Final Project
Final Reflection
The five most valuable skills I brought back from study abroad are time management, adaptability, confidence, independence, and intercultural competence. I learned time management by creating my own schedule and completing my assignments on time while also attending classes on time and participating in excursions. I learned adaptability through group work, being paired with different people and learning to work with them on projects and observations of our excursions - like Hampstead Heath and the final group project. I learned confidence in stating my opinion in classes, and in making decisions for myself regarding my class work. I learned independence by self-regulating my course work and setting boundaries for my time in order to complete observations and reflections for the classes. I learned intercultural competence through exposure to different people groups and cities, and by learning to navigate the areas where these people live, work, and play through our excursions and walking around the cities in which we stayed.
Being back in the United States has been an adjustment, from not having reliable public transit (travel to a movie theater was one hour and nine minutes by public transit or twenty minutes by car) and readjusting to American food. Having the familiarity of the United States is comforting, but I already miss the exploration and new experiences of being overseas.
Three things I miss most about England and Germany are public transit and the ease of using it, the good organic food, and seeing the history of cities. I don’t know how much access to good public transit I will have while in the United States, but I do enjoy getting to drive my car again. Organic food I’m trying to be more conscious of, especially after visiting the Hermannsdorfer Farm. I’m going to keep reading up on history and possibly pursuing history or environmental history as a post-associate degree.
Design Thinking
Design thinking can be used to identify issues of sustainability through observation, audience conversations, and empathy. Observation can show how systems are used, where there are problems, and where design can be applied to increase sustainability. Audience conversations can show where there are problems or places where design can improve audience experiences - like more comfortable seats on the Underground or U-Bahn, or more accessibility to stations and platforms. Once the problems are identified, design can be used to solve them: through user testing, iteration and brainstorming, and design implementation with the city and the designers input.
I think public transit systems in general can be implemented to make cities more sustainable in the United States. But on a smaller scale, i think better recycling systems, fewer paper towels, and more green spaces. Recycling systems can either be redesigned - like one of the group’s final projects suggested putting the responsibility back on the companies that create the system for recycling. Fewer paper towels (as strange as it was to get used to) would create less waste via hand dryers. Hand dryers would require less maintenance, less personnel for restocking them, and would provide a way for the general public to be involved in contributing to the health of the environment and cities. Green spaces are a way for the air to be cleaned, for people to get necessary vitamins and exposure to fresh air, and give a city a better ecological footprint in regards to carbon dioxide emissions.
Environmental History
The excursions in London and Munich connected information we learned about in regards to the London Docklands and the Embankment, in Munich the river restoration projects and reconstruction after the war, and how history affected the current structure of the cities. In the docklands we learned about the cargo trade there, how the worker’s housing is now high-end apartments and the dock area has turned to a high-level financial district. In the Embankment, the relationship to the Thames river changed from the past - becoming a place of upper class leisure and commuter traffic when it used to be a place of cargo and trade, a place for the working and lower class. In classes in Harlaxton, we discussed these pasts of the cities, seeing how they expanded over time and seeing the glimpses of the past in the modern city.