Rearranging Life

For the past two days, you may have noticed a few more people on campus who stand out a little. There were over 2000 FFA members on campus for the state FFA convention and I was thrilled to be able to participate for one more year! However, one thing I didn't take into account right away was the fact that it isn't quite as easy to make up school work in college... Especially during Dead Week!


In order to participate in a contest and receive a proficiency award, I had to miss the majority of my classes on Tuesday, which included a quiz, physics lab, recitation and biology lecture. The only things I was really worried about were the quiz and the lab. I was able to make up the quiz Wednesday morning and do the lab right after that! This resulted in my Wednesday being a little crazy, but I also got to see a lot of my friends and have a great Tuesday!


#platypus

It all comes together!

This class was a lot of fun as we got to solve another group's problem. They threw us for a loop with the phone code clue, but we got it figured out! It was really fun to figure out what the other groups were thinking as they created their clues.


Since we got our problem solved quickly, we also got to do lots of other puzzles provided by Craig. It's safe to say I've come a long ways in my problem solving skills as I was able to solve all the puzzles without "using my resources". This seminar has been a blast and I'm glad I was a part of it!


#platypus

Isaac Article Review

Marcus Hollman, a professor of Animal Science from Michigan State University, wrote an article on issues currently facing animal agriculture. In particular, Hollman focuses on the unsettled matter of sustainability and food production.  In his article, Hollman attempts to define sustainability, how it is perceived by society, and what forms sustainability takes. The following review will outline the main points of Hollman’s presentation and evaluate his given possible solutions to alleviate the strains on agricultural sustainability.

I find this topic very interesting due to its incredible relevance in today’s animal production industry. Society is currently holding producers to higher standards of environmentalism, and this movement has both economic and environmental consequences. As a future veterinarian, I may find myself advising producers to use more “green” methods of production.

As Hollman points out, the current state of agriculture is under question for its ability to be a sustainable, environmentally-friendly, method of feeding the world’s people. As of 2012, our current world population is around 7 billion people, and it is projected to reach 9 billion people as soon as 2050. Knowing this, animal agriculture is under pressure to be sustainable in the long term.  One of the principle methods of sustainability is nutrient recycling. As animal production occurs, nutrients used in production are moved from their places of origin. Nutrient recycling ensures that some of the nutrients depleted from one area are eventually returned through methods such as fertilization, nitrogen-fixing planting, and other such practices.

Hollman outlines different viewpoints, or dimensions, that seek to create long-term stability in animal agriculture. The first dimension is market based; driven mostly by the pursuit of efficiency and minimal waste by producers hoping to increase profits and eliminate wastage of nutrients. This has been the prevailing viewpoint for most of the 20^th century. This perspective utilizes market-based solutions to drive inefficiency down and also promotes the use of byproducts of the animal agriculture industry. This viewpoint is the most profitable to producers and is the most successful in producing large amounts of food to feed the world’s populace. However, this method is also contingent on the unlimited supply limited resource. It also lacks accountability for the proper recycling of nutrients and avoiding pollution, often causing nutrient depletion and pollution in some areas.

The second viewpoint, as proposed by Hollman, is that of farmers being “environmental stewards”, who are responsible for the proper use of available local resources. This includes minimizing possible soil and water pollution, while at the same time doing their best to recycle nutrients. This method promotes sustainability by recycling nutrients and reducing possible environmental hazards. Production of food is maximized, with the condition that maximization does not negatively affect the local environment. While this method does encourage sustainability, it is restricted by local nutrient flow, and does not produce as much food as efficiently as conventional methods.

The evidence shows that in the United States, environmental friendliness has been more and more a concern for consumers. This has, in part, driven many producers to adopt a role as an environmental steward. The results have been promising, with many new state-of-the-art facilities being produced with environmental stewardship in mind. So far, it is not possible to tell whether these policies will be beneficial in the long term, but the enactment of these environmentally-friendly policies have led to improved public perception of animal agriculture.

I find that this topic often comes up when discussing commercial agriculture. In my opinion, it is true that producers have a responsibility to the planet and to local ecosystems to be environmentally friendly. In most situations, producers are happy to comply with society’s demands. However, producers also have a responsibility to themselves, their families, and consumers to make a low-cost product that will put food on the table for both consumers and producers. It seems to me that the best option is somewhere in the middle. Total environmentalism would be ideal, if not for the continually growing human population. To feed everyone, some form of large, commercial agriculture needs to take place, which will result in some nutrient depletion and environmental side-effects.  While Hollman gives two opposing perspectives as possible solutions, I believe a happy medium is the best option. Today’s market provides for people who are more willing to buy “environmentally-friendly produced” products. This allows some producers to be environmental stewards and still be competitive with more conventional producers. All in all, I am very interested in this discussion, and I look forward to further developments in this area. 

