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Where were you when we began this process? What’s been happening in between? What have you been learning? Where are you now? Where do you think the edges of your learning now lie?

When I first decided to take this 360 I was very nervous. I was about to take on a very different course cluster then I am normally used to. Throughout these 4 years at Bryn Mawr I have been focused on taking science classes. Typically science classes that involve lectures and lab work with very little room for discussion. This semester I took on classes that I never thought I would take at my time at Bryn Mawr. English and Education are two subjects that were foreign to me. I kept thinking whether or not I would be able to handle those class. I had taken on an Economics before and it did not go well for me so I was very hesitant on taking on another Economics class. I was also hesitant on taking another 360. Last year I took a 360 cluster about Renewable Energy that had two class components: Applied Environmental Science and the Chemistry Behind Renewable Energy. That particular cluster gave me a very different idea as to what a 360 was like. There wasn’t a strong connection with the 360 class and in one of the classes there were multiple non-360 students taking it. Despite all of these hesitations I wanted to expand on my Bryn Mawr education and decided to take this 360 and I am grateful that I did.

Throughout this semester I have pushed myself more, however I feel that I could have pushed myself even further especially when it came to sharing my thoughts, ideas, and opinions. I feel that I pushed myself creatively and visually throughout this semester through creative projects, our trips to Camden, the Story Slam, and the art installation. I have been learning to be more creative and express myself that way whether it is through videos, photos, sounds/music, or dances.

Review your participation in our group work in the classroom and beyond:

Participation has always been difficult for me. Typically I take notes throughout the class and review them to absorb everything I have learned or was covered due to my learning differences so class discussions were difficult for me. However I feel that I have grown and pushed myself further and not being as afraid to speak my mind. In the different classes I participated more when we had group work in the classroom or talking to someone one-on-one. As a class we would continue talking about what we were discussing in class during lunches or even when we were doing work together at night.

For the story slam I did a lot of the organizational work such as getting the space, ordering the equipment, getting in contact with the 360 coordinator, and getting the food. I tried to stay in touch with the other members in the logistics team as well as the progress on what the other teams were doing.

Re-consider your reading for the cluster:

Coming from a science background I was more used to reading and analyzing scientific texts. I enjoyed a majority of the readings for Education and English. The readings that I enjoyed the most were the reading we did for Ecologies of Minds and Communities. Particularly the articles written by  Sobel (Children and Nature: Design Principles), Freeman & Tranter (Children & Urban Environment) and Judson (A New Approach to Ecological Education). Some of the overall themes that I enjoyed reading were particularly about the idea of access. Whether it’s access to nature in a physical sense or an access to talking about the environment in schools such as language differences.

In Re-creating Our World: Visions, Voice, Value there were a lot of text read throughout the semester. The reading I enjoyed the most would be All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki. The novel was easy to read and enjoyable. I was absorbed by the text, getting angry at certain characters to the point where I was shouting at them in my room. A majority of the other readings were complex and difficult to analyze and took me more time to read. Over the course of the semester I grew as a reader by managing my time in order to finish all of the readings especially since I wasn’t used to reading 100 pages in a week.

The reading in the textbook for Economics was interesting, however when it came to the quizzes online the text never seemed to help me answer the questions. The other articles that we read for Economics were interestesting, especially reading articles focusing on Camden, cemeteries, as well as the research we did for the class. It was interesting to put ourselves in someone else's shoes that we might not have the same opinions as, for example the billionaire from Australia who doesn't care about harming the environment, he just cares about making money. I wish we had more readings throughout the class, specifically going into Economics acting with Environmental Issues. 

Review your written work:

Over the course of the semester I have written 26 posts ranging from essays, paragraphs, or comments. In Re-creating Our World: Visions, Voice, Value we wrote a total of 4 papers as well as short paragraph posts either about a reading or a recent field trip. My first essay entitled “Home is the Environment” I talked about my multiple homes and how I was held back from exploring my homes even further. I enjoyed writing that piece and it was a great way to reflect on my childhood. The second essay was entitled “Exiled by Natural Disasters?” which talked about location of a home and whether or not natural disasters try to exile you from your homes, specifically talking about Hurricane Sandy and the damage New Jersey and New York had after the storm. My third piece was entitled “Living Memories.” Originally for this piece I wanted to talk about cultures and how people are respected and treated after they have passed away. I started to talk about a memory during my childhood when my mother told me I couldn’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery if I got a tattoo. After that I began talking about different cultures with different practices, but overall the essay became more of a reflection piece as opposed to an essay. My fourth piece was entitled “Representation in Science: Bias and Negativity” in which I talked about the idea of representing science and climate change data to non-scientists and how biases can get in the way of having proper data. For this piece I thought more about how the essay would look online so I tried to draw the reader in by starting with photographs and also including a video to make the essay more appealing to an online audience.

In Ecologies of Minds and Communities my favorite posts were “Nature Autobiography: Seaweed Life”, “Miss Rumphius: The Lupine Lady”, and “The Kids are in Charge”. Similar to the first essay for Re-creating Our World my first essay for this class discussed my childhood environment, specifically my home in Wisconsin. The second essay was for a Childrens Lit project where we analyzed a childhood book. I chose the book Miss Rumphius and analyzed the fact that Miss Rumphius tried to make the natural world more beautiful, but the book never discussed making a city more beautiful. That nature can be found all over the world, not just the stereotypical idea of nature. The third essay I talked about school systems

In Working with Economic Data: Valuing the Environment there were a number of memos such as a Cost Benefit Memo, Describing a Negative Externality Market Failure, Explaining a Price Paper, and a Community Profile assignment. My written work started off strong, but I had some difficulty with creating graphs for some of the assignments, however I started corrective the past assignments and re-doing the graphs.

Describe your critical/active engagement with the creative portion of the class:

At the beginning of the semester when we first starting talking about creative projects I was excited and had so many ideas for what I wanted to do. Originally my idea was to create music using sounds I recorded during our various trips as well as sounds online. I was then going to choreograph duet incorporating the music as well as thinking about lighting, location, and background. I realized I stretched myself too far and ended up changing my entire idea. As I had conference about my creative work I felt discouraged. My work was considered to be a cliché and that everything needed to reworked that I had already spent hours working on. In the end I made some changes, but the majority of the work I created was kept the same and I was proud of what I accomplished. Throughout the process of creating our creative projects I talked with other students individual about their projects and ways in which they could make changes. I also continued working on my second creative project which I have shared a link to a GoogleDoc below:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4Dqvs2l51_UR0dxa3dxUkhvS3M&usp=sharing

I also got the chance to help create a performance for the 360 Art Installation with Ava. Even though I couldn’t physically perform the dance I was glad to have been able to help “choreograph” the piece and seeing a fun follow the leader dance routine and it worked well with the music round.

Overall I feel that I grew a lot throughout the semester as a dancer, as a thinker, as a learner, and as a student. I wish I pushed myself even further and not have been so afraid to speak my mind amongst my peers. I learned a lot throughout the 360 and have a new appreciation for Education, English, and Economics that I would not have found if I hadn’t taken this 360.