Adopt A Trashcan

The local problem that we chose to solve this semester was littering. We chose littering as our problem because we believe it is a big problem and although it is a worldwide problem we think that even by starting in a small place like Kutztown, it will make a difference. Our main goal was to clean up the Kutztown University campus. We want people to realize what effects this is having on the environment, wildlife, and even people. By getting people involved in an Adopt-A-Trashcan Program at Kutztown we hope it will get people more interested and involved. We would eventually like for this program to spread to other campuses.

As of right now, our project is going very well. We have gotten approval from the University to start our program, and have contacted all the clubs and organizations at Kutztown. We are still waiting for replies and once we get a few more all we have left to do is collect the posters that will go in the advertisement panels of the trashcans. We have set a date of April 29^th, 2011 as a due date for all posters to be turned in. So far we have 4 groups that are definitely going to participate in the program and we hope to have more. Although we have not actually solved the problem of littering, we believe that we are taking the right steps to help stop people from littering, not only Kutztown but worldwide. 

Project 4

For project 4, we were to write a Final Group Report. We would each be responsible for at least one section and it had to be at least two pages. In this paper had to discuss our local problem. We had to explain why we chose littering as our problem and why littering is a problem. We needed to tell about our discoveries, what people thought about our problem. We wrote about the obstacles and problems that we faced while attempting to solve our problem and told how we dealt with each of them. Lastly, we had to write about the current status of our project. In another part of project 4, which was an individual portion, we had to write one final reflective essay. In this essay we told about how we thought the semester went. She wanted us to give her feedback and suggestions for future classes. We told her about what we learned in the class, what we thought about the creativity activities that we did in class, an element or two that we liked about the course, and an element that we didn’t like. The last part of Project 4 that we needed to do was put everything together into a portfolio. In the portfolio, we needed include the original proposal, the new revised proposal, all the project documents, our final written group report, and our individual reflective essays. On the final day of class, we are going to present our project to the class. Our group chose to use a power point presentation to show our work on the project. 

Class Work

Today for class, we had to set up an appointment with Prof. Morris. We were to show her about our progress with Project 3. We showed her our research paper, the works cited page, all of the emails we had sent out and posters and signs we had made to hang up around campus. We then discussed what we needed to do to make our project better and she told us what we needed to work on and fix. For the next class we met in the library. When we were in the library we were to work on our papers and finish working on project 3 and when we were done with that we had to start working on project 4, the final project. When we were finished working on project 3 we started to divide the work up for project 4. Project 4 is everything we have done put together, along with a paper that explains everything. We decided that Matt was going to write about the problem we chose and the obstacles we faced. I am going to write about the current status of the project and the discoveries we made during this process. Evey is going to write the conclusion to the paper. Once we are done writing the paper we have to write another reflection page in which we have to tell about how we believe the semester went.

Project 3

Project 3 is a student-designed assignment. The first thing we had to do was decide if we were going to work alone or as a group. We chose to work as a group. Next we had to create an assignment sheet. This assignment sheet would have to explain what to do for our project. We would be graded on how well we followed our own directions. For our assignment sheet we started by looking at Professor Morris’ previous assignment sheets. We took pieces from her assignment sheet and created our own. For the first part we would be writing a paper similar to the paper from project 2, we would be including the works cited page but wouldn’t be following the source directions. For the second part we would be sending out emails to all of the clubs and organizations at Kutztown to see if they were interested in participating in our Adopt-a-Trashcan Program. We would be creating a Facebook page and putting up flyers around campus to promote our program. Once we heard back from the clubs and organizations we will have them create signs that will go into the big belly solar compactors. They will be responsible for trying to keep the area their trashcan is in free of litter. After creating the assignment sheet we presented it to the class to see if they thought it was enough work to be worth 20% of our grade. When they agreed that it was enough, we got started on it. We would each be responsible for writing a part of the paper and making a flyer. We would be creating an email together to then send out to the clubs and organizations. Now we are going to meet with Professor Morris to see how we have made progress in our project.

Project 2

For project 2 we were to write an academic essay about creativity. We had to analyze the perspectives of three creativity experts as well as our own views on creativity. We had to analyze a scholarly journal article, a book chapter, and an alternative source, in which I used a video. To analyze the sources we had to answer five questions about what their arguments were about creativity. For the scholarly journal article I used an article titled Creativity and the Young Child, which was written by Carole Mindham. Her argument was that she wants to raise concerns providing for, recognizing, and celebrating creativity in children’s play. For the book chapter I chose a book called Manager’s Guide to Fostering Innovation and Creativity in Teams. This book was written by Charles Prather. The chapter that I chose to use was called Creative Thinking. This chapter was about how to incorporate creativity into the workplace and how it can make a company more productive and successful. For the third source I used the TED talk that we watched in class with Charles Limb. This video was called Charles Limb: Your Brain on Improv. His argument was that creativity is neurological and it can in fact be studied. I personally liked this project because it help us explore creativity, and I think it will benefit us in our semester long project.

Song

To start this class professor Morris gave us an exercise for us to do, she played us a song and told us to write or draw something while we were listening to it. We had to write or draw whatever came to mind during the song. When she started the song I was unsure of what to think of because it was an opera type song and that isn’t what I typically like to listen to. I didn’t know what to write, but after really trying to listen to the lyrics I was able to write, and actually recognized the song. I had heard it before on television commercials and in school. As I listened more closely it reminded me of springtime, it had a happy vibe to it. When Professor Morris turned the song off we had a class discussion about what everyone had thought the song was about and what it reminded them of. After listening to some of the other students’ observations, I could also relate to what they were saying. Some people said they thought that the song reminded them of a scary movie or what they think of opera singers who are typically pictured as heavy women singing on stage. After that exercise we learned about the Rhetorical Triangle. At first I didn’t know what the rhetorical triangle was, but after it was explained more in detail, I realized that I had already learned about it in my public speaking class, I had just learned it in smaller parts. I recognized the three parts or writing a proposal, logos, pathos, and ethos. So hopefully I can use this to my advantage and write a better proposal.

Littering

Today we all had a discussion about what topics we would be covering for our semester long project. We all one at a time told Professor Morris what we had written about in our proposals. After a long discussion with one another we all split up into our groups with topics like “healthier food on campus,” “Illegal Substances,” “thief on campus,” “socializing on campus,” and the group I am in which is for littering. We got into our groups and talked about what our plans were, then we had some time to talk to Professor Morris about the details of our topic. Then as a class we discussed what we would exactly be doing and how we would accomplish it. During the next class we got into our groups and decided what our due dates would be for our four projects. Then we put them on the board and as a class had a debate/discussion about what the due dates would actually be. We then talked about what our projects would be and what the schedule would look like for the next few weeks.