Presentation Feedback

Dear Group Members,
Please review my presentation and use the critique sheet Dr. Archibald has given so that I can improve the presentation.

Conference Notes!

For the first 5 pages of my research project, I focused a lot on discussing about how dangerous cigarette butts are to our environment and how they are polluting the earth. I went on a bit of a tangent and instead of focusing on the controversy of the issue, I just discussed its problems and effects on the government. From talking with Dr. Archibald I was able to see how I didn't fully do the assignment how I should have. Dr. Archibald gave me some ideas on how to make my topic more broad to just pollution, instead of so focused in on the cigarette butt aspect of the pollution. He gave me some suggestions that I should talk about maybe plastic bags in relation to pollution, along with the cigarette butts so that it wasn't narrowed onto one thing. then he told me maybe I could talk about how to make cigarette's healthier for the environment by making them recyclable or biodegradable. It was a lot to think about, but I think I may go the way of talking about how to make cigarettes biodegradable and the controversy of people who say not to because they taste different to smokers.

Finding Resources

after reading the course blog this week and watching the video on how to use the advanced search tools on Google to find quality sources for my research paper, I first thought of the direction I needed to go for my paper. I wanted to talk about the fact that people need to be educated in order for things to change for the better in the environment, and the opposing side would be someone against the funding of that education because of their feelings that it has a lack of importance. I took the route of searching about littering and came up with a very interesting article on cigarette butts and how flicking them on the ground after smoking is very dangerous and harmful. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to go about writing my paper, but I found it so interesting that I wanted to further research it and incorporate it into what I wanted my paper to be about. The sources I found seemed to change my direction a little bit, but I found some really helpful ones to use for the new direction my paper is taking!

Conference Notes

In my conference with Dr. Archibald I discussed my ideas for my research paper. My main idea was to talk about how once people are more informed on the issues of ecology dealing with environmental concerns, they will be more likely to make a difference. I wasn't exactly sure how to go about this idea, but my conference really helped me narrow in my thinking. Dr. Archibald said it sounded as if I wanted to do something like a case study to really see if once people are educated on the problems with our environment if they go out and try to make a difference. He enlightened me on the fact that to do this, I need to find a case where there is a clear argument on both sides. For my paper I'm going to be finding a case to study where there is a need to inform the people about environmental issues, but there is an opposing force who doesn't think informing people on these issues is important. From talking to Dr. Archibald, we decided maybe to find a case where a big business or a group of people in the community think that spending money on funding the education of people on ecology is not as important as using that money to fund something different. I plan to start really looking for a specific case in which to study to begin writing my paper about. Hopefully my paper will discuss what happened in the situation, with the outcome being that the education was applied and that it actually helped people become interested in helping the environment in which they live. The overall theme of the paper with be that education on these ecological issues will lead to progress within the environment be a safe and clean place to live for everyone.

ResProj Ideas!

Idea 1: "To fully try and effectively help the environment worldwide, people need to be informed of these issues. Not only do they need to be informed, but more they need to understand the real problem with these issues."

Idea 2: " I think it is important to sometimes reach out and look at the international view of the world instead of just our own little part of the world. Langeweische makes it easy to understand that globally, everyone needs to really understand what is happening and try and come together for the good of the world as a whole."


-After reading these quotes from my 2Syn paper, what do you think about these topic ideas?
-Do you understand what I'm getting at?
-Which one sounds best to use for the 3ResProj? Why?

Synthesis Paper

John Muir wrote his speech “The National Parks and Forest Reservations” to say to the Sierra Club that clearly states the issues on how to help preserve national parks in the United States. What wasn’t discussed by Muir and his friends and followers was what to do globally for the economy. In the article “The Shipbreakers” by William Langeweische, this idea of helping the environment globally is addressed with a specific pinpoint on the topic of shipbreaking.

After reading the first paragraph, what do you think my paper is about?

Blogger 3

Since I did my first draft completely wrong and wrote it as a biographical research paper instead of focusing on the document by John Muir, I am planning to rewrite most of the paper. I will probably take the second half of my paper that does talk about the document I read by John Muir and then revise it here and there to make it more fitting for the beginning of the paper and use that as my opening. In this section I will explain all of John Muir's big points and thoughts in the document and what he wants and does not want with the topic of Yosemite. The document was a speech to the Sierra Club, so it has most of his big ideas and thoughts I can pull out. From there on out, I will find documents about others related to the topic Muir's document discusses, which is the Yosemite Valley. I've found some people who worked with John Muir on this specific topic and I will outline their involvement in the situation and relationship with Muir. I will tie in information that these people and Muir both share and their opinions based on John Muir's opinions.

This paper gave me quite a lot of trouble in the beginning, but I've started to understand more of what is expected in it after reading the comments on the first one and rereading the directions and expectations for the assignment. I'm hoping that my new paper can really bring out the correct information for my topic conversation and that it will live up to the expectations it is supposed to. I feel like the paper is much more suited to turn in and be acceptable to the assignment information.

Ecology

I chose ecology because I wanted to learn more about the topic and John Muir. To start finding information on the topic and person, I looked to the mind-map for any helpful links to find a source of information. I went to the John Muir bio page that was listed to look and find some useful things about Muir and how he impacted ecology.    This website gave an overview about John Muir's life and told me that Muir was really interested specifically on Yosemite and Sierra Nevada.

After looking at the biography page, i went back to the mind-map to see what other links were there. I went to the "John Muir Articles" link and started looking through some of the works Muir wrote in his time. The first few,  "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park" and "the Hetch Hetchy Valley," mainly focused on the nature aspect of the places. In these Muir described what his surroundings were in Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valley. I went on to a new article called "The National Parks and Forest Reservations," which was a speech given by John Muir. In it he describes some of his, and the Sierra Clubs, battles over Yosemite and trying to save the land and trees and wilderness. It seemed very interesting that he would fight for years over this place, but in his speech and writings you can tell that this is his passion and he strongly believes that the land is very important.

The topic on Muir's fight to save Yosemite seems the most interesting of what he's done. I think it really captures his complete passion because he worked on the case for so long. His interest in the wilderness is very interesting and I am enjoying finding out more about what his concerns were with Yosemite, and Sierra Nevada. As I continue researching, I am planning on looking up more of his articles and what he did with the Sierra Club.