#platypus

I Love TED Talks!

TED talks are the greatest thing ever. Whenever I watch one, I walk away feeling so much more motivated about life. I think it's because the individuals who are delivering the talks are always so passionate about their topics that it inspires me to do and achieve more!


When I started looking for talks for this project, I found three that I liked, but this one (Ending Hunger Now) was definitely the best! The speaker is Josette Sheeran, director of the World Food Programme. She speaks about different ways the UN is working to end hunger around the world.


As a biological systems engineering major, food insecurity and hunger are issues I hope to combat using my education. However, there are a lot of societal and economic challenges to fighting hunger in addition to the inherent production issues. In the TED talk, Ms. Sheeran addresses three creative ideas of particular interest to me.


The first creative solution is special nutrition packages that use traditional foods to deliver nutrients that are lacking in the diets of certain populations. This interests me because it directly involves food and food processing, which is a focus area for my major. These packages are climate proof and do not need refrigeration or water to deliver the needed nutrition to people. This would be an area where I can directly apply knowledge of food chemistry and processing to help end world hunger.


Whoever came up with the idea of school feeding programs deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. These programs purchase food from local farmers (stimulating economy), serve it to children (providing nutrition) and serve it at school (providing education). It's the trifecta of hunger fighting! Another plus side is that school feeding programs result in more girls enrolled in school. Although this creative solution does not directly involve engineering concepts, it is the kind of application that I would love to pursue with a combined business and engineering degree.


Finally, a hot topic in food insecurity is the fact that communities often become dependent on food aid. This can be combated by a solution such as village managed warehouses. An aid organization builds a warehouse full of food in a community and members of the village replenish the supply with the food they grow themselves. This allows the village to have the infrastructure to become self sufficient and provide their own food for the future. I am also very interested in applying engineering knowledge to creating better storage for food.


Although these three creative solutions are all very different, they are all areas I could see myself exploring in the future. This field is so exciting because there is such a need for innovation and any progress that is made will likely save hundreds of lives. In order to truly end hunger now, we need to combine the knowledge and skills of people in many different disciplines, from agriculture to business to politics to engineering. World hunger is definitely a problem in need of a creative solution and I want to be part of creating and realizing that solution!


#platypus

Brian Fuchs TED Talk Review (Self-Healing Asphalt)

I know it's a week early, but...

This is a review of Dr. Erik Schlangen’s demonstration of self-healing asphalt that he developed. This video can be found on the TED talk website at https://www.ted.com/talks/erik_schlangen_a_self_healing_asphalt. It was seen on April 27, 2014.

This is a short video – only six minutes long. However, I picked it because it directly relates to Materials Engineering and successfully solves a problem. Dr. Schlangen presented his findings at a TED talk in the Netherlands in 2012. This review will focus on Dr. Schlangen’s presentation, which was successful in its pitch. This finding has excited me on a personal level, as it demonstrates my personal favorite form of creativity; applying old techniques to new applications.

The style of the talk is a combination of a demonstration and a sales pitch. Dr. Schlangen’s purpose is to show the world his cool new research. This has the possibility to reach hundreds of thousands of people, especially given the popularity of TED talks.\

Dr. Schlangen talks about asphalt roads and the problems they face – water build-up, noisy, and they crumble easily. Some of these problems have already been solved; porous asphalt reduces water build-up and noise. However, this too faces the problem of crumbling over time. So how does that get fixed? Dr. Schlangen introduces two material-related topics: induction heating and self-healing materials. His team basically wove steel fibers into the asphalt along with some heat-induced self-repairing material. With this technique, a strong electric coil can cause the steel wires to heat up and induce the repairing reactions in the asphalt. Dr. Schlangen demonstrates this technique by breaking a piece of his asphalt in half, then putting it in a microwave. When he removes the piece, it has healed itself back together.

Dr. Schlangen’s pitch is rather successful. Most helpful was the successful demonstration of the self-healing asphalt, which was accomplished using a rather simple microwave. This in particular helped to sell it; most of the audience knows what a microwave is. The idea that something that “simple” could be used to heal roads is fascinating. If this actually makes it onto major roadways, it will be a simple manner to “heal” them rather than replacing them every 10 years.

Unfortunately, Dr. Schlangen did not go into the science behind induction or self-healing materials. As a Materials Engineering student, I understand what they are, but it looks like hand-wavy magic to those on the outside. I really was hoping he would get into the science behind it. However, he chose correctly based on his audience – many people would care what the actual science is as long as it works.

