Environmental Analysis – Fall 2015 – Portfolio
This is second ENVS core class at Lewis and Clark, taken the fall of my sophomore year. It explores how the key concepts introduced in ENVS 160 are used to ask and answer questions and conduct research. This takes the form of field work, statistical analysis, lecture, website building, project research, and concentration planning. This page links to all the work I have done this semester.
Synthesis Posts – See All Posts
We began the semester looking at place as a way to situate research. I explore this in comparison to my intro anthropology class in Wisdom Sits in Places. Continuing the theme of place, we looked at GIS as a tool for research. I later reflected on everything I learned using ArcGIS. Also reflecting from a lab, I had several additional thoughts on a popular book we analyzed, The World Without Us.
Coming to the midterm point, I reflected on the key skills developed in ENVS 220 thus far. I began by describing the process of cultivating a growth mindset. Then, I examined how my ability to ask questions has changed. Finally, I looked at all the new experiences I have tried this year so far.
After this was the week of Environmental Studies Symposium. It was the culmination of a project my group had been working on for almost a year, and it was great to see everything come together. I shared thoughts on my group’s contributions and the wonderful keynote, Elizabeth Demaray.
Following our last skills lab, I further inspected the process of interviewing for gathering qualitative information. Moving into our final lab project, I analyzed choosing a framing question for our project and how we came to our methodology.
At this point in time, racial tensions on the Lewis and Clark campus came to a fever pitch following threatening anonymous posts and a brutal attack on a black student. I wrote about my experience with this, specifically the protest.
Coming to the end of the semester, we read about environmental values, which we nicknamed ecotypes. One such reading discussed Integral Theory, which I related to a book I had just finished, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I also looked at the implications of ecotypes as identities.
Finally, as the semester came to an end, I reflected on both my experiences with our urban green spaces situated project and the semester as a whole. I discussed my most important takeaways from the semester and the areas I experienced the most growth.
Labs – See All Posts
Our first lab, RVNA Microclimate Lab, explores how elevation affects microclimate statistics in an introduction to data collection and analysis.
Then, we moved to deeper statistical analysis in the Inferential Statistics Lab, which analyzes and compares variables from UNEP Environmental Database. This was followed by the Spatial Analysis Lab that explores these relationships visually using GIS map analysis. After this, we continued to use GIS to explore environmental justice issues is Portland in our EJ GIS Lab.
Changing gears to more qualitative research, we looked at common views in popular environmental literature through our Environmental Literature Lab. After this was the Social Network Analysis Lab which looked at ways to visually and statistically represent relationships directly between people and between the ideas which connect people.
Following this were our last two skills labs, that explored the differences between extensive and intensive social research. Our group looked at perceptions of wilderness at Lewis and Clark quantitatively through a survey and qualitatively though interviews.
After gaining all these different tools and methods, we finally came to our situated project: Urban Green Spaces and Development in Portland. This link leads to the landing page where you check out our methods and results.
Concentration – See All Posts
Planning for my concentration, my focus for the next three years as an Environmental Studies major, first took plenty of brainstorming. Just narrowing down my interests to what intrigued me the most took a lot of thought and preliminary research. And once I decided I wanted to focus on technology and agriculture, I spent a lot of time considering the scale I wanted to pursue, finally coming to focus just on the implementation of technologies with specific examples to focus on. After a lot more research, I eventually came to my concentration draft proposal. There is a clear development of thoughts and questions asked throughout this process. Yet, I still had much revising to do with feedback from my professor, the steering committee, and other students before coming to my final proposal.
After weeks of careful thought and revision, I finally came to my final concentration (for now): Implementation of High-Tech Agricultural Innovation.