In this project, we were to look over vast amounts of information regarding food and ethics, then use that to develop our own food ethic, ultimately writing about it in a final essay. I have definitely learned a lot about food and agriculture through this project. As you can see in my final written project, I am a big believer in shopping locally, but I hardly even had an opinion on that before this project started. I had been aware of =industrial farms and local farms beforehand, and I had a very basic understanding of both. However, it was this project that really allowed me to dive in from the angle of what these two systems really value in their work, which was a big factor in determining my own opinion.
I think studying food in two different classes was a good way to help me understand the subject as a whole. I was getting context both scientifically and economically/ethically, and I believe that approaching a subject from multiple different angles is a good way to more thoroughly examine it. Ultimately, however, I can't really say the scientific aspect played much of a role in developing my final opinion, perhaps if only because the angle I chose for it didn't really include science, but that doesn't mean it was completely useless. There are plenty of other subjects in this project that I HAVE developed a better understanding of thanks to both classes. For example, the molecular content of food and how that plays into its healthiness.
Thanks to this project, I no longer see food as just something I mindlessly eat when I'm hungry. Now, I really do think about food in a much deeper way, which is partly why I have been encouraged to get fast food significantly less often. Beyond the idea of ethics, however, I think that the study of this topic has gotten me way more involved with the process of cooking, and I often try to change up the ingredients of what I'm eating, try new things, etc., whereas before I was only comfortable eating the same plain boring meals, like hamburgers with only ketchup.
Industrial
Local
The mountains' gift - Philosophy project
Written piece
Visual piece
My philosophy project is a combination of two pieces - one is an essay I wrote about the Hogs Back mountain and my experience climbing it for the first time, the other is a short film about someone else's journey up it. The Hogs Back mountain is a very special place for me. It stands as one of my earliest and scariest memories of climbing a mountain, and the first feeling of conquering it was wonderful. Beyond that, the peak of the mountain has always been a place of deeper thought and happiness for me. In many ways, I see the very top of it as a gift, a reward for making it through the fear always present during my scaling of it.
labor projeCT
This is a project that we have been working on since the beginning of the year. The general focus was on the workforce, it's history and the challenges that face it. We studied the Industrial Revolution, concepts such as automation taking over jobs, etc, and it eventually built into a project in which we had to make a podcast on a topic that has to do with work.
In-class timed writing
The following is a timed writing we had to do on one particular subject involving the Industrial Revolution.
My reflection
What was the greatest challenge you faced in the project and what did you do to overcome it? The biggest challenge I faced was definitely technical difficulties. When editing the podcast, I constantly had to change the script, the program I was using to edit it, who was recording which line, and even the format the audio file was in. It got even worse when entire recordings corrupted on the night before the podcast was due, and I had to stay up into the morning in order to finish the podcast. That right there is how I overcame it; just a lot of perseverance and one miserable night.
If you could go back and do the project differently, what would you do and why? I would sit down and spend a lot of time determining exactly how I wanted to go about the project. I was kind of winging it for a large amount of the project, which caused a lot of different issues as I’ve been over. I feel that if I knew exactly what I wanted to do from the start, and had some sort of structure to what I was doing, those issues would not be nearly as prevalent.
What is the greatest insight you gained about the state of labor issues today? I think the greatest insight I gained is how horrible it was for people during the Industrial Revolution. I was aware of the low pay and long hours, but what I was not aware of was how damaging it was for everyone but the companies themselves. Mothers had to abandon their babies, men and children were constantly dying at work, all for little to no pay or time with family. It gives perspective on my own life, and even with the problems in the workforce today, how much it has improved since then.
What are you most proud of in your project? Even though I wish I could change everything about it, I am most proud of the podcast itself. I like how professional it sounds, and I feel that the choices in music and presentation separate it from the other podcasts. I also like how high quality it is, which again adds to the professionalism. As much as I think I could do better with the product, I still am proud of what I ended up making.
Explain one way you grew as a student during this project. I think I really improved my perseverance. I’ve been assigned some of the most work in a while, and it forced me to improve my ability to power through something and get it done. Doing so not only gets massive amounts of work done, but also provides a massive sense of satisfaction once you do. Despite how miserable I’ve been at certain points in this project, I could not be happier that it happened, because it’s given me an ability I can now apply to so much more than just school work.