1.1 Identifying and Pursuing Questions:

I think this is a skill that I “got,” however I did struggle some with my topic. After identifying the questions and pursuing solutions I found that there weren’t necessarily many feasible solutions. Animal agriculture in Vermont is such a complex system that “fixing” one part can “harm” another, so it’s all about balance. Because of this, I definitely spent most of my time in the big idea realm of the issue not the nitty gritty, which can be seen in my pitch. (I did speak about the issue of eutrophication, but for some reason, I didn’t include it in the final cut of the video.)

1.2 Manage Learning:

Looking at these coming weeks, my biggest worry is communication with the group. As the rest of my group all goes to Middlebury High School, quick verbal communication is very easy between them. But me living 2 hours away makes that a little bit harder. However between Slack and shared Google folders and docs, we should have the necessary tools to effectively communicate and collaborate.

I am already pretty passionate about our issue, which should help with my self direction. For the past couple of weeks I have been working with and corresponding with my local food shelf talking about the issue of food waste and food insecurity. Hopefully I can continue to collaborate with them in the coming weeks.

Featured Image: David Prasad (Flickr)