The Ecological Imagination
Sophomore year, fall 2020:
My perspective was flipped this class had such a contrasting theme it made my worldview deepen in so many amazing ways. The English and science content played off each other’s strengths and truly made for an amazing experience. At first, I had no idea how these concepts would intertwine flawlessly but nevertheless my professors communicated with us in a way to take a once straightforward thought process into an interworking network of connections throughout the realm of what we once presumed to be the “basic” ecological imagination.
What truly interested me about this class was its ability to seamlessly incorporate all of the factors contributing to my life this new weird semester. I crave knowledge and the pursuit of things each day can present and the intense English component of this course pushed my limits of outside-the-box thinking that stimulated my everyday thought processes. I also ache for a real connection to nature and this is interlocked with this pursuit of knowledge as knowing more about the ecological systems around me I am way more permeable to how the environment is currently affecting my everyday life. I am very passionate about biology and how the ebb and flow of life is beautiful and how everything is truly connected and the deep-running theme of this class just continuously supported that thought.
The opportunity to have two separate minds with various perspectives looking at and analyzing your work is a true blessing while some may be intimidated that was not the goal of the professors as they used this opportunity to their advantage to push the students to constantly search and build on their work in a way that was constructive instead of restrained to the “normal learning standards.” Taking my experiences from this class in the future will allow me to find connections within my studies and my current life experience and play off of their strengths and weaknesses to find a deep-rooted connection to see a bigger picture that reflects who I am and my interest to learn more about the environment.
My artifact for this class can be found here, this was my final paper for the class. This paper was on “Analyzing mycorrhizal fungi symbiotic relationship of trees’ ability to communicate.” I really enjoyed writing this paper because of my fascination with trees in general. I love to hike and when I see a big old tree and I am honestly awestruck every time, I see trees as having stories and standing the test of time and tribulation.
Artifact details: Name; Davice Jones, Date: (11/11/2020), Title; Analyzing mycorrhizal fungi symbiotic relationship of trees’ ability to communicate.