Template for a Class Portfolio

Introduction

My first semester was sort of a whirlwind of emotions. When I started the research team class, I just dreaded it every week. I had no idea what we were getting into every Thursday and overall just left the class more confused with our goal every time. I was very good at keeping up with assignments though for a while. But one week I got sick and it felt like I was miles behind everyone in every class. It definitely took me the longest to recover for the research team. The essay for MC2 just seemed like something I would never be able to do and I had a few source analysis’ stacking up. All of my confidence and organization I had at the beginning of the semester was gone.

However when my research team was combined with Dr. Hildebrandt’s, everything just started to make a lot more sense. I stopped dreading the class every week, and finally understood what MC 2 was supposed to be about. I think the fresh start with a mostly new group was what I needed. Even though I came in at the end, I feel like I fit right into the new research team and really excelled at our little bits of group work at the end.

Goal 1 (20%)

Helps collaboration move forward by articulating the merits of alternative ideas

Iris Showcase and Groupchat

This was the most memorable collaborative experience so far. This was a 4 person presentation in front of a lot of scary people. Typically I hate presentations, but I feel as if my group of Kadynce, Kasey, and Evitt really just made everything chill. Typically on group presentations I hate to be the opener or closer just because they are usually what people remember most, but for this, I was elected to be the closer and I accepted it. We had time to work in class but we also had to make edits out of class so we made a group chat. Unfortunately it was on snapchat where you cannot see messages unless you save them but I have proof of its existence.

Showcase

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18LIW935GcWp0gvvs19cJ480xGRF0Qon0Qvkt8akgafE/edit?usp=sharing

Group Chat

Goal 2 (20%)

Uses clear organizational patterns and is skillful at presenting content cohesively

Iris Center Showcase

We only had one presentation this semester, but it was a big and scary one in front of a lot more people than I was used to. It was a group presentation with Kadynce, Kasey, and Evitt. I have never been a fan of presentations, they make me overly anxious and my anxiety often shows during the presentation itself. However this presentation went very smoothly in my opinion as we all worked together and practiced MANY times. We all worked together to make sure all of our slides made sense together and smoothly transitioned to each person. The only flaw I had was that I worked very hard to memorize my lines so I wouldn’t look down at my note cards. Unfortunately the anxiety did get to me however, because I did have to look at my cards, but other than that, I was very proud of our presentation.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18LIW935GcWp0gvvs19cJ480xGRF0Qon0Qvkt8akgafE/edit?usp=sharing

Goal 3 (20%)

Demonstrates a thorough understanding of context, audience, and purpose

Multimodal Compositions

Both of these essays were a difficult task for me. It took me quite a while to understand what I was supposed to do for both essays. But once I did, I feel like I steamed through them with ease and think they demonstrate my understanding of the prompt and they actually sound like I know what I am talking about. MC 2 was definitely the bigger struggle for me due to missing the introduction day because I was sick and no one in my research team at the time understood it enough to even explain it to me. After the switch in teams and some help, MC 2 was completed.

Multimodal Composition 1

L

B

Multimodal Composition 2

B

S

Goal 4 (20%)

Evaluates texts’ scholarly significance to apply reading to other contexts or issues

Botany Source Analysis

This source analysis was specifically helpful due to the switching of research teams. Originally I had been more focused on the history of St. Louis and Henry Shaw so this source analysis was helpful to transition my focus more to Botany. I looked back at this article a few times to help with my Iris Center Presentation as well.

Rooted Wisdom Source Analysis

This was also a very helpful source analysis for my transition between research teams. I really enjoyed this series of videos about the Adkins Arboretum and it was easy to connect to our problem with Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was another thing I looked back on for a resource for our Iris Center Showcase.

Goal 5 (20%)

Identifies and evaluates multiple approaches for solving problems

Multimodal Composition 1

For this essay the task was identifying our wicked problem. There was 6 different aspects of a wicked problem and I had to connect (or at least try to) each characteristic to Missouri Botanical Gardens wicked problem. I think this is the best example of me exhibiting this trait.

Multimodal Composition 2

For this essay, I chose to do a stakeholder analysis of Missouri Botanical Gardens. For this I went through the chapter and read through the several different ways to identify stakeholders. I did my best to connect the different strategies to our situation at Missouri Botanical Gardens.