Blog 2

                                                Infrastructure  

The beginning:

This project was quite the journey. From the very beginning I was excited because I love every single topic, infrastructure, gender inequality, and climate change; and I actually enjoy talking about them. We got infrastructure which I believed, at the time, that it was the one I knew the least about. However, I was highly mistaken. Infrastructure is quite literally everything and everywhere: from the electricity in your house, to your car, to the dinner you have that night. I was really looking forward to finding out what entailed infrastructure. As a group, we made different sections to best explain infrastructure from as many angles as possible. Then, we did the research!

Favorite Parts:

I loved finding research for my portion of the presentation. It was actually difficult to narrow down what I wanted to focus on. There were great websites and articles with so much information that I would go down so many rabbit holes. I’m also the type of person that talks to my friends and my significant other to get their point of view or what they know about the topic, so I had a great time giving them crazy facts. The one about oil spills leading to marine mammals with fur to die of hypothermia was insane to me. How can that even be?

Aside from doing the research and learning so much more about sections of infrastructure, I really enjoyed interviewing David Alfonso, a Production Lead for FP&L. I wanted to focus on his main project: the feeder hardening program, which focuses on making the poles more resistant against hurricanes (able to withstand 145MPH wind gusts!!!). I find it so interesting how technology has improved how poles are done, installed, taken out, etc. What blew my mind the most was how they take into consideration the environment. I thought it was obvious for a company like FP&L to have an environment department, not only for moral purposes but also because of its magnitude. The company is way more prone to get sued. It was so sweet to hear the stories of how they take care of something as simple as a bird’s nest. If I am being honest, David is my boyfriend. It was a lot of fun being able to ask him more in depth questions and watch him geek out about his profession. Because of this, it made it easier for me to come up with questions. I hear about his day every single day and overhear meeting all the time, even on vacation. 

Other Presentations:

When I look at my whole experience of this project: as an individual, as a group, as a class, my most favorite part was the interview with Mike Matthews, the Director of Miami-Dade College: Earth Ethics Institute. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of his interview. I love watching knowledgeable people talking about a topic they are clearly fascinated by. I love learning about Earth and the things that we encounter on our everyday routine and how that has an effect on this large spinning rock we call home. From the first presentation I also liked how it had to do with my section of the project. When they spoke about transportation and how it releases gases into the atmosphere, it reminded me about my research regarding airplanes and how much worse it is than cars. I liked that they included examples of ways that we can help improve our environment.

I learned so much from the second presentation. It is a known fact that men make more than women in the majority of professions. However, the fact that a male pilot makes 26.6% more than a female pilot blew my mind. Their interview of Dr. Lammey was amazing. What she said regarding studies and how most of the time the people in these studies are less likely to be a woman or a part of a minority group really made me think about all of the studies we look at and think of as concrete answers. In reality, how accurate are they if there is a big portion of our population that is not even thought of?

Obstacles: 

Nothing changed from the last blog. The biggest obstacles for me for this project was the group aspect. I struggle with delegating and less than half of our group takes initiative. Since the group has a lot of members, it makes it more difficult to get to a come up with a plan faster. It could be because we are not in agreeance or my least favorite one: no one replies. I do understand the purpose of group projects though and we do learn a lot about everything when immersed into one. We especially learn about ourselves. A small hurdle was when I found out last minute I was going to be out of the country for the day of our presentation. I was nervous because I have never traveled with any technological devices and what if my Wi-Fi was terrible or if I didn’t have any at all? I was worried about not being home for this, but Professor Sinkoff gave me the green light for it. I really liked having the option of filming myself. I was able to finish the project extra early and not have to worry about the rest. 

Conclusion:

This was an interesting experience because for most of the presentations I was not able to watch live. I think every group did a fantastic job. I feel like we all improved from the previous presentation. Like I mentioned previously, group projects truly help in so many more aspects than just learning about the material you are researching. It helps learn things from other people’s perspectives, hold others accountable, responsibility, and so much more. All of these are incredibly valued by employers. Finishing our second round of presentations also makes me think about the fact that the semester is almost over which also means that I am almost done with my Crime Scene Technician certificate!