I complete my project in a timely to conduct all the interviews and still have enough time transcribe and code them.
• Working practices I will adapt will be organizing events with a purpose, communicating with community partners effectively for collaboration, and listening to student feedback. -Jasmine

Initially, this project was intended for young adults 18-25 years old. Which, it still is but I’ve thought about going deeper into the age group/attended audience I’m trying to reach. This project is overall about trying to get young adults engaged in water conservation and to do that we have to figure out who these “young adults”, how we can get them engaged, what/who are the stakeholders, and etc, and after doing many interviews, group meetings, research about those stakeholders my group members and I have found out the answers to these questions. Which brings me back to why I wanted to dig deeper and focus on the specific age group we’re targeting. 

After doing a lot of research on our research question, “How to get young adults engaged in water conservation”, I’ve realized that most young adults do not know much about water conservation because it was not brought to their attention or it simply cannot keep their attention. And since we’re trying to make connections and figure out how to answer these questions realistically, I’ve come to the conclusion that young adults do not know much because as a young child it was not induced or an everyday habit that they were taught about. Which could definitely affect how water is conserved as they get older due to the fact that it’s an everyday essential/need. Knowing this basic fact that young adults do not know much about water conservation because it wasn’t taught to them when they were younger, it helps me think about instead of starting where people have already developed many habits that they’re used to, let’s start early so that they could already have these habits down pact. I’ve thought about the specific age group I personally wanted to reach and that is 10-18 years old. If we help start early on this will help not only ourselves but the environment because change starts with us all, but again if it starts early it could be an ongoing inspiring process for others. 

Now, as I thought about those stakeholders, they are not getting it taught to them and that it’s not something that’s interesting or can keep their attention. I’ve come up with making not only a content based video but a video that’s engaging, interactive, catchy and most likely informational. This type of video will help pull not only their attention but their drive to want to learn more, the drive to want more information. I imagine that it’ll be a video that could get more young adults’ attention to the point where the parents recommend it not only for others but themselves.R

Revising my work will help me foster deeper learning and facilitate meaningful thinking about how my work in CODES may influence work I do in the future. How I will revise my work for this semester and upcoming final project. I will use the given age group and broaden it by people a bit younger than 18. This will help the younger gain important personal, educational, and professional benefits from engaging in water conversation. This helps them develop leadership skills, building environmental responsibility, and gaining practical knowledge. It helps them as agents of change, promote sustainable habits, and connects them to career pathways in environmental fields.

With this information, it helps me broaden my goal of this project. Which is to use a promotional content based video to engage young adults in water conservation. This will help me use an younger audience by shaping new habits. I can use how younger teens use social media and include that informational knowledge in it as well. The message also travels faster this way. Habits are still forming, environmental identity is still flexible, and during this process conservation can become “normal”, not “extra effort”. This can also become an long term impact if introduced early to targeted age group.

During this revision, I had to think about identity and impact rather than responsibility. We have to make sure that the audience doesn’t think of conservation as a “task” or a “chore” that they have to do. Rather than looking at it as a personality trait. That’s where including identity falls in place and there’s still connection. How this will impact my revision will help me gain more information needed on how to get young adults engaged and why they do not know much about it. This also helps me create the content based video that I need to prove this will be accurate and that it will be impactful for not only I, but the intended audience and the message I’m trying to put out.

Codes 320 class portfolio

Your Goal Grade

A Work	B Work	C Work
-Misses one class or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates all readings thoroughly -Makes substantive comments in discussions -Completes all assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Work demonstrates intellectual engagement, care, effort, and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates substantially, contributes to vision, works equally with peers	-Misses two classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates readings -Often participates in discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes most SAs on time -Work demonstrates care, effort and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates equally, completes required work	-Misses three classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Completes most readings -Sometimes adds to discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes at least four SAs -Meets minimal expectations on assignments; shows limited growth in response to feedback -Completes required collaborative work

First-Week Introduction

The goals that I’ve chosen for this semester/year is critical and creative thinking, ethical reasoning, written communication, information literacy, and collaboration. I’ve chose these outcomes to strengthen my critical thinking skills, learn how to think and adapt to different cultures and different perspectives that I’m used to and grow in ways that I’ve struggled in from the previous semesters. I’m excited for all assignments this semester. I feel as if none would be as challenging as it seems if i ask for help and use my resources. Using the resources around me and asking for help and improving on my note taking skills will help set myself up for a successful future.

Midterm Introduction

[Speak about the skills and content you’ve learned during the first half of the semester. What did you most enjoy? What did you struggle with? What goals do you think you’ve most excelled at meeting and what do you want to continue developing during the second half of the semester? What goals haven’t you yet met, and how will you make them a priority in the second half of class?]

Final Introduction

[Now that the semester is over, use your introduction to reflect in-depth on your process. How well did you meet the goals you set out to meet? What did you learn that surprised you? Focusing on your goals for this class, what do you want to remember to take with you into your future courses? What strategies can you use to continue developing toward these goals?]

