Energy and Place
Essential Questions
1. How does energy production impact place? 2. How does your sense of place, environmental ethic and understanding of our energy needs influence your perception and decisions regarding energy production? Project Reflection For the energy and place project, we studied how our sense of place, environmental ethic and understanding of our energy needs influence our perceptions and decisions regarding energy production. Basically, we studied environmental ethics (preservation, conservation, etc.) and applied those to current environmental debates like the Keystone Pipeline and nuclear power. This was also a joint project with Chemistry, so we also learned the science behind energy production and consumption. After learning all this, we were asked to write a sense of place essay that addresses our own thoughts about energy production as well as where we feel most at home in the world (hence, “sense of place”). This was an interesting project because of the wide variety of content we covered as well as the self-reflection in the essay assignment. During this project, I found it difficult to choose one environmental ethic that stood out to me most. However, I did find several that I connected to, which includes Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic”, innovation ethic and the intrinsic value of nature. I tried to incorporate all of this into my sense of place essay. I think this project also taught me to look at an issue with as much information as I can before making a decision. I found that having this project span between a humanities class and chemistry class was a great way to round out my perspective of energy production and how I can help change the world for the better. For my sense of place essay I am most proud of my creative writing. This was the only writing piece of the year that I felt I could express myself creatively and I think I did a good job: I remember thinking that that was the best meal I had in years. It was so satisfying to walk into an air-conditioned building, laden in sweat, legs and feet throbbing and stomach rumbling for real food. My dad and I practically embraced the chairs and hugged the ice-cold glasses with all our might. When the kind, merciful waiter brought out the chips and salsa, I whimpered at the sweet-tangy bite of the pepper and the sharp flavor of salt. My taste buds danced with joy when the tamales and tacos magically appeared in front of me. As we drove home (an hour’s journey, compared to the eight day’s hike), I fell asleep dreaming of dancing corn chips and twirling ice cubes. This is an excerpt from my essay that was intended to show the emotions I felt when I arrived at this restaurant in Silverton after a nine day backpacking trip. This was a fun paragraph to write because I did feel transported back to that moment and I felt happy to be reliving it. There are lots of other parts of my essay that feel this way to me, but this was one that stood out. Read My Sense of Place Essay HERE To see Chemistry side of project click HERE
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Take Action Project
To find out about my Take Action Project click HERE
Happiness and Meaning Project
Essential Questions
1. What is the purpose of your existence? 2. What is happiness and what makes you happy? 3. What does it mean to live a meaningful life? 4. To what extent can literature shape your personal philosophy on happiness and meaning? Personal Happiness Philosophy I don’t have a passion or an activity that consumes my existence. I’m not a sports junky or full-time skier or magician-in-training. I just am. I exist simply; I find my solace in spending time with my cats and going outdoors to play around and backpacking in the San Juan Mountains, also known as my backyard. I find happiness in the simplest of things and take advice from wise fortune cookie fortunes. I cannot pinpoint my favorite “advice” that I got from one of those little paper rectangles because I’ve been collecting them for years, but I like to think that the collective group is helping me help myself. By this I mean that each phrase or sentence I get will help me remember what the most important things are in life (at least what I think is most important). This includes: living simply; being kind, both to people and nature; persevering through challenges; looking for adventure (staying curious and brave); not doing anything illegal or harmful to the body or mind; learning something new each day; staying excited; loving every moment of every day (as to avoid negative, mean, harmful thoughts); appreciating the people in my life who care for me and those I care for; saying “thank you;” helping those who need it. I believe that I will continue to search for some passion in my life, some activity that demands my full energy, body and mind, but I will probably cherish the journey more. If you would like more information about the project click HERE |
Native American Historical Inquiry
How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history AND contemporary social, cultural and political realities?
