Ecosystem project Reflection
Prior Learning
What methods, theories, ideas and skills that you learned or used in class/current curriculum/other experiences were useful in completing this project?
Before this class, I had a limited knowledge of scientific writing styles. At the beginning of the year in biology, we practiced “science writing,” which is a style of writing a report that is laconic, unbiased, and written in the third-person. We were expected to use this writing technique when we wrote our ecology reports, so it was helpful to have practiced it before. Also, this project was very research heavy. I used the research skills I had learned in humanities and other classes to synthesize information and find sources, which was very useful in completing this project.
Present Experience
What are two of the most significant things you did during the experience?
To launch this project, we took at field trip to a local trail system called Horse Gulch. We spent half of the day learning about the effects of trails on local ecosystems, and the other half doing trail work to improve the trails for the public. I had to leave early so I did not participate in the trail work, but simply understanding my effects as a mountain biker and learning about the ecology of local trails was a very significant part of the project for me. Additionally, creating my infographic was another enjoyable part of the project. I have never created a true infographic before, so this was a new experience that really brought the project together. I worked very hard to make my infographic the best that it could be, and my work payed off when my graphic was selected to be printed. You can see my final draft below.
Through those actions, how did you contribute to the success of the project?
Through participation in our field trip to Horse Gulch, I furthered my knowledge of ecological relationships. I was able to apply this knowledge when writing our report and deciding on our topic, which was a contribution to my group and our project. All the infographics that my group created worked together to inform our audience about methane and it’s presence in the Four Corners, and mine was definitely a piece of that puzzle.
In what ways did you experience difficulties (e.g., interacting with others, accomplishing tasks) and what personal characteristics contributed to the difficulties (e.g., skills, abilities, perspectives, attitudes, tendencies, knowledge)?
As I go about my daily life, I always try to be friendly and open. I find it easy to make friends and talk to others. While this is generally a good characteristic, it can prove to be a challenge when working in a group. I am fairly good friends with all of my groupmates, so it was difficult to put aside our discussions and finish our work when needed. In the end, we had ample time to complete all aspects of the project, so this was not one of our main challenges. However, I found that this personal characteristic contributed to some procrastinating. Additionally, I am definitely a perfectionist. Everything that I write must be edited until I think it is sufficient. I spent a lot of time reading over our essay so that it would be as good as possible. I think this ended up being a positive thing, but my tendency to scrutinize every sentence also leads to a lot of wasted time.
Another difficulty that our group had was writing consistently. Once we decided on the topic of our report, we broke it into sections that we wanted to write about. Each group member was assigned a section. It was tough to communicate what we would each cover in our sections, so some information was omitted and some was repetitive. When I edited the paper, I tried to remove extra information and fill in the gaps as much as possible.
What assumptions or conceptions (about yourself, others, or how things work) were confirmed or contradicted by the experience?
Usually, I dislike working in groups because I feel that I end up doing a majority of the work. However, I was excited for my group in this project because I thought that the work would be more evenly distributed. Having now completed the project, I think I was partly correct. My group was willing to do the work and we tried to split it evenly, but my tendencies toward perfectionism made me put a lot more work into the final draft of the report. I think I also assumed that the group would be very compatible and hardworking, but we definitely spent some time procrastinating and messing around. In the end, my group did work well together, so that assumption was correct, but there was more distraction than I originally thought.
What did you learn about your subject matter/research area that you had not known prior to having completed this project?
Before this project I had heard of methane and it’s prevalence in the Four Corners, yet I never researched it further or really cared. However, this project caused me to realize the seriousness of the methane hotspot around my home. From this project, I took away knowledge of geologic formations that leak methane, specifically the fruitland coal formation, and the effects of methane on the environment. Through writing our report on methane, I also learned about the components of a scientific report and writing without bias and feelings.
If you could do the project again, what might you do differently to achieve improved results?
