February 24th, 2021
I'm going to start off by saying I believe that this was my best creation of this year. Anyways, now to actually get into my self-reflection. I had used the databases for a previous assignment though it has slipped my mind if it was solely for a journal post or if it was for an SDA. I'd only read a magazine though, not a scholarly article since they were too high level (at that moment). The scholarly articles were most definitely longer and harder to digest in some aspects. I found myself skimming for information most of the time, then focusing on the part of the article that was most relevant to my project. I think it helped me get better at identifying the most relevant facts but they did get a bit boring to read. In terms of finding the articles, I would use very broad search terms at the beginning, skim the titles and introductions of the first articles I found, and see if there were any new search terms I could include. I used dams as a search term for every article since it held significant weight in my essential question which was helpful in keeping me limited to a fewer number of articles.
Thankfully, I had created (with Mr. Bott) an essential question before I began any research. If I hadn't, I would've struggled a lot more. Additionally, a lot of the articles I found were incredibly long and slightly arduous to read (which I solved by skimming and hand-picking information I found to be important). The guidelines on how to write the posts on these articles were also helpful when it came to selecting which parts of writing to read more carefully. I made sure to answer my essential question in the podcast, also tying it back to the topic I've been investigating this year. I think collaboration and critical thinking are my two weakest Cs while creativity (although I've already made podcasts and infographics, I'm improving on them and I still try to make them different) and communication (I ask for help when I need it and I get my points across in my podcasts) are my strongest. I think I am curious though it could definitely be built upon. I think having some guidance is definitely helpful, which I have for the next month of research as well. I think using a mix of scholarly articles and other sources in the future is a good plan. Other than that, I think working in a way similar to how I worked on this project is also good.
I'm not entirely sure what my next essential question should be. I think I should try heading back in the direction of economics, countries, and environmental impact but I'm not entirely sure how. Maybe I could also relate it to COVID since COVID has had significant impacts on the world economy as well as the output of carbon dioxide due to a decrease in travel. I could also circle back and investigate a country similar to how I investigated the United States.