Leadership as a Quija board...

We have begun our group collaboration with collective leadership. This is beneficial since we are still in the brainstorming stage of finding our solvable problem. I think as we move forward, we will see more dialog as individual research progresses, decisions have to be made and topics have to be refined. 

I have gone through a similar collaborative research process before in Natural Resources Management, and I am currently participating in a collaborative research process in Applied Karst Hydrogeology. The main difference I see, as of now, between the method of research in this class and other classes (Natural Resource Management and Applied Karst Hydro), is that we are responsible for developing a research scenario and defining a realistic problem that is solvable within our means as undergraduates. This maybe the biggest challenge of this class, I believe.  

Date: 1/30/12

Creating Research: First Impressions

When we were first presented with the task of performing our own research as an environmental science team at the beginning of the semester, I was excited about what this learning experience would mean for my future. As a team of four environmental scientists, we would strive to solve an environmental problem by contributing our individual expertise, mine being geology and hydrology. I asked my self how I could use this research experience in my future career.

I hope that by the end of this semester, having completed field and lab work, as well as our group paper, I will have attained the qualities necessary for a research or consulting career in the environmental science field. These qualities would include clear and concise written and verbal communication and how to identify solvable environmental problems and develop realistic solutions in a given time frame.

Date: 1/26/12