The last ten weeks of fall term and the assignments we have done taught me many different things about sustainability. Everything that we have done was related to one or more of the university studies goals, which are Inquiry and Critical Thinking, Communication, The Diversity of Human Experience, and Ethics and Social Responsibility. The assignments teach me different ways to be sustainable but also the goals that Portland State teaches us. Sustainability may be one of the most important Social Responsibilities we can learn and pass on.
The very first assignment was to bring in an object and explain why it’s sustainable. This project required finding an object that was sustainable and describing why. This process required both inquiry and critical thinking. Writing and talking about the item brought in was a use of communication. We had to effectively communicate so that everyone understood why you thought it’s sustainable. This assignment really taught me that there were many different forms of sustainability and that everyone’s perspective on it was different.
Another project that we were assigned to do was the Farmers Market project. That was a group project comparing and contrasting the products from Safeway and the farmer’s market. This project addressed many of the university studies goals. The first goal that it related to was inquiry and critical thinking. This was because you had to find the similarities and differences between the products at the farmers market versus Safeway and talk to the vendors at the farmers market to see how they produced their crops. Communication was addressed because we interviewed people at the farmers market about their products and presented our findings to the whole class. Human experience was addressed because we got to understand how people produce the foods that we eat and what the lifestyle meant to them. The process is long and hard and makes you appreciate the result much more. Lastly, ethics and social responsibility were addressed. Working with a group of people is hard because everyone’s schedule doesn’t match and opinions are usually quite different. These facts, on top of working with people that you just met and don’t know much about, requires We learned Social Responsibility from the farmers and from working with each other. The Farmers also helped us understand their ethical obligations and we had to have ethical practices in preparing our work.
Over the last ten weeks we learned how to go deeper in research, manage time wisely and interview people. The essay’s that were written about Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan were another way to get a feel for the university studies goals. Communication is addressed because your perspective is being told through your writing. Inquiry and critical thinking because you read the book then think about what to write. It must relate, answer the prompt and also answer the reading discussion questions. The reading discussions and essays related to the last two goals of ethics and social responsibility and the diversity of human experience. They helped make me realize what is expected in a college- level essay. Reading the book made me realize how hard the farmers work to produce the foods that we eat and how hard and weird the food making process is. It made me re-think some of the foods that I was putting into my body.
Looking back, the assignments we did actually taught us a lot when at the time it seemed like it would be a silly assignment. Within only ten weeks I have learned a lot about sustainability that I had no idea about before. For instance I had no idea that pretty much everything that we eat has corn in it. This class has helped me understand and think about the world we live in ways I never did before. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year in sustainability has to offer!