- Humanities Food Project Reflection -
Reflection
The food project was different from any thing I have ever researched or learned about in my former education. I found myself thinking about the food industry even outside of school. It affected my eating habits and my mind set about the things I consume on a daily basis. The purpose of this project was to give us a better understanding of how our modern day food system works and the little things we can do to make a big difference in our food system. The individual research we did allowed us to go further into topics having to do with the food system that we were interested in. The research we did during this project made us aware of the epidemics America's food industry is facing.
At first, I was skeptical about making a connection to this project; I understood that some of the food we consume is unhealthy, in fact I was well aware of that before we began this project. But when we began talking about the mistreatment of animals it started to hit me that this system was unnatural and unfair to the animals and the people who are being taken advantage of. Over the course of this project my thinking has changed in some ways and has remained the same in other ways. I now understand how the industrial food system targets us and that a lot of the foods we eat are not good for our bodies and are hurting our environment and our animals. I believe that cutting down on these foods is in my best interest. But I also think that it is just fine to have some junk food every once and a while, and eating a cheeseburger from McDonald's may be unhealthy but its not a sin. In other words, if more of us had a well rounded diet, we wouldn't be facing such extreme problems. By balancing out the foods we eat we can have a much healthier life style and planet. I plan to cut down on meat and junk food; but not completely. Part of life is enjoying things that please us, but not to the extent where we are having to much of a good thing.
This project was difficult for me to agree with at first. A lot of the information that was being thrown at me was very foreign to me so I didn't feel that it was accurate. Later on in our studies, we we began to read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" I began to warm up to the idea that we really had no idea what was going in to our food. Once we watched "Super Size Me" I really started to think about what I was putting in to my temple. After getting a better understanding of where we were headed with this project, I quickly became interested in how we developed cravings for these foods. This is where I had the idea for my research topic about food addiction. Putting a thesis statement together was difficult as well and took a lot of perseverance to create a developed statement for my paper. After my thesis statement was crafted finding solid evidence was easier said than done. In some cases I had to draw my own conclusions with the research I was finding. After doing research my paper came together pretty smoothly.
Looking back at my completion of this piece of writing, I have learned that I am not very strong at refining my own paper. In order to get corrections I would have to ask the help of others. In the future I would like to be able to correct and refine my paper and give myself more feed back. I also had trouble coming to a conclusion and spent more time on it that I should have. I would like to work on coming to a conclusion that ties the paper together. If I could do anything differently I would probably make more drafts of my paper, and taken less time researching and more time developing the paper; as well as having stronger topic sentences to open my paragraph with. Approaching other large writing assignments, I plan to make a detailed, organized outline of where I want to go with my essay. This will help me stay on track instead of taking my writing in all different directions. The last thing I need to improve is strengthening my wording, it will help me develop stronger writing and give me an overall better product.
Now that I have finished the food project I feel that I am prepared to answer the essential question, "How does one navigate their own personal omnivore’s dilemma in a world of abundant eating choices?" In order to navigate your own omnivore's dilemma in our world full of abundant eating choices, balance is key. Balancing your diet with organic fresh food and some processed food as well, you get just the right amount of both. Eating organic meat, fruits, and vegetables with some processed chips and cereal or whatever you please keeps your diet easier to maintain. Committing to completely organic can be expensive and difficult to do, but committing completely to industrial food is unhealthy and supports the food system. But if you keep your eating habits right in the middle of the spectrum then you are much better off to a healthy reasonable life style of eating.
Reflection:
Reflection:
The goal of this project was to reenact Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth with shadow puppets. This project had its ups and downs but overall we were able to create beautiful work. This success came with hard work, dedication, and perseverance. In this project I was the producer. As the producer it was my job to check up with everyone, help people who needed it, make schedules and organize the production. The production of Macbeth was a great learning experience.
I was able to connect to this project through my job in the play. I really enjoyed being the producer, while being able to voice a character, puppeteer, help with the puppets and help make some props, this made me feel like I got a taste of every position in the play. I mostly liked being busy, I enjoyed doing hard work and oddly enough I enjoyed the stress and pressure. These things pushed me to get things done and do everything in my power to make the play successful. During the course of this project I would have to say that my best moment was during the actual play. I had to move quickly and productively during scenes to get ready for the next and I don't think I have had that much excitement, frustration, pressure, or joy all at the same time in a while. When the audience began to clap at the end of the show, a burden came off of my shoulders and I felt very accomplished, and I think that is when I had my best moment.
This project was difficult in many ways, I think it was mostly difficult to stay organized through the entire course of it, it was also a lot to take in at once, jumping into Macbeth and trying to learn the language of it took a lot of focus and patience. The most challenging part of this project was getting ready for the next scene during the play. Nicholas and I had an organized system, but even that wasn't enough. We scrambled through the play with people asking questions, MIA puppets and puppeteers. I would change the scenes as fast as I could and deliver the puppets to each puppeteer. I persevered through the ending scene of the play when we did not have a recording. Although this was a dilemma we persevered through it and it didn't even think about stopping the play, we pushed through it and dug ourselves out of the hole.
During this project I learned a lot about myself. For one I learned that I like to be in charge of things. I learned how to get my peers to work with me and for me in a positive way. I learned through the frustrating times how to keep my composure under stress. This was a big learning experience for me because I learned how to control frustration and turn it in to positive drive to get things finished. I also found myself learning how to be a leader. Back stage when people asked me what to do and where things are, I had to step up as a leader and help them. I am glad that I gained so much knowledge from this experience.
Finishing the study of Shakespeare I feel more confident when answering the essential question of this project. "Why, 400 years later, does the English-speaking world still gravitate/celebrate the works of William Shakespeare?" I think that we still celebrate the works of Shakespeare simply because his poetry and plays are still relevant. We still have tragedies and people still fall in love, this is something that has never changed and we as modern day people can still relate to his work. I think as people we like the different ways that love, comedy, and tragedies are expressed. They are the basics of entertainment, and the way Shakespeare wrote them they stand the test of time.