Climate Simulation- Piper Krase

When I played my role in the policy exercise, I felt that although each country theoretically had a lot of power to make a change and implement goals for the future, there was very little wiggle room and it was frustrating because making change depended on the cooperation of so many other countries as well.
How did your reaction, comments, feelings; and shifts (if any) in negotiating positions evolve across the rounds and discussions? At first, I was not very clear on what exactly we were negotiating because we were filling out sheets individually as a country. As we entered them into the simulator and it calculated the degree of difference after each country’s contributions, I was able to better understand. Although it was difficult making a change and getting countries to agree on certain policies, it was very interesting because the simulation showed just how hard this is in reality (obviously multiplied by 1000). As the rounds went on I better understood what we were negotiating and how to go about making a substantial overall change.
How did your group change their ideas? My group was China, and our ideas did not really change at all throughout the rounds. We knew that we were a world superpower and would have to contribute, and also a large contributor of fossil fuels so that needed to be addressed. What changed throughout the rounds was our commitment to making a change. We increased our money contribution and decreased our peak date because we knew that these would have substantial impacts on the overall degree decrease because of China’s stance in the world.

What prompted that change? The change was prompted when we realized that China is a country that has the potential to have such a big impact, and we can afford and really really should, make the changes and commit to the betterment of our environment. Also, after negotiating with the United States and them agreeing to match our contribution and peak date also prompted us to make a change because we didn’t feel like we were the only ones making that much of an effort.
In the end, do you think that emissions can be cut? I think that emissions can be cut, as shown, because we decreased it down to 2.4º degrees, but it is really difficult because it takes the commitment and compromisation of all these different nations who all have different desires and needs.
What were the major costs and barriers to the implementation of participant proposals? As China, with such a large population, and much of it runs on industries/factories it was difficult to promise a huge rate of decrease because this is such a large part of our economy. Also, afforestation was not as feasible in China as it was in other countries because we have large cities and lots of farmland so it just wouldn’t really make sense.
How can we catalyze change in the US? It is important to raise awareness of the severity of the issues that can occur, extremely soon, because it cannot take a few or a small group of people but it takes a nation to convince and impact the administrations who have the ability to legislate change.

Clarke Central High School Outreach

Piper Krase

For my outreach experience, I went to Clarke Central High School to help a class of students learn how to count the colonies of bacteria, from the soil samples, that grew on the agar plates. The students divided into around 4 groups and a few students from our class were in charge. I worked with Kenleigh to teach our group how to accurately count the colonies and to insert the data into the spreadsheet. We were essentially the teachers for that short class period, as we were supposed to control the group and teach them something too. Honestly, maybe because it was the last period on a Friday, lacked focus and it was hard to get them to be engaged in what we were doing.
Before we got to the school I was nervous because I didn’t feel like I fully understood the information, and the functionality fo the spreadsheet, enough to teach them and get them to understand it too. When we initially took the plates out of the plastic container, they were all jumbled and messed up. This threw me off a little because I was expecting them to at least be in order, maybe that would help me feel like I could at least explain a little. Dr. Brickman came over and helped us organize them into the groups which eased my stress because I finally felt like I had a grip on the information and would be able to explain it better. It was frustrating how we were unable to get our group’s full attention. It felt like they were completely uninterested and we barely had any control over them. It also felt like their teacher wasn’t compelled to keep them on task either because she walked by multiple times when the kids in our group were in the corner goofing-off, and never said anything to them.
In the end, I did have a good experience with this outreach opportunity. It was actually really nice to go back to a high school for a second, it was like a reality check. It sort of hit me that we were now those “college students” that younger kids looked up to and aspired to be like. Even in such an informal situation like volunteering in a classroom, it was nice to feel like the kids viewed us as educated. I definitely was able to apply my skills of working with other people (and kids especially) because we want them to listen to us but have to acknowledge and work with the things that could’ve been preventing or limiting that. I really liked doing out of the classroom work too, it was nice to apply our learning and share with the high schoolers why, what they’re learning, is significant and important. I realized I do have to be more assertive, like when getting the kids’ attention, instead of just accepting that they were distracted and entering the data ourselves.
For other outreach opportunities, I think it would be very beneficial if I felt very prepared before going out. If I were to do something like this again, I would use my own time to review the material and really make sure I understand what I am trying to teach them. This experience, although short, taught me about myself because it put us back into a real situation– outside of the classroom. I really enjoyed this outreach opportunity and will apply what I’ve learned from it both in and out of the classroom in the future.

Piper Krase- Watershed Reflection

Start basic: In this picture, I see a cliff that has been created by erosion, and a tree that has fallen in the aftermath of the erosion.
What I notice in this picture: After seeing it in real life, I found it really powerful how such a substantial amount of erosion can occur due to such a small amount of water. I was expecting a small amount of erosion that would normally be at the side of a river or small creek.
What this picture makes me think about: What do you think someone would interpret this at first? At first sight, it sort of looks like a little sink hole had just occurred, and most people might be frightened by the aftermath but fail to acknowledge how humans have a substantial impact on why it happens in the first place.
When I look at this picture, I feel: Disappointed, knowing that the erosion is not only effecting the shape of the land, but has major impacts on the nature and wildlife (trees, plants, animals, etc.) around it.
I think this picture is about: I think this picture is about a large chunk of land that has fallen in on itself due to erosion.

Piper Krase

In high school I only took the required Biology course in sophomore year and an Environmental Science class as well. I did not take an AP science class because I do not love science. I enjoyed Biology because I am fascinated by genetics and loved learning about that.

I am excited for the hands-on work that we will do in this class and the work that we will be doing with each other and the community.

The Outreach with Clarke Central High School students sounds interesting to me because I love working with other people and find it interesting that we will be doing work on our own and then implementing that into the work that we will do with the students.

I think through doing the service learning I will get good insight into the power of what we can do outside the classroom, with the information that we learn inside the classroom. I feel like this concept is often forgotten about when because, as students, we can get caught up in just completing the task rather than thinking about the bigger picture.

I am interested in the biology of behavior and also in genetics.