In terms of “sales pitch” TED talks, this talk was better than some of the other ones that I’ve seen. Sometimes, the talker just looks at his demonstration, or his feet, but Dr. Schlangen engaged the audience well. He faced the crowd, did some cool demonstrations that involved liquid nitrogen, and cracked a couple jokes.

As I said before, this is my favorite type of creativity: taking old ideas and applying them to new applications. From what Dr. Schlangen described, these are fairly simple techniques – induction heating has been used in industry for decades, and self-healing materials, while still a topic of research, are also in use. Dr. Schlangen took these two concepts, took an existing material (porous asphalt) and combined them to make an even better material. It’s the same thing I hope to do in the future. While I’m not really interested in asphalt specifically, I am interested in composite materials. Much like this asphalt, composites take the best of two worlds – e.g. the toughness of a polymer and the hardness of a ceramic – and combine them to make a material that is tough, strong, and lightweight. The newest planes – things like the Boeing 787 – are being made using a material called “black aluminum,” a combination of carbon fibers and epoxy. There’s this whole field out there that just focuses on combining things to make them stronger, and that’s right where I’m heading.

In conclusion, Dr. Schlangen gave a good pitch for his asphalt. While he did not go into the science behind it, he had a successful demonstration of its effectiveness. This is the type of science/research that makes me excited for my future. 

#Platypus

Isaac Personal Reflection 4/25

This week I had a lot of exams and lab practicals, typical of the week before dead week. As a result I found myself studying quite a bit. While most of my studying involved memorizing procedures and facts, some of my o-chem studying involved completing molecular structures using HNMR data, which use quite a bit of problem-solving skills. I have also used creative ways to keep myself studying, such as creating a study schedule and rewarding myself. All I know is that so far my studying has payed off, and I hope my luck can continue into finals week. 

#platypus

Problem Solving + Luck = Happy Cody

So last week I kind of ranted about how my life this week was going to suck and it did a little bit but not too bad. The reason is I was able to get super lucky so although it doesn't really have anything to do with problem solving it helped my time management greatly. My group presentation that we had zero information for and was supposed to be due by Mon at 5 got moved back to next Mon at 2! The O-chem homework I had due on Wed got moved back until next Mon as well and our other group project turned out to be much easier than expected. So now I just get to relax and enjoy the wonderful weather and study for finals. Yay for having luck on my side this week it has really made me a much happy camper.

#platypus

Puzzle Creation Masters!!!

So I really enjoyed class this week. It's very interesting looking at the process of creating a puzzle that people can actually solve and most of the time actually end up solving it yourself. I would say overall our group did what we do well and that is break things down to our individual strengths this time it was by creating the puzzles we are most familiar with. It was also enjoyable trying to come up with different more low key landmarks on campus. I also find it interesting that the first thing we decided was what our final solution was going to be and we then stretched it out from there bringing in the rest of the clues. Overall I am really excited to see how the group does that gets our scavenger and also how we do with another group's scavenger hunt because we are all super creative problem solvers!

#platypus

P.S.

I would like to do this TED talk for my review....  https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_on_new_energy/transcript

Communication Creativity

A couple weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I said something about bad communication and writing a blog post about it next week (which obviously didn't happen), but it turns out I was just saving the idea for this week! One of the wonderful challenges that comes with being a student leader here at ISU is sending and receiving hundreds of emails every week. It doesn't sound to bad - just emails, right? - but you have to realize that every other student gets spammed with emails constantly. The challenge lies in making your email something that they want to read. I have discovered three tried-and-true methods of doing this, which will be presented in order from most professional to most fun!


1) Make your email sound very important. This can be achieved in a few different ways. You can be a very important person yourself. If you get an email from President Leath or Craig Zywicki, you're obviously going to read it because these are important people who wield power on campus. If you're not inherently important, you can put "URGENT" in front of your message or just write the subject in ALL CAPS! Either of these things will usually make your email sound important and therefore other students will read it!


2) Incessantly email small bits of information until all details have been given. This method is not so much effective at communicating accurate information and should not be used if the information is important (see above). However, it can be used if you are trying to keep students engaged in a club or organization. They will have to read each and every email in order to assure they are getting all the information! (As I look back at this one, it seems like less and less of a good idea. Not recommended...)


