This report is meant to be a brief informal statement of what you have learned during the week. These are written by each group member and handed in to your TA each week at your discussion section. They are reflective, informal statements charting the course of your personal learning during the project. Each week of the project you will write 2-3 paragraphs describing what you have learned that week in three areas:

• The research topic
• Technical skills - library research, web research, website building
• Geography

EXAMPLE

Name: Alex Von Humboldt

Date: 21 September 1998

Research Topic: Pesticides

This week I learned about the 1961 pesticide spill into the Colorado River at Austin. Rachel Carson describes the event in Silent Spring. It happened January 15, 1961 and killed most fish for 140 miles downstream from Austin. A chemical company that produced DDT and chlordane dumped these chemicals into a storm drain that emptied into Town Lake. We will describe this spill on our website.

Technical Skills:

I learned how to search for maps on the Web. I wanted to find a map of the Colorado River in order to trace the route of the 1961 spill. There are maps on the LCRA site and the USGS site. We will make a link to these sites from our website.

Geography:

This week Professor Doughty lectured about the origins of agriculture. He described Vavilov's research about the origins of domesticated plants like corn, rice, radishes. I had never thought about where those crops came from. I'd like to know more about how these plants were transported all over the Earth from their sites of origin.