Blog #2 Critical Thinking Question

1st Half
Critical Questions Brain Storming:

• How does our carbon footprint affect global warming?
• What are the principles of a good leader?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of a democracy?
• How does destroying ecosystems affect our economy?
• What assumptions exist that might influence negativity towards the United States?
• What points of view or perspectives are influencing the rise of racism in the police force?
• What caused the economic collapse in 2008?
• How does an U.S. presence in the Middle East affect families and citizens of those who reside in that region?
• What biases are present in the rising problem of ISIS?
• Has modern transportation affected how diseases are diffused?
• How does global warming affect weather patterns here in the U.S.?
• How does music affect the psychology of a human being?
• Does our behavior when we are alone affect how we may behave with others?

•        Looking around the room what catches your eye and why?

When looking around my room I find there are a lot of things that catch my eye.  I believe that the objects that catch my eye the most are the ones that have brighter colors.  Considering my room is painted in a darker color it would make sense if I see an object with brighter colors it would stick out more.  The same thing happens when you are anywhere else objects that seem different or unusual tend to stick out to the human mind.

•        What did you think about while you last showered?

When I last showered my mind jumps from thoughts to thought.  I really never focused on one thought and pondered about it for the time I was in the shower.  My thoughts varied from; getting all of my homework done, to what else do I need to do before I go to bed, and then something completely off that had to do with the process of washing my hair and how I should go about it to make it softer.  I can also think a handful of times where I actually stood in the shower pondering the meaning of life.

•        What were you thinking about as you fell asleep last night?

The thoughts that occur in my head when I take a shower and before I fall asleep are pretty similar.  Except sometimes I'll replay fun moments I had when I was in high school or embarrassing moments and I'll laugh at myself.  Last night I also had a hard time falling asleep so most of that time I stared at the clock taking note of each minute of sleep I'm loosing.

•        What was your favorite class in college/high school and why?

My favorite class in high school was astronomy because I found it very interesting and cool.  I enjoyed the deep thoughts in the class and the fact that the answer was never right in front of you you had to search for it. Even since I was a kid the 'space" subject has always caught my eye and wanted me to learn more.  Besides that I enjoyed team sports cause it was almost like a 90 minute break in your day where you can just hang out with your crew.

•        What was the most recent debate/argument you had with a friend or family member?

Like all students in the summer, when you aren't doing much its easy to loose track of the day.  My sister and I had an argument on which day of the week it was.  It was a Thursday and she thought it was Friday (poor girl), I settled the argument with a bet of ten dollars.  I made ten bucks with a click of a button, easiest money I've made in my life. 

•        What are you feeling/thinking about right now? Why or how might that be interesting?

I am thinking about how much time it will take to complete this assignment.  It is 9:25 right now and I'm guessing it will be around 10:00 when it is all said and done.  I'm not feeling stressed right now just tired and honestly really hungry, I just might eat before I go to bed.  This is interesting in a way that because I wasn't thinking about that before until I read the question, and without even thinking about it I looked at the clock.  After putting more thought into the question I found out that there is some room in my stomach for more food.

•        Imagine your home community. What does it look like? Who is there? What are the buildings and places you see? What questions emerge from that place or memory?

The perfect home community set for me would be set in the foothills of either Virginia or Colorado.  With trees surround a community of cabins each one for a friend of mine.  I can picture a creek running right through this community that runs passed this huge cabin where we get together to have some fun. Some questions that pop into my head are, "How big is the creek?'  "How big are the cabins"  "What does our community do about the winter snowstorms"  "How often does our community get together to party"

22nd Half

   For my critical thinking question I chose, "How does destroying ecosystems affect our economy?"  I recently listened to the podcast "Worth" on radiolab, on the podcast was a story about our ecosystems and how they affect our economy.  The podcast through some numbers out there on how much ecosystems contribute to todays economy and I found the numbers to be astonishing. 

 Personally I feel that ecosystems play a vital role in our lives on a day to day basis.  I found myself digging deeper as in asking more questions and it's something I'd like to learn more about.  My question is relevant to others in society by the circulation of money and really the global economy as well as our local economy.  

Keeping or destroying an ecosystem can play a big part in our economy whether all of it is negative I am not sure.  As a community the economy is at least the number one thing that keeps a society running.  I believe it is important to know how ecosystems affect our economy to not only better ourselves but our community as a whole.  Society as a whole needs to know how ecosystems affect the economy because it might not only benefit the farmer but it might benefit the business man who's trying to build a new parking garage on a wet land.

My critical question I chose I believe will fit in quite well with the three projects we will be given throughout the five week course.  For project one we will be asked to create a nonfiction essay based on our own personal experiences which, explores our relationship with our critical question and that questions relationship to some culture artifact.  I can use personal experiences to support the project such as seeing buildings put up on a wet land and the years to come it causes massive flooding for those buildings with collateral damage.  For project two we are asked to identify a group or individual whose story or personal experiences will give meaning to our critical question.  After doing some web surfing I am confident I can find a good solid story about a group or individual's experience based upon my critical question. For project three we are asked to create a text meant for a real world audience.  I am fairly confident that my critical question can be use to implicate how destroying ecosystems affects our economy to a real world audience.

When choosing my critical thinking question one concern that came into my head was that my question wasn't relevant enough to me because it more had to do with the relevance of a society or a community.  Another concern I had was over project three,  I am not sure what you mean by a real world audience but I'm sure we will go over it more when the time comes.