Blog 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

Interview

https://soundcloud.com/kyn9/interview-4

1. What is the most important thing you learned from the interview?

From this interview I actually figured out what exactly I want as the main theme for my final presentation. It was actually an idea my mentor (the person I interviewed) gave me. He said "Are we doing enough?" I thought it was a great idea and I want to center my presentation around it. I also got different ways to educate the public, and plan on using some of them if I can.

2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

I noticed I asked a lot more open ended questions, and questions that overall would take some explaining. This was my longest interview so far, being almost twenty minutes long. There where also a lot of silent pauses though the beginning and end, but the interview went really well an I got a lot of good information out of it.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

Independent Component

1. Describe in detail what you plan on doing for 30 hours. 

For this component I plan on trying to educate the public about important parts of my topic while trying to learn more about each of my three answers for my EQ. I will study and look into different places that are struggling with water conservation, and take notes and write about what I find. After my study I will make a 2 - 3 minute commercial to try and educate the general public about the importance of my topic and about the places that are struggling with it. The video will take a lot of time since I will be creating, story boarding, filming and editing my commercial. After the video is completed I will be getting a QR code for the video. I will then be creating a pamphlet to promote and teach about the importance of water conservation, and on the pamphlet I will put the QR code for my commercial. I will be handing out the pamphlet to various people, and may hand some around at the school. 

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will be taking notes and writing a lot of information on my study, and then filming and taking alot of pictures for my commercial. I will try to get pictures of me filming as well. Finally I will create The pamphlet, with the QR code on it. All of these things combined should be enough evidence to prove that I have completed 30 hours of the independent component.

3. Explain how this component will help you explore your topic more in depth.

The study will help me find out more about places that are suffering because of lack of water of contaminated water, such as Flint Michigan. Puting together a commercial will help me see what some of the best ways are to educate the public about my topic and show them its importance, and the pamphlet will allot me to get the video around and explain the whole point of the video. Over all the video will help me educate public while helping find out more about my topic.

Independent Component 1

Independent Component

I, Kyndra Isom, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 33 hours of work.

Sources: 

1.      http://www.livescience.com/39625-aquifers.html

2. http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html

3.       http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-ocean-pollution-facts.php

4.       https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/16/new-nasa-studies-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/

5.       http://education.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

6.       http://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/showers

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680051/all-the-water-it-takes-to-produce-a-burger

These are various sites where I got information for my answers and ideas for my questions. Each website is numbered for which question I used that website for. I also got information from a book called "When the Rivers Run Dry" by Fred Pearce.

What I did:

I created a survey to see how much the general public really knows about water conservation. The point of this was to hopefully prove that the public needs to be more educated about certain things involving water conservation. I started by doing research on what I should create my survey on. This was basically so I could try and figure out the important parts of water conservation that people need to learn more about. After that I created the survey and the answer sheet. The answer sheet gave the correct  answers to the survey as well as giving reason as to why it was the correct answer. So while I was taking surveys I was also teaching the public more about this issue. I got a bunch of different age groups for my survey, including kids from Mrs. Thinnes class, family members, and adults from my parents work places. After I got all of my surveys I Compiled all of the information together. I also took some hours from my mentorship and put it towards my independent component. My mentorship is actually where I got the idea to try and educate the public. In my mentorship I started to realize the amount of people that don't know about water conservation. Through this survey I was able to pinpoint the areas that need to be taught the most. The final thing I did for my independent component was my analysis. Through my analysis I was able take the information I got from my surveys and see what needs to be taught more. I took apart each question and its results, and explained what should be done with that information.