Course Goals

3b (25%)
Ethical Reasoning: Recognizes multi layered ethical issues and the cross-relationships among them

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
To learn how to apply knowledge through multi-layered problems faced with different perspectives and biases	– Emplace – Small Group Work – Writing workshop day – Class Discussions – Reflection #1	– Being mor engaged – Work revising

2c (25%)
Critical and Creative Thinking: Transforms ideas through synthesizing knowledge from multiple domains

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
Using connections and ideas to compare and contrast and develop the best ways to approach an problem	– Small group work – Professor study hours – Feedback – Emplace plan – Draft of group contribution – Reflection #3	– Accepting criticism – Work management

5b (25%)
Information literacy: Access information using effective, well-designed search strategies and appropriate resources

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
Improve my way of gathering information and the ways I want to ask questions to our partners	– Reflection #4 – Small group work – Dissemination – Writing workshop – Professor feedback (community partners as well)	– Communication – Accepting criticism – Holding myself accountable

12c (25%)
Works independently towards goals by contributing and meeting deadlines

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
By holding myself accountable and finishing assignments on time and meet any deadlines I have set for myself or within my group	– To-do lists – Organization (calendars) – Final project – Group deadlines – Due date reminderes	– Holding myself accountable – Learning time management – Setting and meeting deadlines for myself – Completing to-do lists

13a (25%)
Uses language to skillfully communication with clarity and fluency

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
Learning to be very precise and straightforward and trailing my general message to the audience	– Reflection #2 – Small group work – To-do lists – Professor study hours – Final individual contribution	– Completing to-do lists – Taking advantage of given support

Over the last few months, researching the question “What are some ways to get young adults involved in water conservation?” has been a process that pushed me academically, personally, and creatively. My project focused on gathering real data through interviews and transforming that information into content-based videos designed specifically for young adults. I chose media as my main tool because young adults rely on digital platforms for information, motivation, and awareness. Throughout this experience, I learned that reaching people where they already are online is one of the most effective ways to introduce environmental topics and encourage meaningful action.

A big part of this research involved talking to others, collecting their perspectives, and organizing their ideas into something that could be understood, shared, and visualized. Conducting interviews taught me how to ask better questions and how to listen intentionally. Each conversation helped me see how differently people think about water, community responsibility, and environmental habits. I learned that young adults are not uninterested. They are simply overwhelmed, busy, or unsure of where to begin. Many expressed that simple, relatable, visual content could help them engage more. Hearing this directly from the community made my project feel more grounded and realistic.

Working with other people throughout this process helped me grow in ways I did not expect. Collaborating with team members pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and trust my own abilities. During group discussions, I realized that everyone brings something unique to the table, and that my ideas had value. Creating videos, planning interviews, and reviewing feedback together helped me become more patient, more open-minded, and more willing to ask for help when I needed it. These partnerships also made the work more enjoyable and less intimidating.

Additionally, working with community partners in online meetings strengthened my communication and professionalism. I gained confidence speaking in structured settings, presenting updates, and explaining my research choices. At first, I was nervous to talk in front of people I didn’t know, but over time I became more comfortable sharing my thoughts and contributing to the conversation. This experience showed me that I am capable of representing my work clearly and respectfully. It also taught me how important it is to be prepared, to stay organized, and to follow through on responsibilities.

This project also taught me new things about myself. I realized that I learn best through hands-on work and real conversations, not just reading articles. I discovered that I enjoy creating digital content, especially when the purpose is to educate or inspire others. I also learned that I am more creative and more capable of leadership than I once believed. Seeing how my interviews became meaningful content made me proud of the effort I put in.

Overall, researching water conservation through youth engagement allowed me to combine creativity, communication, and community work. I gained skills that will carry into future projects, and I developed a deeper understanding of how media can influence positive environmental behavior. Most importantly, I learned that even small efforts like videos, conversations, or shared stories, can inspire young adults to care about water and take action.

CODES Group Contract

Group Topic: Young Adult 

Group Member’s Names: Jasmine , Sam, Zuleryi , Jaiden , Ayiana, Laylah, Isaiah

Communication

How will you communicate with one another?

Email , Imessage, Weekly Group Meeting Notes on Word

Where will you store your files so that everyone has access?

Google drive 

Files 

How often will you check in about your work, and what kinds of things will you report? 

Weekly – Every Sunday at least

Report – work progress, next steps plans, and group/personal motivation 

What platforms will you use for collaborative writing? 

Word 

Google Docs 

What rules will you use in your collaborative writing work? 

No plagiarism 

The work load will be divided evenly 

Rough drafts are mandatory 

Ground Rules 

How will you set up a working environment to make sure you are progressing in your work? 

Structure Schedule 

Break down of tasks 

Communication (iMessage group chat)

Weekly Meetings/Factime Calls 

How will you resolve issues or arguments? 

Meetings with DR.M 

Weekly mood check 

How do each of you tend to act in a team and what goals do you each have for collaboration?

Sam – I plan on getting my work done and doing whatever my role is. I plan to stay in constant communication with the people in my group. 

Jasmine – I have goals of keeping my team on track and structured. Writing things down to keep record of everything.

Jaiden – I will ensure that I am ahead of my portions of the project. If anything unexpected comes up in my life, I will keep both my team and Dr. Martinez updated on the status of my sections.

Ayiana – I will get my work done on time and put my full effort into everything we do. A goal I have is to communicate my ideas with my team.

Laylah- I will plan on contributing to the group and meeting group expectations and deadlines. I will communicate any ideas, questions, and comments among group members.

Team Member Roles and Responsibilities – For Implementation Plans, etc

List the name of each team member and what they will be responsible for in the project. This will include their assigned sections, but also what they’ll contribute to the team in other ways. Think about who is in charge of communication, who is in charge of technology issues, who keeps track of the larger vision and makes sure everything fits it, who is responsible for quality control, etc.

Implementation Plan (this is entirely collaborative):

Section 1: Research Questions – who will compile them? (1 person suggested)

Jasmine 

Section 2: Geographic Focus and Stakeholders (2 people suggested)

Jaiden

Laylah 

Section 3: Data Collection (each person will submit section, 1 person will compile)

Sam Lee

Section 4: Implementation (2-3 people suggested)

Ayiana