Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Project Learning Tree Workshop

Trafton B.

February 8, 2010 - 12:24 AM

What am I still doing awake?

 

It's definitely past my bedtime, although I think I'm going to push back that curfew considering the way classes have been going lately. I'm wicked tired and today I know exactly why. This weekend has been dedicated to lesson planning and conservation education.

 

Today, my team and I met again for a few hours to rework our lessons after discovering last week that we grossly overestimated the face time we would have with our students - we planned for around four or five hours of lesson and found out we have about an hour and a half. Plus, we had to meet early enough to ensure we would be done by the time the Super Bowl kicked off. But yesterday was even more of a marathon.

 

Saturday, the entire ELP class spent six hours at a Project Learning Tree workshop in environmental education. At first I was weary at the prospect of a six-hour workshop taking up my Saturday afternoon, but I came around very quickly. Kate, our local PLT trainer, led a few activities that she thought appropriate for our specific projects. We played "Wonders of Water," which put us in the point of view of a water molecule traveling through the water cycle. It was like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books, except we rolled die to see where we went next. I started out inside a fruit, then I was eaten by a human, exhaled into the air, rained down into a stream, drunk by an animal and, finally, peed out on top of a mountain (that was my favorite part). Then after we were finished playing the game, she had us write out a story version of the entire cycle.

 

We also looked at tree cookies, and became energy "sleuths" by the end of the day. We took a quiz about our opinions on controversial topics like "Should someone who owns a piece of land be able to do whatever they want to it?" or "Does the government have full responsibility for protecting the environment?" Afterwards we paired with a person that expressed the opposite view to our own to discuss and listen to alternative perspectives. It was very interesting, and I was pleased with how cordial the discussions remained. It may have something to do with the fact that most of us have similar beliefs when it comes to the environment. That's sort of why we're all in this class to begin with.

 

At the end of the day, Kate gave us all personal copies of the Project Learning Tree activities guide and time to discuss in our teams some activities that we could use or adapt for our respective projects. We also discussed the interdisciplinary aspect of environmental education, which I also find interesting. For example, the energy sleuths activity meets academic requirements for reading and science. "Wonders of Water" falls under science and language arts. And the opinions quiz activity is strictly under social science. I think that's my favorite part about environmental education. It can fit under so many categories. And now I have one hundred different activities to choose from.

 

To be completely honest, I'll probably play some of these games in my free time. Well, what little free time I have left, that it.

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When it Rains, It Pours

Trafton B.

February 4, 2010 - 11:55 PM

I'll apologize right now, because the title is slightly misleading. The weather has been moderate lately, nothing out of the ordinary for Eugene that is. The light winter rains and gray skies and have hampered my desire to run in the afternoons and head back to the library to study at night sometimes, but that's about all. Instead, I'm talking the other parts of my life that seem to be piling up right now, as well as a side dish of temporary and inopportune personal health struggles.

 

It's the middle of the term, at the moment, so as you can imagine midterm exams and projects are coming into play. I talking with my parents about two weeks ago complaining about upcoming assignments due, but little did I know it was only the tip of the iceberg.

 

I just finished up a midterm for Planning & Policy Analysis, which given the large amount of study time I put into it, I don't feel all too great about. The test itself was very term-heavy - something that has never been my strong suit.
This weekend, I'll be attending a conservation education workshop put on by Project Learning Tree (PLT) with my ELP class, which should take up the better portion of my day on Saturday. It's going to be a long day but when all is said and done I'll be certified under PLT, so I'll have a thick book of fun environmental education lessons and something to stick on my resume.
Then, Sunday morning my ELP team is meeting over brunch to revise and update our lesson plans. We finally got into contact with our community partner from Partnership for Sustainable Schools after a multi-week long game of phone and email tag. So we now know exactly how many schools we'll be working with and in what capacity. Unfortunately, we also discovered that we'll have a whole lot less face time with these schools than we had originally planned. I mean we're probably going to need to cut our lesson plans in half. Some of my teammates were relieved to know, while others were disappointed. I'm just glad that we know what we're up against while there's still time.

 

The kicker in all of this is that Tuesday night, I woke up around 4AM to the sound of monsters growling inside my stomach. You see, the Super Bowl is coming up (thankfully) and my roommates and I need to have something special to eat. Last year, we made a plate of atomic nachos and this year we decided on making some homemade chicken wings. So, I snagged the recipe from my family cook book and decided it would be beneficial to have a dry run beforehand.

 

These pilot chicken wings turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. My roommates and I quickly discovered that we didn't exactly have the proper baking equipment, and subsequently found out that our smoke alarm works much better. (Well, to be fair it worked the second time our kitchen filled with smoke but not the first or third time.) The wings turned our great when we ate them two hours after first embarking on this cooking adventure and we should have all the kinks worked out by Super Bowl Sunday. But now, back to my stomach.

