Month: November 2018

This project has helped me realize how many possible perspectives there are for any certain subject. You’re able to go into great detail on the possible solutions for the potential subject that would be impossible without studying multiple disciplines.

 

A lot of the time with certain subjects the different disciplines conflict with each other’s opinions on the subject. For example, with our project of pipelines, the disciplines of economics and ecology butted heads. From the economic perspective it shows the benefits of creating a pipeline as it produces thousands of jobs that are long-lasting and even more for the construction of it which boosts the economy, but from an ecological perspective it has negative effect on the environment around it as it requires cutting forests down and tunneling and if there is a spill then it does incredible damage to the world around it, completely ruining the ecosystem is in.

 

Due to the relevance of the issues, it’s hard to come to a resolution. The two compared disciplines are completely against one another. From the ecological standpoint, the only acceptable outcome would be removing all pipelines and never building them again, this would allow the ecosystems to recover and would save the environment from future catastrophes. Whereas the economic ideals are about the progress and improvement of the economy not necessarily the effects of a possible spill. Which is the issue with this argument, the possibility of an oil spill with the pipeline is not guaranteed to happen, but it is highly likely that it could happen and ruin the environment. Without a guarantee, the two sides of the argument are arguing over possibilities and therefore no one will ever be correct.

 

Through this work I’ve seen the huge economic damage an oil spill can have on an area, not including the cost of clean-up, with it completely destroying the economy by eliminating possible jobs through the destruction of the environment. It also showed me the immense damage to the environment even a small oil spill can do to sources of water

 

I am still incredibly interested in the dynamics of the relationship between ecology and economics and they tend to be disciplines that tend to not agree with one another. With the ecological focus, it is very difficult to benefit economically in the short term as it tends to be economically costly to preserve the environment. Yet with the economic focus, it does not have much concern for the environment as it’s not very economically viable to put effort into.

With now finishing the second month of this course I’ve gained an appreciation for the use of interdisciplinary in everyday life and other classes. It has given me other perspectives for my learning and broadened my knowledge by letting me use other experiences from other classes.

 

This month’s case study of food has given me a perspective of how easy it is to waste food in everyday life. Even if you use everything that you purchase from the grocery store to cook or to create compost there is a huge amount of produce that is wasted by farming standards. Whether it be size, colour or any deformities incredible amounts of food gets wasted even before it arrives at the store. Once they are at the store tonnes of food is thrown away if they go past their “Sell by” date even if they are still good to eat. These foods could be given to shelters or sold for a lower price than food that is still ahead of the sell-by date.

 

I’ve attempted to engage with the reading by relating to my everyday life and putting the methods that they suggest into practice, such as using as much of the food purchased as possible and growing food in my backyard and using all of the of food produced. It is much less wasteful if you grow your own food as there are no standards for size and shape of it. They may look a little different, but will exactly the same. These standards exist as people are much pickier if they have to pay for it, but if someone has to put immense amounts of time and effort into something are must less likely to waste what the make.

 

The students that I’ve spoken to in our class usually share the same thoughts as me when it comes to food waste. They believe that we could do much better with how much food is thrown away by farms or stores similarly to me. They believe that the current state of our agricultural is not good enough and needs improvement as it’s incredibly wasteful and harmful to the environment and the planet. Eventually, it will not be enough to sustain our population growth and we will not be able to cope with the necessary changes. We are already seeing that with famines across Africa and the Middle East in places where they do not have the opportunity of constantly stocked shelves. We need to share our mass amounts of food and not have so much go to waste.

 

With creating an ePortfolio it’s given me the opportunity to document my progression throughout the course and other courses I’ve taken and lets me reflect on my past opinions and thoughts. Having the portfolio will give me the opportunity to look back on my past years at Capilano in the future and show me my development as a student to see how I’ve progressed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the ePortfolio affects my perspective of my education and how I reflect on it in the future.

1.
North Vancouver Museum and Archive
Fromme Family Fonds
Fond 188

2.
The Fromme Family Fonds are fonds from the area of Lynn Valley which begun when Julius Fromme and his family moved to the valley 1887. This fond provides a detailed description of the development of the Lynn Valley area and Fromme mountain from the perspective of the Fromme family tree until 1993 due to personal documents submitted by the ancestors of Julius. The fond contains a variety of different forms of historical documents; from photographs and personal documents to household account books and business and community records. Finally the fond contains clippings from newspapers, a history from Lynn Valley Church and other public records from around Lynn Valley pertaining to the family.

3.
The original function of the fond is to provide insight into the effect that one of the most influential families had on the Lynn Valley area, a family so influential that a mountain was named after them. The audience of said fond would be any wish to gain a deeper understanding of what went on for Lynn Valley to become the area that it is due to an incredibly helpful family.

