Friday, January 29, 2016

Conclusion Blog Post

Through my Genius Hour process I learned the importance of diligence and time management. The process was interesting for me because I had never had that kind of freedom in a research project before. At first it seemed overwhelming, but once I took the time to think about what it is I am interested/care about personally, it was fairly easy to begin the work. Through this project I've developed a better work ethic and time management skills. Having such a long period of time to complete a project gives you room to neglect the work. Honestly I found myself in this situation a few time, thinking I could do research next time, next time, next time. Once I fine-tuned my topic and picked subject matter that I was genuinely invested in, it was easy to do the research and complete the final product. This, I realized, is the whole point of genius hour. I learned that I work better out of the classroom and that once I get started it doesn't feel like a chore. Being able to do proper research on a subject that I got to pick myself helped me to figure out what research process works best for me. I feel confident that I can apply this personalized process to future research and see positive results.

My topic was that of sexual assault and harassment. I chose to research this issue because it has directly affected people close to me, and being knowledgable on the subject is important to me. I feel like having the knowledge I've collected since the beginning on this project, especially that that I have gained from my one-on-one conversation with my "expert", gives me a stronger base to make progress on this issue.

The class in general has been interesting for me. I could have been better about speaking up in class and taking part in conversation, but I genuinely enjoyed and absorbed the conversations the we had. I also like that it was very hands-on and very much based on real-life. The SNAP challenge was my favorite activity because it taught us how to prioritize and because it had very real limits. This made me appreciate my own living situation more as well as respect those who live off of minimum wage and take care of their family. Since learning about and exploring the sociological imagination, I have become significantly more aware of factors that play in to almost every social event, patter, etc. that I see. I feel that I am in more of a neutral stance in general because I now have to ability to critically assess from either side of the spectrum. Overall, I really enjoyed that class and I think it may be something that I'm interested in studying later on in my schooling career.