Reflection blog


Sofi Savarese 
Mr. Roddy 
IHSS
5/18/20

For my IHSS Challenge project, I learned about how coral reefs are being negatively affected by plastic pollution and other products that are harmful to coral reefs. Through my project, I learned that civic engagement requires you to find the right resources and people to gather your information. For my project, I contacted two people that work with coral reefs, Kelly Drinnen, and Dr. Christi Savarese. I also contacted local homeowners in Galveston, Paige Peaches, and Lisa Gross. One of the challenges that I faced was receiving specific information from certain interviewees. While the specialists that knew a lot what they were talking about were easier to get information out of. It was a bit harder to talk to the local homeowners, the reason being that they gave very dry and straightforward answers. This caused me to have a little bit of trouble putting together the information that I gathered. I think that my partner and I were very successful with our Facebook page that we created. here we posted our posters online so that the general public could see it. This was a good way to see how the general public was learning and reacting towards our information. while we couldn't see the impact of our physical posters, posting online was also a good way to address any questions or give further advice. 
I am very interested in the topic that I researched and will continue working on teaching people about this topic. I have been very interested in coral reefs for a while now and I am still currently thinking of ways that I can spread information. I am also learning new information all the time so I will also be incorporating that in any work that I will be doing outside of the challenge project. I hope that my civic engagement will help my community awareness about the topic. Civic engagement is very helpful for small communities like my neighborhood, where I primarily worked. Many neighborhoods have online websites where they share with their local community about current issues and other interesting facts. This helps many people become more aware of important information. 

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