Water justice
The Water Justice seminar was appealing to me because it not only fulfilled an honors experience but also fit into my Environmental Studies minor and my academic interests. The course included a study tour at the end which I was unable to participate in due passport difficulties so I will comment on my experience with the part of the course that occurred on campus. The interdisciplinary approach of this class really suited by academic pursuits and learning style. Instead of focusing on water issues through only one framework, our professor, Dr. Adrian Parr, integrated ecological and scientific information, with bureaucratic, political, and social issues on both a local and international scale. We examined many different facets of water issues that occur in different parts of the world, looking at shortages due to ecology and lack of infrastructure, and contamination from many different sources. Learning about how many people around the world lack daily access to adequate supplies of clean water made me realize how much I often take this luxury for granted. This class made me much more conscious of my own water usage in daily life and think about ways to reduce the amount of water I waste. For class we utilized an online tool that allowed us to calculate our personal “water footprint”. We entered information about our daily habits and lifestyle in order to figure out how much impact we have on water supplies and it was interesting to see which factors carried the most weight. For instance, eating meat and dairy products on a daily basis makes your water footprint skyrocket. This was a useful tool to apply to real life and assist in making shifts in my own behavior to reduce my impact. I really appreciated the way that this course provided information that transitioned smoothly from the classroom to real life and will be increasingly more applicable as water-related issues escalate around the world with increasing socio-political and ecological pressures.
World Water Development Report: As part of the course, we worked in pairs to research different aspects and volumes or World Water Development Reports issued by the UN in conjunction with other international organizations. We then essentially taught a lecture to the class on the information we gathered. This allowed class to be more interactive and taught me about ways to effectively communicate scientific facts while remaining engaging. I have attached my presentation below.
Maya Agriculture Presentation: For our final project for the course, we were required to complete a research project and poster on a topic that interested us but also tied into the themes of the course. I chose to look at how indigenous agricultural methods and water saving tactics could be applied and utilized in a modern development context. We were asked to summarize our findings in a presentation to the class prior to finalizing our posters and I have included my presentation below.