Christine's "The Way I See It"

Mohandas Gandhi once said "Be the change that you want to see in the world". To change anything it must first start with you. Instead of just talking about changing the world, take actions to be the first to start a movement. If you truly believe in something and want to change the world, be a leader and show others the way.

Starbucks Project Day Two

On friday, April 10th, our group the Running Lates formerly known as the Caffeinated Writers, got together to discuss the other group's cup. The main point to "The Way I See It #21" was about different races, languages, religions, etc. and that maybe if we open up to people that are different than us, maybe we could learn about ourselves. I thought their comments were really interesting because there were alot that I totally agreed with and some that I disagreed with. I especially liked the quote "Children everywhere always seem to be the same", which I totally agree with. I think that no matter where you go, children always have that same innocence, along with the same wants and needs. Children everywhere just want to fit in and make friends and all kids love to eat candy. We also agreed that the author of the quote may have understated a very powerful statement. Overall, our group had great discussion with lots of ideas.

Starbucks Project Day One

Today we got together to discuss a 'The Way I See It" on a Starbucks cup. Although, we didn't get started until late because, unfortunately due to personal reasons, I was running late and I had the cup. But in the mean-time, my group got to know each other and discussed where we were all from and our majors, etc. Which I found interesting because half of us were from the Cincinnati area and half were from other places around the US. It's always interesting to hear what other people think of Cinci who aren't from here. But due to our late start, most of our discussion took place through emails back and forth. We got into a little bit of discussion, but then finished through emails. Our quote was about Americans watching too much television and that Americans spend an average of 29 hours a week in front of the TV, and also stated that that is roughly 13 uninterrupted years of our life!! That was amazing to me and at the same time made me want to give up watching television. But the whole discussion brought me to reality TV, which I think is a joke! I hate reality TV with a passion, I think it's fake and degrading to most people that participate. I just don't think that it's real. The people on these shows are thrown into the most secluded and unrealistic settings and then have to deal with other people and certain situations that most people would never have to deal with. Most of those people end up (basically) going insane, their attitude, values, personalities.. they all change. Because they are forced into the most akward situations and places on these shows. I know that I would never go on a reality TV show because I know it would end up messing with my psyche... and make me into a person that I don't want to be known for... better yet, I don't want some editor to turn me into something that I never was.
The problem is that so many people get into these shows because they are exciting and interesting. Maybe because their lives are like that. Many people just want to live vicariously through these people on the reality shows...?....

Christine's Marine Science Syllabus

http:// http:// http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfjqwmsb_2gwkh8vdm
For our first assignment we had to write a syllabus for a class that was not offered by UC, but one that we would like to take. Although I'm not a marine science major, I've always been extremely interested in the ocean. I had wanted to be a marine biologist since I can remember. Oddly enough, I didn't want to be a dolphin trainer like most kids, but I wanted to study stingrays. I've always had this weird obsession with stingrays, not what you would normally think a 12 year old would want to do. So when thinking about college in highschool, I definitely wanted to get as far away from Cincinnati as possible, I even registered for classes at Coastal Carolina University, but my senior year took a trip to the Florida Keys with my marine biology class and absolutely HATED it. I love to read about the ocean and love to go to the ocean for vacation, but I knew I couldn't do that for the rest of my life. So yeah, now I'm here in Cincinnati, where I swear it has been winter for about 6 months now. Ughh... So, for my syllabus I chose an experiential/experimental Marine Science course. Pretty much a class where you get to go out to sea, snorkel and SCUBA dive all day and just experience things the way they are. I specifically chose blues as the colors for my font because of the ocean. And I tried to make the course sound pretty easy-going, purposefully. I wanted it to sound like a class everyone would want to take, because I think anyone would want to go out on a boat and snorkel. I made the grades mostly based on attendance and participation because I believe that it's hard for students to really learn something without experiencing it themselves. I guess that's because I'm a hands-on kind of person. I also added some pictures of snorkeling and SCUBA diving, because that way my "students" can actually see that this is what they will be doing for the next couple of months or so, and to get them excited and pumped up for the course. I found this assignment fun and stressful, I can honestly say that I would hate being a professor, typing up all those rules and schedules because I'm a very "go with the flow" person. But I can understand why many professors write up their "rules of the road" and such because they just want to be up-front and honest with their students.