3) Add humor to your email! This method is best used for communication with students that you know well. I would not advise using it for a mass email to the entire university, but within the board of an organization (privately) or among the members of a social organization, it can be very effective and fun! Personally, I just joined a sorority, and this is where I have gotten the idea for this method. An email I received recently had the following subject line: "Being literate is a privilege so please read!" After seeing that, I laughed a little and promptly opened the email to exercise my privilege. I used this method in a sarcastic email reminding board members to fill out a Doodle poll so we could schedule our next meeting. It worked! However, this method must be used with caution in order to ensure the members read into sarcasm and don't think you are just a jerk!


Wow, that was a long blog post! If you got this far, you get a prize! It's probably not a very good one (maybe some expired coupons) ((but really, I've given those out as a prize before)). *Note the use of humor here.* It seems I have the third method down, and as the second isn't very effective I should work on the first method next! Time to become an important person!


#platypus

Let the Games Begin!

After six weeks of learning about creativity and problem solving, this week our goal was to create a challenge for another group in the class to solve. This was a great way to apply everything we've been talking about this semester into a fun and interactive activity! I am really excited for next week when we get to solve another group's challenge - and also a little worried for whoever gets ours!


#platypus

Isaac Class Reflection 4/21

I'm quite excited for the scavenger hunt next week. I really hope we did a good job of coming up with puzzles for the other groups. While creating puzzles, I found that coming up with a good puzzle can be just as fun as solving them. I think the satisfaction comes from creating something that will challenge and intrigue others, a feeling similar to invention. I can't wait to see what the other groups came up with. Bring it on!

#platypus

Honors Seminar Penultimatum (Brian Class 4/24)

I still feel rather evil for the challenges we set up for the other teams this week. I really like that they're going to have to use everything in their arsenals to figure it out. Let's hope they can do it in 90 minutes!

#platypus

Let There Be Creativity! .... Please? (Brian OoC 4/24)

My English project for this semester is coming along swimmingly, but it feels so boring. I'm "creating" a webpage with my group, but it basically follows our client's current webpage. I've been trying to "spice it up" with funny quotes, pictures, and dynamic layouts, but it just feels boring. Not sure what to do there.
On the plus side, I'm getting all my final projects under control! Finally!

A Blast from the Class

Those puzzles at the end of class were wonderfully challenging. I have limited skills in cryptographs, but with a little practice and help from Cody, I was able to remain interested and active without generating anxiety. It felt like I really hit a groove - a "flow" - where my skills were perfectly matched to what I was doing.

Isaac Personal Reflection 4/18/2014

As the school year begins to wind down, I find myself getting caught up in a lot of studying. I don't have many projects due this semester, but exams and finals are beginning to loom over me like grim death. The important thing for me right now is to keep motivated to study. I have begun making a study schedule to keep myself on track. Hopefully, I will be prepared for finals this semester.

I have also finally found something I like about Organic Chemistry. We are currently learning about HNMRs, CNMRs, IRs, and Mass Spectrometry in 331 lab. Basically, given the empirical formula of a compound and these four things, you can determine the exact structure of a compound. They sound difficult, but they are very puzzle-like, and I actually enjoy doing them.

Other than that all I have to look forward to is going home this weekend and seeing my family for Easter. When my dad's family get together, there are always a lot of us, and we end up playing board games. In theory, some of my problem-solving skills should translate to helping me crush my cousins in board games.

#platypus

Isaac Class Reflection 4/14

Class this week was very interesting. The theme of the class was the nature of what makes a puzzle a puzzle, and what makes a puzzle either fun or boring. Whether or not a puzzle is fun depends on the challenge the puzzle presents and the amount of skill the solver has with which to solve it. If a puzzle is very challenging, but the solver lacks the skill, the puzzle is likely to be frustrating to the solver. Inversely, if the puzzle is not very challenging and the solver has plenty of skill to solve it, then the puzzle will be boring or monotonous. This weeks puzzles were all quite challenging, and required all of us to divide the workload up based on our skills. I concerned myself mainly with the crossword puzzle, which was quite difficult actually. But when I finally finished it, I felt a great satisfaction. This reinforces the idea that a puzzle is more satisfying if it has a good ratio of challenging to skill level.

#platypus

Group Project Time

Since the semester is winding down it seems like a good time to discuss the plethora of projects and tests that seem to be sucking away all my time and then with a little bit of creativity and problem solving, ways to get that time back. Well the first group project involves designing a flow system for a fluidized bed... aka a lot of number crunching and making assumptions. Based on the very limited design specifications our group has to come up with the entire design from velocity calculations to mechanical energy balances as well as friction losses etc...

The second group project (which we just found out are presenting next Tue) is to research the environmental management practices of a small entity, we chose to do Grinnell, IA initially however the lack of information by the city officials chose us to move toward the college instead. Needless to say we will have to find enough information for a 15 minute presentation and a 10 page paper.

