Author: ssheryr (Page 2 of 5)
Youth Education
Dr. Martinez
CODE 122
22 April 2025
Mixed Methods
After meeting with and interviewing Zach at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Academy, we have a better idea of what we are working toward in the coming semesters. We asked questions regarding how the kids at the academy learn and what changes are feasible to their after-school program. There were many themes that emerged, but a few outshone the others. For example, technological advancement was one recurring theme. Zach said on multiple occasions that he’d like to utilize technology and potentially drones to help kids visualize these water conservation issues, “Drones! That’s what I’m trying to get right now. We have a good drone program, it’s probably one of my favorite ones. And I’ve been trying, begging and begging for a thermal imaging drone. And just no luck, no funding… I think stuff like that, that’s easy for kids to understand, where they can automatically pull up a chart, I think is great.” Another theme is activity characteristics for the after-school program. He wants these activities to be hands-on and science-forward. “I think water conservation hits a lot, and science. They’re not the focus kind of test scores. It’s really math and reading, right? So a lot of science and geography teachers are like, well, we need to read more. Or, you know, we need to get these terms so your reading scores go up, or we’ll do the science that deals with more math so your math scores go up. I think science and social studies should go away from that.“ The last theme is what is important to these kids and what they take away when they go home. When thinking about what kinds of activities we’d want to incorporate, Zach wants us to make sure kids are learning about water but also how they can make a difference and improve things in their own community. “Just from my office, I see deer, coyotes, skunks, foxes, turkeys, hawks, eagles, all around here. just necessarily. If you go outside, you can hear chus frogs right now throughout the summer, you love frogs, 24/7 because we’re in the swamplands, right? We’re in America’s floodplains with the Mississippi, right? So that would be one thing, is theology, but that goes back to water conservation as well, because it’s all part of it.” This was important to us and was something we didn’t consider when sifting through potential activities.
Our results relate to our survey because they reflect the responses that we received in our survey and compare to the opinions written by our survey participants. We do believe that the qualitative study aided in filling in various gaps that we expected. The qualitative data added a level of perspective that provided further context to our topics. It also provided a different view on multiple different experiences to elaborate on.
The results supported our initial conclusion that JJK wanted lesson plans that were interactive for students and could be used in afterschool programs or during class. The interview provided us with information regarding what type of activities we could do. JJK specifically wanted activities that involved students being outside and activities that involved urban ecology.
The interview did not reveal any tension or complexity, we believe this to be an important stepstone in our information gathering to help aid. They provided us with information on how we can best help them with finding lesson plans, what they do to keep students engaged, and activities they’ve done in the past.
We communicated well with the teacher we interviewed, however we believe that in order to get more quality information we could have interacted with multiple different teachers. Doing so would provide us with more teachers with more perspectives, and more people to give their opinion on the interview questions. The answers we would have received would be more diverse in nature. We could organize the information and compare it with a number of other previous responses, and possibly averaging out the responses to see if there was a common theme in the transcribing process.
This semester, we conducted our research using various mixed methods, including interviews, discussions, site visits, FaceTime with partners, and lesson research. Doing an interview provided us with a personal point of view from an after-school educator in JJKFan, with which we could better understand what they do and how we can add more activities, as we now have a visual view of what they do and the materials they use. The site visit gave us a physical view of their space, giving us a better idea of what we could do in the school, making it feel more real. The face time we have had over the past few months has helped us build a better understanding as we get deeper into our research on specific topics and activities that our partner JJKFan is looking to incorporate into their after-school program.
Overall, the different methods we have used in research have taught us how to interview and get involved with our partners, and visiting their school has given us new ideas that can work for their after-school program. Now, what we want to know for the future is to review our research and see if what we have gathered will work with our new ideas of a fun, interactive after-school program.
Youth Education
Dr. Martinez
CODE 122
18 March 2025
Lab #2 – Water Conservation Curriculum
One theme emerging in the project is the concept of water conservation. It’s the central theme because water conservation can fall into other facets of water, such as the cleanliness of water, water security, and how water affects human health. One example says that some people have limited access to clean water. One activity regarding aquifers is interactive and talks about things that filter water from underground. Another theme is water usage, which puts into perspective how much water they use, which is what the matching activity is based on.
One group split we saw while researching lesson plans was the split of water topics. In the early grade levels, lessons were mainly focused on the water cycle and planning with fun graphics. Meanwhile, lesson plans for grades 9-12 included water sustainability and water pollution. This was done because water pollution and sustainability are topics that can be easily expanded on and applied at a higher education level. In comparison, the water cycle is a topic that is more applicable to younger age groups since it uses more straightforward concepts that students can understand.
Using the websites provided by Dr. Dexheimer, we were able to find lesson plan one, which was called Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers. The website gives different lesson plans for K-12. Based on the information, they don’t show or provide the type of interactive activities that we and our partners are looking for. They are missing out on fun outdoor activities where the children interact with nature, giving them a more open understanding of nature waters’ importance in the specific water infrastructure and not so much of the water cycle.