 

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning may have been the longest night I've spent in recent memory. I won't go into details, but I felt like I was on a merry-go-round that circulated between a staring contest with the toilet, chugging water in the kitchen and curled up in the fetal position under my covers. I was sidelined all day Wednesday and thankfully I have an understanding boss and my morning class was already cancelled. I mustered up enough strength for my Natural Resource Policy at noon and the following ELP team meeting, but I made it home in just enough time for my afternoon nap.

 

Next week I'll find some way to tackle a midterm, two memos and GIS lab, and I'll probably limit my intake of chicken wings on Sunday.

 

I'll leave you with the following - and all too appropriate - quotation that popped up on my iGoogle homepage. I think it's something everyone should have in the back of their mind. Cheers.

 

 

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This Week's Assignment: People Watching

Trafton B.

January 31, 2010 - 8:00 PM

If you're wondering what I mean by people watching, it's exactly what it sounds like. The latest assignment for my ELP class was to observe group dynamics. Understanding what ingredients make for a good group is essential in implementing any successful lesson and creating a positive learning environment in the classroom. So, our mission was to find a public place and, for lack of a better word, spy on a group of people for 20 minutes or so. It reminded me how much fun the local Eugene crowd is.

 

I've seen some memorable people in my years at the U of O. There are the well-known campus characters like Frog, the portly bearded fellow that sells his personal joke books outside of the Blue Heron bike shop on 13th Avenue. There are the two Jesus Freaks in the amphitheater: one that preaches with his trusty canine sidekick and the other guy, Doug, who stands quietly with his Jesus U and Trust Jesus Christ signs.

 

My personal favorites are the self-proclaimed canners that roam the tailgating area around Autzen and occasionally down in the alleyway outside my house for recyclables. The Workout Bum (a name given by my roommates and me), does his same routines of pushups and squats every other morning outside the apartment complex across the street before he raids the recycling bin, although we haven't seen him in a while, and the couple that rides side by side with their matching beat-up bike trailers full of cans and bottles.

 

My friend has reported seeing a man in a gorilla suit walking around offering bananas to all those that acknowledge his presences. Everyone knows the guy who rides his bike making his disgust for LTD known to anyone within earshot. Just today I saw an elderly man in the library reading something off of a computer monitor while wearing tinted ski goggles. And I witnessed a girl nearly being run over by a unicyclist (an unicyclist?). Either way he had stellar balance. But back to the present.

 

First, I sat down at my favorite coffee shop, Cafe Roma, for a few hours this afternoon. I needed a place where I could be at least partially outside to enjoy more of the bizarrely temperate weather we've been experiencing, so Roma's backyard patio was the perfect place. The normal crowd wasn't out this afternoon, most likely because were all in the library right now preparing for the upcoming midterms week. I bided my time reading the 2004 Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reduction and chatting with friends, but I finally headed out to a spot guaranteed to provide ample people watching opportunities.

 

The Erb Memorial Union Fishbowl. For those that don't know, the Fishbowl made a well-known cameo in the cult classic, Animal House. Although I've never witnessed an all out food fight, the Fishbowl is always a lively place no matter what day of the week. I was lucky enough to catch a group of four students recapping one of their lectures in preparation for a midterm I assume. I chuckled when the conversation evolved from studying to ragging on another student that didn't show up. It's so easy to get sidetracked when studying in a group sometimes. It was a nice discussion. I kind of wanted to be a part of it. That's not creepy if its in the name of education, right?

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How ‘bout them Ducks (Winter Version)!

Trafton B.

January 30, 2010 - 7:18 PM

The Ducks men's basketball team in one word: streaky.

 

Against my better judgment of spending my Saturday studying at the Laundromat, I decided to get a ticket to the basketball game against the visiting USC Trojans. Now, I don't know what's going on in Ernie Kent's clubhouse, but our team seems to be having some problems with consistency this year. We'll beat Washington and Washington State on the road one weekend, and then well get stomped by Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State at Mac Court the following weekend. I doesn't really make too much sense, but then again college sports rarely do. Today's game surely did not disappoint, and it was one of the finest Ducks basketball game I've seen so far.

 

Our two Junior College recruits, Jeremy Jacob from Louisiana and Malcolm Armstead from Alabama led the charge with 19 and 18 points respectively, while senior guard Tajuan Porter gave his normal, veteran performance. In short, we had control of the game until the Trojans rallied from a nine-point deficit to tie the game at 47 points with five minutes left in the game, and then the Ducks went on a 20-10 run to close out the game.

 

The real story of the game came from the USC bench of all places though. USC Athletic Trainer (or whatever the heck his job is) was whistled for a technical foul late in the game after he had been barking to the referees throughout the course of the game. Porter hit both free throws, and the rest is history as they say.