Smoke Signals, a movie based off of Sherman Alexei's short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona", addresses some of the issues Native Americans face while trying to discover what it means to be "a real Indian."
http://images.kino.de/flbilder/max98/bf98/bf45/b9845008/w964.jpg |
Crazy Horse, even when dying, refused to lie on the white man's cot. He insisted on being placed on the floor. Armed soldiers stood by until he died. And when he breathed his last, Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse's seven-foot-tall Miniconjou friend, pointed to the blanket that covered the chief's body and said, "This is the lodge of Crazy Horse." |
During this Native American historical inquiry project, we read many texts, ranging from Dartmouth alumni essays to short stories to historical texts regarding Native American history and such culture today. Through reading such texts, we were able to answer the essential question: How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history AND contemporary social, cultural and political realities?
One big takeaway for me after finishing this project was how the bias of a historian can often be misleading. In middle school, I was taught that Columbus “discovered” American, and the inhabitants living there. I believed that although Columbus and the Natives fought, it was never that bad. However, reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I was able to see Christopher Columbus in an entirely new light. Zinn explains, “He [Columbus] took more Indian prisoners and put them aboard his two remaining ships. At one part of the island [Hispaniola], he got into a fight with Indians who refused to trade as many bows and arrows as he and his men wanted. Two were run through with swords and bled to death” (3). Many Native were forced to work long days and were subjugated to cruel treatment. Beginning this project, I wasn’t aware of this part of the story, and because of my ignorance, I felt uninformed. Being able to understand the bias of historians will lead to a more enlightened view of the events that actually happened.
At the end of this project, the class held a seminar to discuss all the topics we had just learned, as well as to answer the essential question. To prepare for the seminar, we read many different texts including Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Sherman Alexie’s The lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, primary sources about the Battle at Wounded Knee and a collection of student essays out of First person First Peoples. The questions ranged from historical significance to the overarching themes to modern day issues around the topic of Native Americans. I found the seminar to be really interesting because of all the different opinions of my classmates. Just like analyzing multiple sources of information to gain a better understanding of the truth, this seminar helped me see all the different opinions, some true and some not, and through that develop a better understanding of the content.
This project’s essential question was: How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history AND contemporary social, cultural and political realities? As I said before, reading multiple sources of text, and hearing opinions different to mine, lead me to better understand this project as a whole. Due to this, I can answer the first part of the question by saying there are many sides to a story, and to understand the story, you need to examine all sides. The second part of the question discusses how understanding past events will help us understand modern day issues. For example, we know that in the past, Native Americans were forced to move west when the settlers came and were only able to live on small amounts of land, better known as “reservations”. Today, these reservations have to deal with many issues such as education opportunity, funding, etc. Looking back, we can see that these issues stemmed out of historical events. Understanding the multiple sides of a story and how history has impacted modern day is important because we can better learn from our mistakes.
One big takeaway for me after finishing this project was how the bias of a historian can often be misleading. In middle school, I was taught that Columbus “discovered” American, and the inhabitants living there. I believed that although Columbus and the Natives fought, it was never that bad. However, reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I was able to see Christopher Columbus in an entirely new light. Zinn explains, “He [Columbus] took more Indian prisoners and put them aboard his two remaining ships. At one part of the island [Hispaniola], he got into a fight with Indians who refused to trade as many bows and arrows as he and his men wanted. Two were run through with swords and bled to death” (3). Many Native were forced to work long days and were subjugated to cruel treatment. Beginning this project, I wasn’t aware of this part of the story, and because of my ignorance, I felt uninformed. Being able to understand the bias of historians will lead to a more enlightened view of the events that actually happened.
At the end of this project, the class held a seminar to discuss all the topics we had just learned, as well as to answer the essential question. To prepare for the seminar, we read many different texts including Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Sherman Alexie’s The lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, primary sources about the Battle at Wounded Knee and a collection of student essays out of First person First Peoples. The questions ranged from historical significance to the overarching themes to modern day issues around the topic of Native Americans. I found the seminar to be really interesting because of all the different opinions of my classmates. Just like analyzing multiple sources of information to gain a better understanding of the truth, this seminar helped me see all the different opinions, some true and some not, and through that develop a better understanding of the content.