The activities we have looked at thus far are helpful. Most of them are games and things we would have enjoyed when we were younger. JJK wants more hands-on activities, which we need to look for more. Many activities are either online games or simple word searches/worksheets. JJK wants students to interact together and with water, plants, etc. For example, the EPA has good resources on watershed education, which would be helpful in terms of community engagement. We may have to consider altering these activities to be more hands-on or looking for new and more engaging activities altogether. It won’t be as easy as going on the EPA website and selecting activities from there. We will have to dive deeper, especially since we need the most hands-on help we can find.
Works Cited
“Drinking Water & Ground Water Kids’ Stuff.” Epa.gov, 2025, www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/kids_k-3.html. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.
“Exploring Your Watershed | US EPA.” US EPA, 7 Dec. 2017, www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/exploring-your-watershed. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.
US EPA, OW. “Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers.” US EPA, 21 Mar. 2016, www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/drinking-water-activities-students-and-teachers.
Youth Education
Dr. Martinez
CODE 122
9 March 2025
Teachers’ Perspectives on Water Conservation Education
Our survey is mainly for teachers and educators. It was created to learn how educators feel about water conservation in the classroom, giving us a more open understanding of difficulties and challenges regarding water conservation and its importance in the education system. It is meant to educate the youth and upcoming generations on water quality and infrastructure because if the children are educated on these issues and resonate with them, they can ensure a better future.
Our survey has 9 questions and consisted of multiple-choice questions, open ended questions, and “select all that apply”. A question we asked was regarding the age group of kids that educators interact with. This would help us better analyze trends according to the demographics provided. In addition, another question we asked in our survey was regarding water topics.
We received 196 total responses. The majority of our responses came from those who interacted with sixth through eighth grade students. These educators think labs and experiments work best for engaging students. Data is evenly divided when asked if they’ve used interactive activities in the classroom, but the smallest proportions of responses said they were extremely familiar or not at all familiar with these conservation education practices.
For those who answered “no”, we inquired about the barriers that prevented them from these activities. This data was spread evenly as well, but as you can see below, it seems like most teachers need money, materials, and are unaware of the urgency of this issue. Talking to legislators about this during System Day will be beneficial.
We asked if respondents were comfortable sharing where they get their lesson plans from. Most of the respondents said they got their lesson plans online or from textbooks, which will be helpful when we work on Lab #2. Here are a few resources we could use:
Common threads among success stories involve personal stories from students that led them to learn more emotionally. Other stories consist of high school students doing volunteer work with local nonprofits. Below are a few success stories we found particularly interesting.
The suggestions portion at the end of the survey was helpful so we have outside perspectives on what they find important. We have been working nonstop on this project for over 6 months now, and we could use the outside opinions on things we may be oblivious to. Examples of their suggestions included documenting water usage in their homes, going on field trips, and incorporating hands-on activities.
The overall design of this survey was concise and to the point. Our use of open-ended and closed-ended questions to receive information from educators benefited our results. One way we can improve this survey is by honing in on our subjects, specifically STEM educators and any other science programs. By doing this information collected will be more exact and targeted to what we are doing in the future with JJK. In addition to improving this survey we can focus on getting a more diverse range of data over multiple student age ranges since most of our data came from school educators.
Sonia Sheryr
CODES 123
Dr. Bradley
April 13 2025
Article Annotation
This article considers water infrastructure and its relationship to political and social inequality, factoring in the effects of rain and floodwater. The author conducted a comparative historical analysis of two separate neighborhoods representing elite and non-elite communities. Both neighborhoods indeed show that water infrastructures influence poverty and inequality. This article shows a different perspective on how water and other environmental characteristics can destroy an elite-driven urban development. Water access ended up becoming an overall key that some neighborhoods became legitimate and others transitory. The elite neighborhoods were granted with reliable water access that was consistent while the non elite neighborhoods were left dealing with their water infrastructure being specifically unreliable and other necessary needs not being sufficiently met.
It was then known that it is absolutely necessary to keep a vital point of view on urban crisis discourse. There can be multiple different processes relating to the environment that end up benefiting some social groups while poorly affecting others. In addition, this all relates to the fact that Port au Prince needs to evaluate not just only on the effects of the growing demand of water infrastructure and the resources that come along with it; but also the inequalities that can affect a variety of social groups in different ways and can create numerous inequalities and how to combat that situation.
The author, Claire Antone Payton, is associated with the University of Virginia. This article consists of multiple research ties and various first-person experiences. It also includes several citations and references, which increases its credibility and reliability. This article contains many different perspectives and variations, and keeping that in mind can influence biases or limitations. This article can be applied and used as a reference in several situations, such as researching past experiences to learn from and prevent them from happening in the future. This can help people get a look at what the situation was, how it arose, the thought process behind it, and the challenges and hardships faced along the way.