4.
The argument that the document creates can be seen that, without the arrival of the Fromme family, Lynn Valley would not be quite as developed as it is today. This is due to the fact that the Frommes had a such a huge effect on the surrounding area, especially that when Julius arrived in the area it took him only a few years to set up the Lynn Valley Lumber Company. Julius was also a part of many organizations and boards throughout his life for many years such as being the “one of the first directors for the Lynn Valley Institute, the Chairman for the Lynn Valley Hospital and Reeve of the district from 1924 until 1930.” These points show that these documents create a narrative that the Frommes were extremely influential for the area of Lynn Valley, but these positions could have easily been filled by any other person or family.

5.
It was created over a hundred years and multiple generations of a family, therefore the fond shows the development of the area over the years. The documents show what the area needed over time and how their needs changed with the growth of population and loss of the lumber industry to the increase in population leading to the need for more services and housing.

6.
The fond could possibly help answer a question such as how the area of Lynn Valley developed or in what ways did the Fromme family aid the growth of the Lynn Valley area. The topic that this fond would be used to analyze the history of Lynn Valley as the family it is about have played such a huge role in the growth of Lynn Valley.

7.
For the methodological approaches, I would choose to use close reading and content analysis. I chose “close reading” as it is an extremely effective method of truly understanding a document. It will help me uncover significant detail and a deeper understanding throughout the multiple documents in the large fond. Close reading will immediately be beneficial towards my analysis of the documents throughout the fond.

Content analysis will help with my analysis of the text as it will uncover recurring themes throughout the fond and documents as it brings up common terms. This method brings up these themes through a method of coding terms in a similar colour to be able to track them once coding the entire document. This method will be incredibly beneficial as it makes it much more easy to uncover themes and give prompts to write on.

8.
I would use the method of a research paper to display the findings on whichever research opportunity that I uncovered through my analysis of the documents. This would be the most effective as I would be able to clearly outline the details found from the documents pertaining to the research question chosen.

9.
Something I would like to know of the fond that I used information from would is how could the effect of the arrival of the Fromme family be negative towards the Lynn Valley community and the surrounding area.

10.
Newspapers reporting on the events relating to the Frommes
Documents on how people are helping the environment recover from logging ex. Efforts by the North Shore Mountain Biking Association (NSMBA)
Documents are written by the Lynn Valley Church on the help given by the Frommes
Papers analyzing Julius Fromme’s finding when he started to log the Lynn Valley area

The interview that I conducted went well for the most part, but I found that the person that I was interviewing had trouble answering a couple of our questions as they were planning on transferring out of Capilano. I found that it was difficult for me to get long answers without probing much more than I expected. It was quite the learning experience as I did not know what to fully expect as answers for the questions or if the subject would even be able to answer them. As I went through the questions, I realized that I would not be getting a full interview with the subject as they were planning on transferring to another school from Cap. They were unable to answer questions such as me asking how they felt about the mandatory graduation project and how they believe it will alter their experience. Their answer was that it would not affect them as they are going to transfer.

 

After interviewing the subject I found that some of the questions contained too short of answers, like “Why did you choose Cap?” and “How do you feel about the number of degrees offered?” These questions ended up being only answered with a couple of words and were very difficult to probe to find more meaningful responses. They were fairly easy to answer and were not very complex questions. Questions like “How will a Capilano degree differ from others?” was an interesting question as the subject believed that it would look less desirable than a degree from UBC for example, but still, they thought of the experiences they have had as all around positive and have enjoyed their time. Questions like that one which sparked a more controversial or strong opinion were effective in getting longer answers that drew more information. The subject was passionate about how Capilano can improve the number of bachelor degrees offered as the school is upwards of six thousand students. They believed that we should have more options with a student body of that size as it is difficult to find degrees at Capilano that are staple degrees at other schools. Again, more questions like “How do you feel about the number of diversity of degrees offered was much harder for the subject to answer as they have not explored the options as much as they could. The subject is planning on transferring and is just in their first year as a full-time student, therefore they have not experienced quite as many of the courses as they hope to so that they could answer the question fully. As a whole, I felt as though the questions that I asked could have been more oriented towards longer-form answers that would not require too many probing questions to gain more information.

 

I had a lot of difficulty coming up with probing questions on the fly that would help me accentuate the answers given by the subject. It is something that I would like to improve on as I was unable to make my interview as long as I would have liked to fill out this assignment properly. I think one of the things I succeeded with was when asking a question, making it very clear and concise. The subject had no difficulty understanding what the intent of the questions was and was able to quickly answer them.

Even with the seven planned questions that I had I still found it difficult to retrieve as much information as possible. I felt as though I was unprepared with asking probing questions after asking my main questions, this is something I would like to improve on for the next interview that I conduct. As a whole I believe I could have done a more productive interview if I had prepared more open ended and simple questions; I could have also asked questions that would relate to Capilano students as a whole, not just students that were continuing with their studies at other Universities. I enjoyed the project as it helped me realize how difficult conducting an interview truly is and how it can be very difficult, without lots of preparation, to gain answers that are extremely beneficial to your study. Without research and preparation it can be very difficult to receive responses that answer your questions exactly how you’d like.