When we chose our topic at the beginning of the project, our group had a very difficult time finding a data set as the rubric required. We worked with Tina to modify our project, but I wish that we would have stuck to the rubric and actually found information on a topic that was quantified. If I were to do this project again, I would choose a different topic to study, one that had a lot more information available. Then my report could be more in depth and my group could work to find an actual solution to the problem, instead of discussing what is already being done.
Your Future
What could be the implications of what you learned from this experience for your future work/research/career?
I have always been a STEM oriented student, and I love math and science. However, this project showed me that I am not very interested in environmental science. I prefer to learn about the human body and living organisms, rather than the relationships between living organisms. During this project, I found myself looking forward to our unit on cellular biology rather than being engaged with ecology. This project has helped to confirm what I have begun to think, that I would rather focus my career in the medical field than any other scientific discipline.
What skills, knowledge, or experience did you wish you had prior to attempting this project that would have aided you to get more from the experience and/or achieve a better outcome?
I had a very difficult time using Venngage to create my infographic. I wish that I had more experience with that program before starting the project. However, I am satisfied with my final product so my lack of experience with Venngage did not necessarily affect my infographic. Otherwise, I felt like I was adequately equipped to fulfill the expectations of this project.
How well did the activities focused on in this experience mesh with your learning style?
At the beginning of the project, we learned some background knowledge on ecology through a lecture format. I really like this type of learning. For some reason, lectures are very informative and engaging to me. I know that teachers at Animas do not usually give lectures, but I always feel that I have a comprehensive understanding of a subject when it is presented in a lecture. Also, learning in the field by going on our field trip really worked for me, because we got to experience the lecture topics firsthand. Overall, this project worked well with my learning style. However, I did find it slightly easy. I wish that I would have advocated earlier in the project for more challenge, because I feel that I did not go as deep into the content as I could have.
How will having participated in this experience change how you approach projects/tasks/research in the future?
In the future, I will definitely approach writing a report as a group in a different way. I put in a lot of extra work to edit and refine our paper, when my classmates didn’t do quite as much. Also, there were more people than sections, so one person did not really end up writing anything for the report. Overall, our report was not as unified or informative as it could have been, so I would like to change the way we break up the tasks in future group settings.
What methods, theories, ideas and skills that you learned or used in class/current curriculum/other experiences were useful in completing this project?
Before this class, I had a limited knowledge of scientific writing styles. At the beginning of the year in biology, we practiced “science writing,” which is a style of writing a report that is laconic, unbiased, and written in the third-person. We were expected to use this writing technique when we wrote our ecology reports, so it was helpful to have practiced it before. Also, this project was very research heavy. I used the research skills I had learned in humanities and other classes to synthesize information and find sources, which was very useful in completing this project.
Present Experience
What are two of the most significant things you did during the experience?
To launch this project, we took at field trip to a local trail system called Horse Gulch. We spent half of the day learning about the effects of trails on local ecosystems, and the other half doing trail work to improve the trails for the public. I had to leave early so I did not participate in the trail work, but simply understanding my effects as a mountain biker and learning about the ecology of local trails was a very significant part of the project for me. Additionally, creating my infographic was another enjoyable part of the project. I have never created a true infographic before, so this was a new experience that really brought the project together. I worked very hard to make my infographic the best that it could be, and my work payed off when my graphic was selected to be printed. You can see my final draft below.
Through those actions, how did you contribute to the success of the project?
Through participation in our field trip to Horse Gulch, I furthered my knowledge of ecological relationships. I was able to apply this knowledge when writing our report and deciding on our topic, which was a contribution to my group and our project. All the infographics that my group created worked together to inform our audience about methane and it’s presence in the Four Corners, and mine was definitely a piece of that puzzle.
In what ways did you experience difficulties (e.g., interacting with others, accomplishing tasks) and what personal characteristics contributed to the difficulties (e.g., skills, abilities, perspectives, attitudes, tendencies, knowledge)?