Sonia Sheryr
CODES 123
Dr. Bradley
30 March 2025
Article Annotation
This article provides insight into the Gullah and Geechee families and how they represent a narrative of Black life in the United States. Also, how collective land ownership brought the power of opportunities for culture and traditions. To figure out how this work played a factor in the sustainability of Gullah and Geechee culture, interviews were conducted between several nonprofit advocates, social workers, local families, and regional research centers. In 2007, interviews were conducted with nine individuals, and the research method that the author chose was called snowball sampling. Each individual represented families, reflecting various situations and actions being taken to address the problem and maintain control of their land.
The history of past generations and their property describes how Black communities made their own ways and compromises for the better when they were excluded for the future of their own generations. This research article is credible, and the author’s research is associated with St. Olaf College. This research article also includes ethnographic research, a method that focuses on qualitative research. Ethnographic research focuses on the systematic study of people in their natural environment to better evaluate their culture, viewpoints, and perspectives. This research article provides various amounts of information to educate and inform. There could be a bias in this research article due to the interviews possibly being viewed as being focused on the thesis statement regarding cultural outlook.
I found this research article to be very informative, and I gained a lot of information I did not know previously. I learned how crucial it was to understand how land becomes a representation of a family’s health, how to reflect on the success and failure of heirs’ property, and how to pass it down to future generations.
Sonia Sheryr
Dr. Bradley
CODES 123
25 February 2025
Article Annotation
This article is in regard to data cleaning and how it is such a crucial step in research. Another way we describe data cleaning is data transformation because we are just taking the data and preparing it the best we can so it can get analyzed correctly. The article’s authors talked about how data cleaning is vital, but it can also take away important information. At times, we can make hidden choices during data cleaning, which is when we can unknowingly make small changes or “clean-ups” that can have an excessive effect on the dataset itself. Taking out any data, even if it may seem irrelevant or extra, can cause a fluctuation in data results and evaluations.
The authors suggested a method called indexing as a substitute for data cleaning. Indexing would consist of structuring information in a way of a system that separates two topics of information, but they both end up relating to each other. This results in capturing the complete picture and diversity of the information without mistakenly taking crucial information out.
This article is rich in detailed information and elaborates on several viewpoints from different perspectives. This article consists of vital information as it initiates the idea of a substitute for data cleaning, which is indexing. There is a slight bias when the authors state that it is essential that every little bit of data must be conserved and used, but this is not always true for all situations. This article consists of several main ideas and provides even more supporting details. I did not really know much about data cleaning and what positive and negative effects came along with it until this article. This article was a heavily informative piece of writing, and it made me think about the impacts of data cleaning.
Sonia Sheryr
Dr. Bradley
CODES 123
13 April 2025
Reflection 7
In the first section of the article, the author provides a general historical overview of Port-au-Prince’s perspective through hydrological experiences. The rest of the article focuses on the social politics of urban water in the 1970s, which proved to be a time of rapid growth. Concentrating on this and different community areas, including elite and non-elite regions, provides an objective, assertive perspective and keeps the reader fully engaged.
Ideas regarding archival silence or gatekeeping often remind us that these are generally based on people’s firsthand experiences and are influenced by their decisions. These stories and experiences give us a look at the past and influence us to elaborate on the challenges people were facing then and what is being done to prevent these.
Archives that are spread across different locations or are harder to access can result in researchers having incomplete or inaccurate information. This can lead to biases, other limitations, confusion, and incompleteness. If I were looking to use archives in my projects focusing on water or inequality, I’d look for plans regarding infrastructure for water and development in urban areas regarding inequality. I would likely encounter a challenge from archives being hard to access or scattered throughout different locations.
Sonia Sheryr
CODES 123
Dr. Bradley
6 April 2025
Reflection 6
Throughout my interview, I noted the personal experiences because those would be crucial pieces to include and take note of. While analyzing my data, I observed common points that were constantly included and mentioned various times. I followed the overall theme and how the answers related to each other. Data cleaning involves the use of qualitative research and the thought of bringing a new perspective to elaborate on. Data cleaning could be worded as data organizing, since one can analyze the data and structure the following topics accordingly.
Researchers can ensure they retain essential details without losing clarity by including several in-person or hands-on experiences along with quotes that present a new point of view. Whether or not people view qualitative research as reliable is a factor that determines how seriously they’ll take the study. When coding qualitative data, stating the clear topic or underlining the main goal helps create an outline one can follow. Tackling each subject individually as you go is the key to effective coding.
Sonia Sheryr
CODES 123
Dr. Bradley
30 March 2025
Reflection 5
People can act differently around you based on your identity, resulting in biased results. In addition, the way we interpret information can vary based on our different identities. This occurs because we often interpret things based on our previous experiences. In research and studies, direct quotes from those in the communities are vital; this brings direct experiences from people and shows how those can or can not relate to a situation. This can also give a personal perspective and introduce one to think of situations from different viewpoints.
Ethnography brings a new perspective and shares related experiences to understand research better. It provides a deeper dive into the leading topic and brings multiple contexts to comprehend. Ethnography competes with the general knowledge of stereotypes and combats them with honest thoughts and experiences. I definitely would experiment with ethnography in my research because it provides a whole new perspective and a deeper understanding.