Here is a copy of the survey that I gave out, the answers for the questions, and the sources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tmIqDyLWcqIpsVNLDtxXyNKRxCZnQCDiLGviJFaVA7k/edit?usp=sharing

Here is my final analysis and the results from every question from the surveys:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJWgivNu7Gv9VUbxoPOa0efuau1j4OYtaIHqsilyOHU/edit?usp=sharing

This independent component helped me prove that we need to educate the public more about the topic of water conservation. I also helped me pinpoint the areas that the public needs to know more about. For example, through my survey I found out that most people don't know how much water goes into their everyday lives and most of the food that they eat. This information is extremely important for them to know because it could completely change their perspective on water conservation and make them consider how much water goes into something before they buy it. This really ties into over consumption as well, and how we need to cut back on this in order to lessen the amount of water that is used to make things that we buy. Through my surveys and analysis I also learned that most people already know about aquifers and how much fresh water is on the planet, so I wont need to focus on that as much as other things. I was also able to teach people through out my independent component through my survey and my answer sheet. The answer sheet gave in depth answers to every question that I asked. 100 people took my survey and got an answer sheet, so hopefully through that answer sheet they where able to learn more about my topic and why it is so important. I ended up learning a lot from this component and will hopefully now be able to go forward and teach others more about my topic.

Lesson 2 Reflection

Presentation 

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson two presentation and why?

I am really proud that I made time. I spoke for twelve minutes, and I ended my presentation at 24 minutes an 40 seconds. I did cut it really close, but I'm still really glad that I made time. People also seemed to enjoy my activity, and I ended up having a lot of fund with it, so I am proud of my activity and I plan on using it again for my hook activity in my final presentation.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson two presentation?

I would give myself a P because I did everything that was required and I made time.

3. What worked for you in your lesson two?

My activity did really well and a lot of people had fun with it. I also noticed that after my activity I got a lot more comfortable with talking in front of the class because I knew they where interested. I also am glad that I practiced beforehand for my presentation so I knew how to space out my time.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine what would you have done differently to improve  your lesson two?

If I could go back I would have shortened my activity. My activity ended up being a lot longer than expected, and that didn't give me a lot of time for my conclusion. By the time my activity ended I had about forty seconds left for my conclusion, so I had to kinda speed through it.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

Being active (maybe...)

Blog 14: Third Interview Preperation

Interviews

What is the best possible way to preserve and protect our water and ecosystems?

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this persons area of expertise? 

I plan on interviewing my current mentor, Joe Rosales. My mentor works in the storm water department at Montclair city hall. 

2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview. What is the date and time of the interview?

3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help you answer the EQ. 

Do you know of any books or websites that I can help use to find an answer to my EQ?

4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ.

Do you know of any other people or places where I can go to get information about my topic?

5. Phrase two open-ended questions that will help you to understand your interviewees perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

How important do you think the topic of water conservation is and why?

How soon do you think we need to make a change in the way we use and treat water in order to save it?

Blog 13: Hour Mentorship Check-In

10 hour mentorship check in

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?

I'm doing my mentorship at the storm water division of Montclair city hall.

2. Who is your contact? What make this person an expert?

My mentor is Joe Rosales. He works in the Storm water section and has been working there for many years. He knows a lot bout my topic and has taught me many things while I've been working with him.

3. How many hours have you done during the school year?

During the school year I have done 29 hours.

4. Succinctly, summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

During my mentorship hours I have done many things, including help run a booth during a water conservation fair, shadow during restaurant inspections, and helped start new projects to inform the public about water conservation. Me and my mentor have worked pretty well together, and I enjoy working with him. He has taught me a lot about water conservation. I plan to complete the remaining hours by continuing to work with him and complete the tasks he gives me, and to hopefully further help with public awareness projects.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

Research

1. What did you do over break with your senior project?

Over break I found many new article about my topic, and started working on my independent component.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why? What was the source of what you learned? 

I learned more about the walker basin project, mainly from newspaper articles. I also learned a bit about how many animals are affected by waste in the ocean, which I found out through my own research on my independent component.

3. Your third interview will be a ten question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who will you talk to and why?

I will probably talk to my mentor since he know a lot about my topic and the details of the senior project.