but i will start by telling you how my day went today. it went very well, thank you for asking, in a fantastic way, but it did make my future life for the rest of the year potentially absolutely ridiculous. (hopefully!)
beginning of day: meeting with joe trumpey.
background story: so we were assigned a group research project on monday for my art design perspectives class that has to do something with the class lectures. (which is pretty broad...the main topics we discuss are green-themed having to do with sustainability and having an impact on the world). i emailed my friend lindsay about starting a group that will implement an ad campaign of sorts, but i didn't have a specific topic or focus in mind for us to do, only that a portfolio-quality product would come out of this project. ok. so she told me yesterday afternoon that she had been talking to alyssa about designing a 4th grade science-related presentation that we could present and implement in one (or multiple) of the elementary school in ann arbor. fantastic. this project has so much potential. that was yesterday.
as of today, our team is composed of alyssa, lindsay, grace and myself. we met with our professor to get our project okayed. he let us know that we have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to actually be able to present our presentation in the actual classrooms. we had a general idea, but since joe's wife is a teacher, he knew way more information about the things that we need to do in order to even possibly get the "go ahead" from a teacher. so one of our research topics is on the state-mandated curriculum benchmarks. we will now have to take a look at these benchmarks and form our presentation and information around these benchmarks, so that elementary school teachers would see us as helping us achieve these benchmarks and not just waste their time. fantastic.
our general idea right now is to aim big. some of the things that group members would like to see done is
get the presentation/curriculum published
website constructed and maintained
ad campaign
"green & sustainability carnival/fair"
video/commercial
sustainability-related science project
vegetable garden @ school
greater emphasis on recycling
the only way, right now, that we could even imagine completing many of these things is by getting a grant. so we are now in process for applying for a grant through GROCS here at the University of Michigan. It stands for Grant Research Collaborative Spaces. So we have to turn in our abstract by October 1. The 10 semifinalist groups will be announced on the 10th. And from there the semifinalists will have the remaining month of October to formulate their entire plan of action and complete proposal with how they would use each component of the interactive, collaboration to make a difference. I think we have a fantastic idea that would be perfect for what GROCS seeks to do. We want to teach elementary school children about sustainability and have a permanent impact on the school. Our goal is that whatever we do this year isn't just a one-time thing; we want the schools to hopefully add it to their curriculum in the years to come as well. GROCS would help us out so much! It would really be the perfect way to complete this project, by meeting with other groups and holding forums with them in the Design Lab 1. (I have a class held in Design Lab 1 this semester. I love it! It is a fantastic place to work and collaborate- it's so open!) Plus, the funds that we would receive from the grant would be somewhere around $9000! Which would really allow us to be able to have some events, pay for printing costs, buy materials, and essentially, allow us to have way more freedom for us to complete this project.
Now the first two really important issues that need to be addressed are that we need to a) find an individual in a different school within the University that would be interested in doing this project with us...and b) we need a moderator that would be in a different school than us & that student. We are strongly leaning towards a student from the Program in the Environment in LSA and/or one in the School of Education. As for a moderator, ideally one from the School of Natural Resource and the Program in the Environment would be perfect. Either a professor or a GSI can be our moderator.
So by Sunday night, we have a lot of research to be doing, will probably meet upwards of two or three times a week, and will be working like crazy until October 10 when we find out if we are a semifinalist group or not. I am psyched! I really think we can do this. We have a fantastic group of girls and we are all really motivated to complete this project and do it the absolute best we can. :)
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Other than that, I met with the Director of the senior care home that I want to do my CFC project at...and she seemed really skeptical of me and what my intentions are. I explained the project to her, but I don't think she really understands. It's frustrating. She says that I can't even come until Friday October 3. Which is way too late. I have to some way talk her into letting me come earlier than that. Hopefully my prof, Addie, might be able to write a letter to her so I can get okayed quicker. I need this project to get rolling, especially with ADP taking up so much of my time! And this group project is only 1/4 projects we have currently assigned for that class...crazy! I am going to have to start hardcore researching and getting my other ones done asap so that the huger projects can get done on time and well.
Other than that, I had Words and Images today. Thylias Moss, my prof for that one, is fantastic and intriguing. She always has really interesting things to say and ideas to put out there. We are starting on a project for her class as well. I am debating what I want to do for her class, besides the book altering project we will be doing...I am thinking, though, about having to construct a website. I am really strongly considering this, since I do not know how to do it and I need to learn! :) So I think this will be perfect. I also really want to do an ad campaign, but I think that just learning how to make a website is going to take up a huge amount of my time. I think that once I have that done and figured out, I will be able to consider other "forms" to work in as well. Something exploring the relationship between physically printed text, digitally "printed" text, and moving text using Motion might be a really good way to tie in different aspects of the project and would be great for exploring different ideas.
On another note, I am so glad I took Chiwei's class last year! It taught me really good time management and there is no way I would be able to keep up with that workload right now. There is no way, which would put me back a semester in some class :(
Everything happens for a reason.
And right now, I will go to sleep.
My reason is that I'm tired. So I will go.
I'm out.
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