I took this class during the first summer term in 2019. It was much different from any other class I had previously taken beforehand. We actually got to go and experience how people live and react to issues regarding Yellowstone National Park. We did this by first learning a bit about the main issue of wolves and then the issues we were assigned in groups while still at Longwood. We used Farmville as a place for us to start developing our skills to talk to others about issues and observe what was going on in the place. I have come to learn that this skill we used throughout the entire class is called place-as-text. This class pushed me out of my comfort zone to ask some interesting questions and form my own conclusions on the issues we learned about and helped teach each other about.
Many of the assignments from this class taught me how to think in a different way. The ones that particularly stuck out to me were the place-as-text assignments we had to do. I have already mentioned the Farmville one as my introduction to this activity. The activity showed me how to open my mind and see issues and everyday things of this place I have grown used to in different ways than I normally do. The assignment prepared me for what was wanted of us in Yellowstone and made me understand just how much you can learn by talking to people about certain issues. It also helped that we were in groups doing this activity, so it was not just one persons opinion but many opinions about an important topic. All of these things helped me to grow this skill throughout the trip and even after it was done.