I wanted to take some time (so a post) to talk about the other projects that are going on in my praxis lab. I really think that they are all exceptional and worth talking about. I want to get the word out about them in addition to everything that I have been working on this semester.
Let's start with Anna. She has been working on a project this semester to illustrate how much land mass every car in the world takes up as compared to every person on the planet. She created a map and color coordinated it to show the corresponding land mass. The really impressive thing though, is that she did all of the calculations on her own because she is a civil engineer. She plans on making stickers out of the map and placing five of them on the sidewalk in high traffic areas around campus!
Marie: Marie has a pretty awesome project as far as I'm concerned. She wanted to create a resource for people who are wanting to escape human trafficking. I think that this is a really noble task to take on. She said that it has been a challenge, because there are resources available, but they are very hard to find! She is trying to bridge the gap between people who need help, and the help itself.
Kendra, Corinne, Maddie: This is a very awesome project that's going to help create more human interaction on campus! These lovely ladies are creating a kiosk where students, faculty, and staff can go and interact with one another. They will hopefully have a vendor there selling fruit, coffee, other produce, etc. There will also be clips separated into categories that people can post pretty much whatever they want to. There will be seating, and the kiosk will be located on the Marriot Plaza for anyone to use. I think it's going to be really great and they are making a ton of progress in getting it onto the plaza. I think it will be there in the Fall of this year.
Kayson: Kayson is very connected to his home town. Therefore, he chose to utilize the year in The Valley as a Laboratory to recreate a spring that was out underground in his hometown of Springville. He drew up a plan with one of our professors, Sumner Swaner, and he plans to pitch it to the municipal government in Springville. He was actually interviewing to be an intern in the mayor's office recently and if he got it he was going to use the connection to pitch the idea to bring the spring back, and make it beautiful.
Erica: Erica is pretty extraordinary. She is very independent and knows exactly what she wants to do, and I really admire that about her. She already works on keeping up the edible garden on campus, but she wants to put in an edible garden type of deal at the front of the sustainability resource center on campus. She is going to put a box on top of the door with different types of plants, and the planters around it will be planted with edible plants. I am so excited for this project, I hope that it takes off and spreads throughout the campus. I think she plans for the project to take off this summer, but at the very latest this fall.
Hannah: Hannah's project is REALLY awesome, and could be revolutionary for the healthcare community. She wants to create something that the homeless community can use so that they remember their appointments at the free clinic downtown, or the fourth street clinic. She has already gotten $13,000 extra to work on the project and come up with a prototype. She went to a convention in Boston to learn more about what she could do, and she said it was a real eye-opening experience and she got to see Boston for the first time! Her project will probably end up being her thesis project and it could be so awesome for her academic career! I'm really excited for her.
Gui: Gui took a while to figure out what her project was going to be, just like Ashley and I. She decided to create a sort of "wilderness playground" for a local elementary school. It will be a natural playground to introduce the children to the natural world at a younger age. She is also hoping to establish a community garden RIGHT outside of the school grounds so that the community can come garden, but so can the kids attending the school. I think it will introduce a lot of exciting life skills for the kids, and it will help take them away from all the new age technology that keeps them inside nowadays!
Everyone in this lab has done extraordinary things this year. I am so humbled to have known all of them and what they are capable of. I hope to keep in touch and to keep getting updates on their projects, but even if I don't I know that they'll all do great things in their lives. Good luck to them all!