 

Now, Oregon basketball fans, more fondly referred to as the Pit Crew, are known for being on the raucous side. So, we had a field day with this USC trainer. The chants began as a simple "Sit Down Coach!" to which everyone shared a good laugh. Then as we realized that he basically handed the game to us, we decided that cheering "Thank You Baldy!" would be appropriate. And finally, as we noticed him being chewed out by USC head coach during a time out and stealthily leaving the game promptly afterwards, we alternated between cheers of "You Got Fired" and "Where is Baldy?"

 

Life isn't easy being a visiting team at Mac Court, even for the seemingly meaningless coaches.
We're riding a two game win streak as we head off to Corvallis next Saturday. I hope Ernie figured out something that working, but then again, maybe it's just the Pink uniforms. Either way, the Duck put another one in the victory column.

 

Special thanks to goducks.com for the picture.

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My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Trafton B.

January 24, 2010 - 8:30 PM

Okay, I'm sitting at Cafe Roma, the coffee is kicking in and it's time for a study break. So, it's about time I formally and thoroughly address an issue that has been directly influencing my life for the past two months.

 

Yes, my picture is on the University of Oregon home page.

 

It's the first picture that scrolls through at the top, which means that anyone that logs on to the homepage at any point in time sees my face smiling as I'm walking down 13th Street with my friend, Lizzy.

 

Here's the background of the situation. Lizzy and I got out our Landscape Architecture class on Thursday afternoon and as always, we walked home together usually chatting about our mutual detest for the class. When we passed by Lillis, a nice gentleman with a fancy camera approached us and asked, "Would you mind if I took a photo of you for the University website?"

 

Obviously we obliged and asked if we needed to stop walking or strike a pose or anything like that. "No, just keep on walking. I'll take care of the rest." So, we literally never broke stride. Lizzy kept walking with her bike and we acted as normal as possible. Granted, trying to act normally in front of a camera is fairly difficult, at least for us amateurs.

 

Our discussion switched to "Well, this is slightly awkward. What do we do?" "I don't know, I guess we just keep on walking and smile." The photographer, who is backpedaling through the bushes to get a good angle of us, is saying "Good stuff. Love the smiling. Laughter is good! Keep it up." And seven seconds later it was all over. The photographer thanked us and we just kept on walking, laughing about how awkward and exposed we felt and wondering if we might become famous.

 

A week passed by and Wednesday morning, November 4th, 2009, I woke up to an email from the Senior Assistant Director in the UO Office of Admission, who I worked with as a UO tour guide last year, that read, "Look who's famous on the front page of UO's website!" Low and behold I logged onto my computer to find the picture.

 

Therein lies my first concern; they didn't even let me know the picture was being published. No email notification. No signature for approval. No nothing. Doesn't that seem a little bit odd? What if I was a convicted felon (don't worry I'm not) and needed to keep a low profile? My cover is blown!

 

Lizzy and I have been on the page every waking moment since that fateful day in November - expect for a few weeks around the end of January when the Rose Bowl hype was at its peak. And it has created nothing but drama every since.

 

First, if you are wondering whether or not I get recognized or anyone comments on the photo, the answer is yes. I kid you not, at least one person has asked me about the photo or commented on it every day since its appearance. I would say the average is well over one mentioning per day-including winter break and the Rose Bowl period. My roommates, friends, family friends, coworkers, classmates and high school acquaintances that happened to be applying to the UO have taken turns calling me out. The list has reached new levels recently to include the Dough Co delivery guy, my roommate's cousin's girlfriend (who goes to Oregon State) and just last week one of my professors logged onto the webpage, projected it on the big screen and pointed me out to the rest of the class. I'm never sitting in the front row of class again!

 

It's not that I am angry with the University, because I'm not. There are a number of perks to being the electronic poster child of the U of O. It's a conversation starter if any cute girl happens to recognize me. My parents have spread the news throughout the family network so even my grandmother in Colorado can see her grandson, if she can figure out how to log in with her dial-up Internet connection, that is. I can tell my kids about it in the future. And I can bring it up or joke around about it whenever I'm feeling narcissistic.

 

My real issue is that I'm going to be remembered for be "That guy on the website." The fame part of it is really fun, but I'd like to be famous for doing something; not just awkwardly smiling in a black Oregon sweatshirt. So, I've made a resolution to get back onto the webpage for doing something important like becoming a Rhodes' Scholar or curing cancer - you know, something that takes actual talent or intelligence.

 

Okay. . That feels better. I will rest a little easier now that my story is out there. I now understand the price of fame, and I hope you all do too. Thanks for letting me vent. Now it's back to Climate Change policy. Awesome!

 

 

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