A student who completed a study of the Harper Park watershed for their community partner, Peterborough GreenUP, describes their project and experience. Project hosts at GreenUP also share their perspective.
Teaching Case
Case Study: Sharing Results
Katie remembers the excitement going to her first science fair in grade 5. Ever since she was a little girl, she’d loved the Winnie the Pooh stories and bees. She’d worked hard on her project about the lifecycle of honey bees and her parents had helped her with a great Bristol board display. She’d learn to make bar charts and had some great photos. She even brought a stuffed bee as a prop. But when the judges came around to her project display to talk with her about the project, she got so nervous that she could barely answer their questions.
But not this time. Her fourth-year community-based research project on the production of honey from beekeepers in the local apiary club was finished. She had a presentation to the club next week and has prepared a poster and a short 10-minute talk. She’d learn so much she wasn’t sure how she’d keep it to 10 minutes, but she knew that she wouldn’t freeze up like she did at the science fair. The 20-page report she’d written has been reviewed by her faculty supervisor and they think it’s really sophisticated, well referenced, and useful. She just a few final touches to put on her report, poster and presentation and she’ll be done.
As she sits down at her computer to do some work, an email from her contact at the apiary club reaches her inbox. The note says that they’ve just learned about a great provincial grant for testing novel honey production methods but the proposal is due in just two days. They ask whether she can help draft sections of the proposal and work on the budget. Katie freezes up again. She had time to help but she’d been working so hard on the report, poster and presentation and just wanted to finish these. Plus, she’d never helped write a grant proposal and wasn’t sure what was involved. She knows her faculty supervisor likes her project and feels fairly certain she’ll get a good grade. She also knows it would nice to see some of her work put into action.
- Should Katie help with the grant application? Why or why not?
- If yes, what elements and things do you think her report might be able to contribute to the grant application?
- If no, what other types of action-oriented deliverables can you imagine a community organization wish as outcomes and deliverables from a community-based research project?
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