Schmeekle Final

Overall, I've had a pretty good experience with the service learning project this semester. I was happy with our decision to volunteer in Schmeekle because it gave us a chance to get outside and interact with nature. I wish I could have done something a little more interactive with people, but due to scheduling conflicts with me and my partner Lauren as well as lack of transportation, we had to make due with a project right here on campus. At first, I wasn't too crazy about having to do a service learning project, even through the first couple of weeks. Because the weather was so uncooperative, we just didn't like the idea of going outside. But as it got nicer out and we actually set up a work schedule with Schmeekle, it was a lot less of a hassle and more fun to go out and walk the trails to pick up litter. I was completely amazed by how much litter there actually was throughout the reserve, and it made me realize just how much of a problem it is. Especially after our class trip to Schmeekle, I developed a greater respect for the plant and animal life out there that may suffer because of pollution caused by people being careless. I am very happy with our efforts because a lot of people use Schmeekle, and no one wants to see garbage everywhere they turn when they go out there to enjoy some time with nature. Now, I am much more conscious of myself and throwing away my own garbage as well as encouraging others not to litter. I notice it around campus more often as well. This project has given me the opportunity to make a difference in the community, which was something new for me because I had never really done much community service in the past. It was fun to do something outside of the classroom as well, because the conventional method of lectures and labs gets a little repetitive at times. I also enjoyed spending extra time with people outside of class because it gave me a chance to get to know Lauren in a more casual setting. It was also fun to see how the environment adapted to the changing seasons, from winter to spring. It's amazing how much nicer everything looked once the snow melted, puddles dried up, and flowers/vegetation started springing up. Overall, it's been fun and I've learned a lot!

Finally Finished

We are finally done with our project. On Monday we did our presentation in the dorm and I think that went over very well. We had about ten or fifteen people show up which was fairly good. Most of the people there we our friends so sometimes they weren’t always on their best behavior. When things did get settled down the presentation was really good and some of the guys even had questions. I think we did a good job explaining everything to them even the things that weren’t in the power point.
Now that it is all over I’m really glad that I did the project. When we first decided to do a project on common dorm sicknesses I didn’t think I would learn very much because again these things are quite common and people just know about them. But, there were some very interesting things about some of these sicknesses that we found we quite interesting. Some of the troubles we ran into while working on this project was just time to work together. We all had very different schedules and personal lives that sometimes made it hard for us to communicate with each other outside of class. We got over these obstacles very well and we put together a great project.
Looking back on what we did I think that we probably should have done more sicknesses. The ones we did were great and worked really well for our concept but there were a few others that we could have done that would have made it better. I also found the teaching aspect to be quite difficult. It can be challenging to get eighteen and nineteen year old guys to always stay on track and focused. Now I can see what some teachers may have to go through and I can say it can be a little frustrating.
Although teaching was difficult at times it was a great experience. It taught me that even though when I’m in class there are things that we do that don’t seem so bad really do annoy teachers. This I’m hoping will help me develop into a better student. I really enjoyed working with my group. We got a lot accomplished and we worked well together. Overall I had lots of fun working on this project and I got a lot more out of it than I ever thought. It was a fun and interesting experience for me and I enjoyed it a lot more than I ever thought I would.