Wednesday!

Parking lot for turning in your coffee cup memo opened up by midday. I will link on your ELMS calendar and send link+note to you via ELMS mail.  Strategic redundancy is a good way to lead a team. 

I see some opportunities to remind you of polishing-up strategies.  Do not lapse on these craft and critical thinking skills for life.

• Use cognitive wedge at the beginning.  In some ways, you can also use a concision-aspect of the cognitive wedge in each paragraph with a
  • short, simple topic sentence
• Newish idea about using a cognitive wedge shape at the end of each paragraph to slide down a smooth ramp into the next paragraph.  Think also, of the lemon shape.  Let your transition be short, tight (repeat a word or phrase between the linked paragraphs).
• The LCA paragraph is your decision criteria.  You can say that in first person. You want to underscore the pivot from problem description into analysis.
• Citation!
  • Be generous with your curated referral links throughout the paragraph. Use signal phrases to announce the worthy work of others. Help your reader "choose their own adventure" through this complexity.
  • Use formal citation for the EPA LCA reference AND offer a link to help reader get there quickly if needed.
  • Use formal citation for the evaluation paragraph where you are either
    • Team Styro, hence offering logos of numbers from a peer reviewed Hocking paper.
    • Team Paper, hence offering logos  of numbers from a peer reviewed Moore paper.
  • Hint: you will have likely offered an open access referral link about your frame earlier in the paper:
    • Team Styro, IPPCC report on climate change with caution on PDF size
    • Team Paper, a Charles Moore open access weblink to his foundational work on ocean plastic

Important reading on the difference between descriptive writing v. analysis writing. Use the links to see how I credit two other thinkers about this important difference. My example concerns rain garden knowledge, a topic you have some familiarity with now. 

I will post a new Eli Review task regarding your first take on your research article.  You have that article, right?  And, sign, please post on Friday for this assignment.  Don't make me regret my liberal use of labor grading for this course.  You simply MUST BE ON TIME FOR EACH OTHER.  Preview: the power of three.

Pictures for the day and do you recall the concept each is associated with yet?

Happy somewhat dreary Friday.  I will be available between:

9-9:50

11-11:50

You can pick and article NOW and ask me in the sessions.  I will not judge you, truly.  If you look at the reading grid linked on Monday and read the prompt in Eli Review, you can still DO THIS BY FRIDAY EVENING/the Saturday Morning halo to 11AM is.  Please get in there!

Here is a short video of inspiration about writing and science, as well as synthesis knowledge.  Ecology and human health are both synthesis disciplines.  The brain is not separate from the body.  For example, microbiome studies show a connection to depression, anxiety, sensations of well being.  Brain <--> gut interactons! By the way, the gut microbiome is a fascinating internal ecosystem.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a moss and liverwort specialist -- bryophytes are primitive plants. Living fossils in our world. She is also a hero of mine.  She is the last quote in my environmental science dissertation.  I am concerned about agroecology and how our food systems require flourishing ecosystems to support food production.  Flourishing human communities need varied, nourishing food.  Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Genius. 

She is also an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatami Nation.

I hope this short video encourages you in this next assignment.  Writing about science is key to sharing knowledge.  All human experience is enriched by knowledge generation and sharing.  Why? For intellectual pleasure in know about our complex world as well as making the world better for children and other living beings.

Assignment 3 is a portal to shared knowledge in our small and temporary learning community. Let's go!

P.S. That quote? (using block indent style, so a tiny little lesson here that is similar to the block quote LCA clip from EPA in your Memo 2. Always be learning, says Mb)-->

In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer notes:

Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” ― Kimmerer (2015)

Kimmerer is reflecting on the provision role of ecosytems to support human communities. She also notes the delight of living, moving, and having our being upon this earth.  Her science inquiry stems from this frame.

At the end of the document, here is what is my very last citation in my 300+ bibliography-->

Kimmerer, R. W. (2015). Braiding sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.

Note, this is too short for a hanging indent. Always be learning. Here is what one looks like for a longer paper by RWK. Recall that the hanging indent in a long bibliography helps a reader find a desired citation because the last name sits out in a "panhandle."

(Think: Oklahoma!). Etsy listing: 3 dollars for a hanging indent magnet!