This project’s essential question was: How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history AND contemporary social, cultural and political realities? As I said before, reading multiple sources of text, and hearing opinions different to mine, lead me to better understand this project as a whole. Due to this, I can answer the first part of the question by saying there are many sides to a story, and to understand the story, you need to examine all sides. The second part of the question discusses how understanding past events will help us understand modern day issues. For example, we know that in the past, Native Americans were forced to move west when the settlers came and were only able to live on small amounts of land, better known as “reservations”. Today, these reservations have to deal with many issues such as education opportunity, funding, etc. Looking back, we can see that these issues stemmed out of historical events. Understanding the multiple sides of a story and how history has impacted modern day is important because we can better learn from our mistakes.
Click HERE to read my seminar prep!
Click HERE to read my journal #2!
Click HERE to read my journal #5!
Click HERE to read my journal #2!
Click HERE to read my journal #5!
The Morality and Politics of Justice
This first big project of the year focused on justice in America, and how the decisions that are made about big issues are justified. To start, we read The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, a play written by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence, and learned about civil disobedience. After, we read select chapters from Justice, by Michael Sandel, to understand different moral philosophies such as Deontology, Utilitarianism and Libertarianism and how they are applied to issues such as abortion, assisted suicide and others. We also explored the use of rhetoric in presenting arguments. The purpose of this project was to write an op-ed defending an issue in America and create a visual piece to represent our understanding of the different philosophies.
For my project, I chose the issue of police militarization in America. Coming into this project, I didn’t have a clear grasp on how I could address this issue and how I could relate it to a moral philosopher. But throughout the last two months, I was able to understand how people make choices and why they do. For example, a Utilitarian would make decisions based on maximizing happiness for people as much as they can, while a Libertarian would make a decision based on personal preferences. With this knowledge, I have been able to justify my views on current issues in a more coherent way than before.
Looking back at my op-ed and art piece, I feel that my understanding of the content we learned shows. My op-ed presents a clear argument which I spent a good amount of time on, making my feel proud of my work. I feel that the evidence I provided is strong, as well as the organization of the piece; I was able to transition from each idea to the next seamlessly. My art piece shows the same hard work and dedication as well, with a professional layout and idea.
If I had another week to work on this project, I would like to focus on the weakest parts of my op-ed and art piece to make them stronger. For example, my op-ed was required to connect to the Constitution in some manner, although I feel the way I did it could be enhanced. For my art piece, I would have liked to have spent more time searching for a quote, just to make sure I had picked the best one for my final piece. That said, I am satisfied with my final project and found this whole lesson to be engaging. I value the knowledge I have gained and hope to make all my decisions justified.
Click HERE to read my op-ed!
Click HERE to read my artist statement!
For my project, I chose the issue of police militarization in America. Coming into this project, I didn’t have a clear grasp on how I could address this issue and how I could relate it to a moral philosopher. But throughout the last two months, I was able to understand how people make choices and why they do. For example, a Utilitarian would make decisions based on maximizing happiness for people as much as they can, while a Libertarian would make a decision based on personal preferences. With this knowledge, I have been able to justify my views on current issues in a more coherent way than before.
Looking back at my op-ed and art piece, I feel that my understanding of the content we learned shows. My op-ed presents a clear argument which I spent a good amount of time on, making my feel proud of my work. I feel that the evidence I provided is strong, as well as the organization of the piece; I was able to transition from each idea to the next seamlessly. My art piece shows the same hard work and dedication as well, with a professional layout and idea.
If I had another week to work on this project, I would like to focus on the weakest parts of my op-ed and art piece to make them stronger. For example, my op-ed was required to connect to the Constitution in some manner, although I feel the way I did it could be enhanced. For my art piece, I would have liked to have spent more time searching for a quote, just to make sure I had picked the best one for my final piece. That said, I am satisfied with my final project and found this whole lesson to be engaging. I value the knowledge I have gained and hope to make all my decisions justified.
Click HERE to read my op-ed!
Click HERE to read my artist statement!