Monday, December 10, 2007

Survival Guide to English 304

Having Ms. Rogers for English 304 is a true blessing. She puts so much effort into the class on her end that it will be easy to put effort into the class on your end. She makes the relevance of English 304 in the real world very clear and I really appreciated that - otherwise the class would have just been another requirement for me to graduate.

The main focus of the class is a client based group project. At first, the project may seem scary and overwhelming but Ms. Rogers walks the class through step-by-step and is there to help. Also, because it is a small group project (3-4 people), it is easy to distribute the work load evenly. The critical thing to remember here is to elect a group leader who is good at delegating work so that everyone puts in the same amount of work. Also, show up for you group meetings and pull your own weight. The project is a wonderful way to give back to the community and it takes the entire group to pull it together.

Don't forget about your blog. You will have a blog entry due every Sunday. It is a very simple assignment but an easy one to forget about.

Finally, put a little effort into your online portfolios and the documents you include in these portfolios. You will have 3 portfolios due across the semester and one of the most important documents you will include in these are your resume. Put some time and effort into this because if you do it now you won't have to change it too much when you graduate and are actually looking for a real job.

Enjoy English 304 with Ms. Rogers! She tries so hard to make it fun, rewarding, and relevant and you should appreciate that because there are many teachers out there who don't care whether you succeed or fail in school or in the real world.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Rainbows + Plants...who knew...

This past week, a major research paper was due for my horticulture class (vegetable crops). My topic, which my professor came up with, was about rainbows. More specifically, how rainbows are created, the pigments involved (and the perception of those colors), and how the pigments in rainbows are significant to vegetable crops. When I first read this topic, the first thing that ran through my mind was, "Oh man, how in the world am I going to get 5 single spaced pages out about rainbows?!?" I was panicked. But, once I got on the right track with the research it was hard for me to stop writing. Apparently, plants are able to perceive different colors, and many of the colors in the rainbow can have a great effect on the plant in many different ways. Green, for instance, is a color associated with the photosynthetic processes of the plant. Also, the colors that surround a plant can help stimulate plant growth. For example, research has shown that if you mulch tomato plants with red mulch, they grow much taller and more vigorously. I also truly began to understand not only the horticultural implications of such knowledge but also the economic impact for both large operation and small farmers.

I was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of knowledge I stumbled upon once I began to dig deeper into this topic. It has been a while since I've had to write a research paper, which could help explain my initial anxiety about the task. However, being assigned a topic with a surprising amount of hidden significance (and realizing that there is more to a rainbow than just a just a band of color with a pot of gold at the end).