As I go about my daily life, I always try to be friendly and open. I find it easy to make friends and talk to others. While this is generally a good characteristic, it can prove to be a challenge when working in a group. I am fairly good friends with all of my groupmates, so it was difficult to put aside our discussions and finish our work when needed. In the end, we had ample time to complete all aspects of the project, so this was not one of our main challenges. However, I found that this personal characteristic contributed to some procrastinating. Additionally, I am definitely a perfectionist. Everything that I write must be edited until I think it is sufficient. I spent a lot of time reading over our essay so that it would be as good as possible. I think this ended up being a positive thing, but my tendency to scrutinize every sentence also leads to a lot of wasted time.
Another difficulty that our group had was writing consistently. Once we decided on the topic of our report, we broke it into sections that we wanted to write about. Each group member was assigned a section. It was tough to communicate what we would each cover in our sections, so some information was omitted and some was repetitive. When I edited the paper, I tried to remove extra information and fill in the gaps as much as possible.
What assumptions or conceptions (about yourself, others, or how things work) were confirmed or contradicted by the experience?
Usually, I dislike working in groups because I feel that I end up doing a majority of the work. However, I was excited for my group in this project because I thought that the work would be more evenly distributed. Having now completed the project, I think I was partly correct. My group was willing to do the work and we tried to split it evenly, but my tendencies toward perfectionism made me put a lot more work into the final draft of the report. I think I also assumed that the group would be very compatible and hardworking, but we definitely spent some time procrastinating and messing around. In the end, my group did work well together, so that assumption was correct, but there was more distraction than I originally thought.
What did you learn about your subject matter/research area that you had not known prior to having completed this project?
Before this project I had heard of methane and it’s prevalence in the Four Corners, yet I never researched it further or really cared. However, this project caused me to realize the seriousness of the methane hotspot around my home. From this project, I took away knowledge of geologic formations that leak methane, specifically the fruitland coal formation, and the effects of methane on the environment. Through writing our report on methane, I also learned about the components of a scientific report and writing without bias and feelings.
If you could do the project again, what might you do differently to achieve improved results?
When we chose our topic at the beginning of the project, our group had a very difficult time finding a data set as the rubric required. We worked with Tina to modify our project, but I wish that we would have stuck to the rubric and actually found information on a topic that was quantified. If I were to do this project again, I would choose a different topic to study, one that had a lot more information available. Then my report could be more in depth and my group could work to find an actual solution to the problem, instead of discussing what is already being done.
Your Future
What could be the implications of what you learned from this experience for your future work/research/career?
I have always been a STEM oriented student, and I love math and science. However, this project showed me that I am not very interested in environmental science. I prefer to learn about the human body and living organisms, rather than the relationships between living organisms. During this project, I found myself looking forward to our unit on cellular biology rather than being engaged with ecology. This project has helped to confirm what I have begun to think, that I would rather focus my career in the medical field than any other scientific discipline.
What skills, knowledge, or experience did you wish you had prior to attempting this project that would have aided you to get more from the experience and/or achieve a better outcome?
I had a very difficult time using Venngage to create my infographic. I wish that I had more experience with that program before starting the project. However, I am satisfied with my final product so my lack of experience with Venngage did not necessarily affect my infographic. Otherwise, I felt like I was adequately equipped to fulfill the expectations of this project.
How well did the activities focused on in this experience mesh with your learning style?
At the beginning of the project, we learned some background knowledge on ecology through a lecture format. I really like this type of learning. For some reason, lectures are very informative and engaging to me. I know that teachers at Animas do not usually give lectures, but I always feel that I have a comprehensive understanding of a subject when it is presented in a lecture. Also, learning in the field by going on our field trip really worked for me, because we got to experience the lecture topics firsthand. Overall, this project worked well with my learning style. However, I did find it slightly easy. I wish that I would have advocated earlier in the project for more challenge, because I feel that I did not go as deep into the content as I could have.
How will having participated in this experience change how you approach projects/tasks/research in the future?
In the future, I will definitely approach writing a report as a group in a different way. I put in a lot of extra work to edit and refine our paper, when my classmates didn’t do quite as much. Also, there were more people than sections, so one person did not really end up writing anything for the report. Overall, our report was not as unified or informative as it could have been, so I would like to change the way we break up the tasks in future group settings.