For our final exam in ENVS 220, students gathered in a classroom to present to each other our respective group projects through live presentation and posters. It was a wonderful low-stress opportunity to see what other groups have been up to and also to showcase all the hard work that we’ve done as individuals, teams, and as a class. Overall, the session went quite smoothly, but I wish I could have stayed for the ending remarks (I had another commitment at an hour and a half into the session). After a long term of hard work on concentrations and projects, this “final” was exactly what we needed as a class. Differences among our groups were apparent and highlighted the strengths and weaknesses, the lessons learned and those still to be learned, of doing ENVS-quality research on various topics. I especially enjoyed the projects about salmon, attitudes towards environmentalism, and craft coffee.
Appropriately, we were also assessing each other on the quality of our projects. While this is a crucial component of the poster session, I feel as though there was too much pressure to rank ALL ten poster groups that much was overlooked. I believe that a simpler form can be utilized to rate our projects and that doing this will help students be much more interested in each others’ projects. When a long form is due for each group, the task becomes laborious and quite boring, and it dissuades people from talking informally poster-style about their projects (which I think is an essential skill!). I noticed this as I walked around the room Tuesday night and made a conscious decision to have an actual conversation with the member representing each group. The response was always positive, the member was eager to share, and the sentiment that “I wish more of us would talk to me about my project” was widespread. Besides this hiccup, I loved this poster session.
Tuesday night was a great way to wrap up the semester and ENVS 220. I thank everyone who has been involved, as a peer or as a mentor.