Impact of Unclean Water on the Environment
Abstract:
Our purpose for this project is to research and bring awareness about the deficiency of clean waters as well as the different causes of it around the world. We will be making a presentation that includes GIFs, as well as the modalities of text/language and short films that will bring to light the importance of water cleanliness. Our plan is to explicate the effects of unclean water and elaborate about the specific causes such as lead pipes, human waste, and pesticides. For our research methods, we will use business and environment-related articles that explore the negative effects poor water quality has on individuals and communities. We will also research by watching documentaries and taking small clips that will benefit our project’s topic. As we are not able to meet physically to film something, we will create our own GIFs by researching effective ones on the internet. GIFs are a great way of gripping the audience as its nature appeals to a wider demographic. They are funny and easy to consume. As we look through these effects, we can expect that consumption of unclean water will generally lead to lack of brain functionality, diseases like Typhoid, Cholera, Dysentery, and even death. In regards to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the specific harmful effects were an increase in high blood pressure, kidney disease and infertility. Also, we realize that part of our project is to determine what causes communities to be exposed to unclean water and how the government is working to prevent this from happening. As we research deeper into the subject and the causes, we can find and expose certain businesses around the country that are the leading causes for unclean water and think of alternative ways of functioning.
Discussion Question: How realistic is it to end the global water crisis and what must governments do?
Samantha's Reflection
In my course expectations, I wrote that I wanted to learn more about the environment and how different changes of the environment can affect a person’s perspective and personality in multiple ways. I also expected to be exposed to many different inspirational perspectives as we analyze articles and share our thoughts. Throughout the course work and the creative project, I became more aware of numerous issues with the environment and gained an insight to how everyone around me felt about these issues in class. It was quite interesting to be exposed to many different opinions on current environmental concerns. I felt more engaged with the topic since they were all issues affecting today’s society, and I felt more motivation to agree or disagree with my peer’s responses. Also, working on the creative project was a very interesting and fun experience as I have never created a social media account for a presentation project before. However, in order to bring more awareness to the public, I thought that making a social media account was the best way that also fit with our main medium of short films.
Within my course expectations, I also wrote that I would like to improve my critical thinking and writing skills. I felt that I have improved in writing concisely and in a way that would best convey the message I wanted to deliver. I’ve learned this mostly through the poster assignment as we created multiple drafts of the abstract and practiced making it sound clear and concise. There are still many things I need to improve on, however, through this class I’ve gained insight on methods of how I can enhance my writing, as well as knowledge of environmental issues.
If I had more time, I would continue to work on the creative project since it has unlimited potential as a social media account and can only grow from here. I would improve it by mainly creating better quality meme posts, including useful and interesting information about unclean water issues, create and share more films, and try to expose it to more people. In an academic setting however, I do not feel too encouraged to share this work with an academic audience because it seems to be a bit uncommon to present with a social media account rather than with experimental data and articles.
The collaboration aspect of the project allowed more to be accomplished during this process. We gave each other insight on each other’s thoughts and ideas allowing us to catch and fix mistakes more easily. I felt that having a collaboration for this project really allowed us to think of creative ideas by sharing each other’s perspectives. Sometimes, it was a bit difficult to figure out a time to meet and it was challenging to make sure everyone was engaged and did their part. However, overall it was a fulfilling experience and I learned a lot about how to write for an academic, research setting and how to work as a group while making a way to bring awareness about environmental issues.