Rewilding

This blog is going to become my new survival blog. I'm going to use this blog to collect information that will be useful in the event that the bottom drops out of civilization.

Standards redux

As I posted earlier, I was thankfully able to find a standard that emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of environmental science. My project addresses this by explaining the environmental nature of the local versus organic debate, and also the health, and economic nature of the debate. In order for environmental issues to be addressed, it is important for students to understand that other factors will also necessarily come into play.

Wishing: a natural byproduct of wondering

First: a link to my final product.

I think that every information inquiry project that pertains to something that I "wonder" about ends up with additional "wishes" which lead to further inquiry. Here are some of my wishes.

• I wish that there were real "answers" to the local versus organic question. There are many interesting avenues of thought, and they are of value, but I get the impression that when teaching to standards, lessons need to be a bit more concrete than this one.
• I wish that I had a bit more free time so that I could develop a final product that included more multi-media. I was able to include some in this blog, but not in my final product.
• I wish I had been able to find more technical data on my subject. I found many opinion pieces, and some of them included the data from some scientific studies, but I think that my project was missing the punch of hard data.

And to illustrate the circular nature of personal inquiry...

• I wonder if within a few years, more will be certain in this debate.
• I wonder if, as fossil fuels become increasingly expensive, more farming might become organic due to the scarcity or expense of pesticides and fertilizers.
• I wonder if I could live on a "100 mile diet" if I needed to do so.

I'm not certain that I was supposed to leave this assignment with as many questions as I brought to it, but that seems to be the way it has turned out.

The 8Ws served me well, and I appreciate that the model allows for the repeat of some steps if the information found initially leads to new questions and new directions. I found that after Wiggling and Weaving, I needed to revisit my topic formulation (wondering) and then so some more Webbing. Some of the other models seem a bit simplistic, such as the ISP model by Kuhlthau, which seems to go straight from information collection (stage 5) to search closure (stage 6). Adjustment for additional questioning doesn't take place until the final "reflection" stage. I would rather not begin anew once my project is finished!

Wrapping and Waving: the delivery of a product

It has been necessary for me to print a hard copy (sorry trees) of my research in order to process it and highlight the key information for inclusion in my final project. This is (for me) the most tedious part of the Inquiry process.

Once the final product is complete, I will post it, and my "Wishing" post here in my Inquiry blog. Wish me luck!

Another nice video clip to evaluate

Click To Play

Weaving and Wrapping: decisions about content delivery

It looks as if that diagram that I did was really part of the Weaving process. What it showed me is that I don't really have quite enough information to make a "wow" project. I've been looking for additional information, and I think I'm making good headway. My next step will be to add to my Inspire diagram and then decide what format to deliver my project in (Powerpoint, Webquest, MSWord document, or Pathfinder are options that come to mind)

These folk seem to be making something good happen. I'm not sure yet if I can use any of the information in my project, but I thought I'd post it here until I have time to review it in more detail.

Wondering redux

With a standard that is pretty wide open, and very little in my Inspire diagram, I think it's actually time to widen my focus a little. Rather than focus only on an "Earth Science" perspective, I think we can broaden into the economic and health issues that are involved in the "Local versus Organic" debate. So on that note - back to Webbing!