Reflection

         At the beginning of this year I was confused; while at ramp camp our topics we would be studying all year were presented and we, the students were told that we would be working these topics Into all 3 of our classes. This mystified me because 10 years of traditional teaching had led me to believe that interweaving a topic into different areas of study simultaneously was something impossible. Through this year my views on this  have slowly changed. Now, while studying social media and the environment, I have been able to develop english, science  and science skills through my campaign on waste disposal.

By creating content for my website on waste management I demonstrated my English prowess. By mastering complex analysis of evidence, as seen in this essay on racism To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, I was able to create effective analysis of evidence when approaching my lab background.

The procedures I wrote for my lab and
displayed  on my website

These two pieces of writing show mastery of evidence analysis across two different types of analysis. Additionally both the background and procedures are written with considering the prospective audience in mind. I keep the language scientific but simple in a way that encourages young visitors to ask questions about unknown concepts so that they can learn. I also keep the procedures simple enough so that anyone without scientific background could complete this lab. This is important because I want as many people as possible to complete the lab.This skill of writing with an audience in mind translated well to the completion of my ted talk. By mastering this skill while writing my background and procedures I was able to effectively write my Ted Talk. I did this by considering that the ted talk audience would be there to learn something, to be told something, or to be entertained. I tried to use the first two purposes in my Ted Talk by utilizing rhetoric that enforced these purposes. I used informative rhetoric in the meat of my talk in order to teach the audience and switched to a rhetoric that called for action at the end of my talk in order to raise awareness and passion about the issue, and therefore, my solution. Even now, It surprises me how much English skills were necessary to be invoked in such a scientific study and project.

By studying the environmental

The data collected when I completed my lab
 that is to be used as an example
 for people that would like to also complete it

problems caused by improper waste disposal, I was able to design a lab to show the human aspects in causing it. I thoroughly studied the effects and proposed and designed a solution to this problem in my essay on my A Better Waste Bin. Writing this essay allowed me to define the cause and effect of the problems caused when you throw out recycle or compost incorrectly. This was fueled by strong and reputable research as can seen in the works cited. This essay began my deep dive into the topic of recycling and reflected my ability to find and logically analyze scientific evidence. This led me to create my lab.
This lab showcased my ability and expertise in the scientific method. I linked our study of aerobic vs anaerobic at the beginning of the year to the decomposition of organic matter in landfill which demonstrates my retention of information from previous units and my ability to connect scientific topics across studies. This skill was helpful when writing the background for my lab and while creating my video on the problem. My entire campaign was fueled by my scientific research and the creation of a lab that was designed specifically to help people understand a complex scientific problem that I had become an expert in.

The twitter account I designed to spread the word about my lab and the
environmental problem  of  waste disposal

To raise awareness around the topic of improper disposal and its consequences I created a social media campaign across 3 platforms in order to get people thinking. First of all I used my skills in website design that I started to develop two years ago to create a website that presented the problem and a homemade lab that would demonstrate the problem to people when they completed it. This was put together into a polished website. This lab can not help raise awareness by itself, because a website like that does not acquire much web traffic by itself. So, I had to get people interested the problem and my website/lab, and I did this using Twitter. This platform has been on my radar as a way to get an idea out to people because of its prevalence in the news. Last year, when I started a personal twitter, I was intimidated by its open nature. This led me to stop using my account before I even started. Now that I have created my own twitter for this project I have learned that there is nothing to worry about. I created a twitter account specifically to advertise my lab and the problem. I am using images and engaging poss to attract an audience, and I already have almost 20 followers that have accounts dedicated to similar topics. This shows my mastery of a social media platform that I was not comfortable with coming into the year. It also demonstrates my online responsibility. This has helped me reach out to an authentic audience and help me start to get online momentum on this topic. This excites me because I am reaching out to real people who care about the real environmental issue I am presenting and a solution my group  and I designed.  Additionally I showed my prowess in getting over tech hiccups in my production of my 3 video playlist.

The playlist that contains my 3 videos and other related ones

The screen recording software I was using would not let me record audio along with the recording so I recorded my voice separately and used drive to get the two clips on the same computer, but the screen-casting site does not allow you to download your clip, only post it to YouTube. This led to me publishing my clips to YouTube separately and downloading them through a special website. I then joined the clips in Imovie and posted the finished videos. As it turns out, Erika was having a similar problem with her videos, and I was able to help he r walk through my process. This exhibits my technological mastery of the production of videos, in that I was able to design a viable solution to my problem, and apply it to me and Erika’s problems. Only through a project and program like this would technology be so vital to a science issue.

Completing this project has not only helped me develop skills in all three of the subjects of Science, English, and Technology/Social Media, but also begin to see that there is always a possibility for us to make change or raise awareness. This process has also let me see how vital social media is to this process. Whether it be YouTube, Twitter, or just a website it is incredibly important to use a media to reach as many people as possible. I recently saw my dad accidentally drop a piece of paper in a parking lot and then leave it to fly away. I told him “I can't preach recycling if you do stuff like that”.  But, as I realized later, this is just one person, to make a difference i am going to need to get everyone's attention. To do this I need social media. And as I have found out through my personal experience in this core: You can not have one without the others, the subjects of Science, English, and Technology/Social Media are forever intertwined. You can not master one without mastering the others.