It’s been some time since I’ve documented my progress so far in ENVS 220, and now seems like a great time because we have finished all of our skills labs and will be moving into our concentration project. Here are some of my thoughts on the major aspects of ENVS 220 so far.
LABS
I feel as though ALL of our skills labs so far have been useful in the interdisciplinary study of environmental studies. The range, from quantitative to qualitative, of the labs has given a fair emphasis on the two methods of research. The major problem with ENVS 220 labs though stems from its lack of proper lab procedures; for each lab, procedures were written block paragraph style, indeed a style that over-complicates a simple task. I strongly believe that this block style lab procedure page should be revised into a more simple format; while the argument can be made that students should be able to pull directions from a large paragraph of information (and even that the extraneous information is useful in some way), if instructions are laid out clearly, then more can be accomplished in the labs by the students, leading to a deeper understanding of and a more replicable skill set. The labs in ENVS 220 are great, but with some minor formatting (and subsequent additions), I believe they can be outstanding.
DS and Posts
The emphasis on creating and maintaining a professional-looking DS site has been both rewarding and unrewarding at the same time. I’ve enjoyed documenting the work of my past and present, but because there is little strict grading in this course, I believe that there should be a stricter guideline in DS posts and the subsequent grading of the posts. Indeed, we don’t even get grading or feedback on our weekly lab posts. This is a part of ENVS that is in extreme need of revision; DS posts should be assignments that are graded for quality, so students can become more skilled in writing. Quality feedback translates to quality work, and this stands true for DS posts. True, students can meet with the professor one on one every week to discuss this topic, but scheduling a meeting just to get feedback on what is considered “homework” for this class is, in my opinion, quite unfair and is not present in any of the courses I have previously taken in my academic career here at LC and other institutions.
Concentrations
ENVS 220 emphasis on concentration work is very admirable. Few other majors require such in depth research into one’s own topic of choosing at such an early stage in a student’s career, but it works with the ENVS program. On top of this, the spacing of the concentration across the semester has been effective, and constant feedback is greatly appreciated by all students. Improvement in this area involves helping students find the topic they would like to pursue; I have been lucky in that I know what I would like to concentrate in, but many of my peers in ENVS 220 do not. I feel as though there should be support from the ENVS department for students who are deciding what to concentrate in so that they may choose viable and interesting topics.