Major: Biology; Minor: Spanish —
It’s inspiring to know that many people go to Herman Baker Park throughout the year and that our signs will educate passersby on what kinds of animals and plants are in the park for many years to come. It’s fun to be able to go on a nature walk and be able identify things in the surrounding and I’m hoping it makes others feel the same. I really feel like we made an impact on the Sherman Community. I loved working on this project even with all the challenges we faced.
Luckily, I was able to work on this project with five of my best friends, many of whom I have worked with a number of times before on group projects and research. We were all aware of each others strengths and weaknesses and were able to inspire each other throughout the project. Our biggest problem was staying under budget and finding time to build the signs with everyone’s busy schedules. It was very costly and time consuming to build six signs, yet we did a lot of outside the box thinking to be able to stay under budget and produce good quality signs.
Throughout the semester we had to work on the project in pairs or alone while others were in class to be able to finish the project. Being able to communicate effectively with each other on who was available to work or when a task was completed was very beneficial. We would meet on a weekly basis and discuss as a group the progress of the project and discussed what needed to be done next for the following week.
We came across multiple problems throughout the whole project including: cost of materials, lack of tools, and design issues. Fortunately, we were able to find materials at a manageable cost and thanks to a few professors and AC maintenance we were able to borrow tools (post-hole diggers, drills, electrical saws, etc.) to finish our project. Any issues we had on the design of our signs was resolved with outside the box thinking that came from all of us meeting and resolving together. Since this project was also a service project, we always had to plan ahead of time, making sure we had all the materials we needed and inviting our peers to come and help if they wanted. I think we all realized quickly that there is a lot of planning that goes on to creating a service event.