Both of these projects combined with other end of the year res hall and club activities has been making it very difficult to study for tests and do other hw assignments so here's to not sleeping until after finals!

#platypus

P.S. sorry for the rant but I needed to let out my frustration somewhere.

The Science Behind Puzzles

I really enjoyed class this week because it broke down puzzles into a very simple formula and it was easy to see what created the best puzzles. Ultimately it came down to challenge vs. skill and the goal was to be at a perfect 1:1 ratio. The puzzle needs to be hard enough to create a little bit of pressure but also for a puzzle to be enjoyable there needs to be some level of knowledge or skill known by the solver. Personally I find puzzles where have little or no skill behind them to be incredibly boring so the Smithsonian puzzles were absolutely wonderful. They got our entire team to work together and pick out our individual strengths. The challenge was made plain to see and most of it was in the difficulty of the puzzles themselves. But the skills were different among us and so when they matched up fairly evenly that was when they not only became fun but also solvable.

#platypus

Challenging my Skills

This semester, I'm taking a "Failure Analysis" class. For the lab component of this class, we receive parts that have broken for a variety of reasons. Our task is to figure out why they broke; were they over-stressed? Was it fatigue? Were they exposed to acid? It varies from part to part.

At the beginning of the semester, many of these failures were beyond my skill to analyze - I didn't have the knowledge to draw good conclusions about how they had failed. Thanks to class (and practice), I've been able to improve my skills and make largely accurate diagnoses. 

On a different note, I've found two TED talks that I'd like to do for my final project (one or the other):

Problem: Asphalt Degrades Quickly. This guy has a solution.  (~6 min) This one relates pretty closely to my major.

Engineering a Better Life for All - applying engineering solutions to a myriad of world problems. (~15 min)

Are either of these okay? Both? Let me know.

#playtpus

Creative Service

One of the best opportunities I've had so far at ISU is being involved in the President's Leadership Class. We meet weekly with President Leath and student leaders to discuss the principles and practice of leadership. This week, our topic was Service Leadership and during the presentation we had the chance to brainstorm some creative solutions to challenges in the service community. My group was tasked with increasing student awareness of service opportunities. We generated several ideas, but the most creative (and the one I was most excited about) was a Career Fair Service Day.


We noticed that most companies will compensate their employees for doing community service during their working hours and that many companies also send their representatives to ISU a day or more before the Career Fair to hold information sessions and begin recruiting early. If we just combine these two things, we have an event that allows recruiters and students to join together in serving the community and gives them time to network in a more relaxed environment.


Although this was primarily a brainstorming, theoretical activity, I would love to see something like this happen here at ISU! It would allow students to get more out of the Career Fair and motivate them to serve the community, both here at Iowa State and after graduation. With a little creativity, anything can happen!


#platypus

Goals

This week in class we talked a lot about how to more effectively reach our goals. One of the methods that was most interesting to me was the idea of driving and restraining forces. It is true that for most goals there are things that we do well - and should keep doing in order to maximize progress toward our goals. There are also things that hold us back - and we need to figure out how to combat these and prevent them from slowing us down. In order to reach our goals, we must take action both on maximizing driving forces and minimizing restraining forces. When we do that, all our problems will be solved! Just kidding, probably not. But at least we will be closer to whatever our end goal is.


#platypus

The Silver Lining

So it happened. Tuesday night people went a lot too crazy and VEISHEA was cancelled. This was especially disappointing for me as I served on a VEISHEA committee this past year and was looking forward to my first experience at the celebration.


However, I have also been encouraged by the general student population's response to the cancellation. People have organized several non-VEISHEA Cyclone pride events for the weekend and I am excited to see what happens!


At the informational meeting for the VEISHEA committee, Dr. Hill challenged us to use our creativity to come up with ideas for an event that can capture the spirit of VEISHEA without the negative side-effects that have come to be associated with the celebration. I am very eager to see what the student leaders of ISU with create and I hope to be a part of the process!


Although I didn't personally apply my creativity or problem solving, it has been great to see students bond together and find a way to celebrate the university we all love, even without VEISHEA.


#platypus

Not My Idea of Fun

Brownies! Delicious, right? Usually, but beware of brownies in Honors seminars.... They might just have a Thai flavor.... Not okay. We learned that creative cooking may not be the best application of our professor's creativity in class this week.


In more useful news, we also discussed applying our creativity to our resumes. It is easy to blend in, especially at the career fair, but with a little work, we can make our resumes stand out in the crowd. Also, it is best to make sure we stand out as individuals! Then our resumes will stand out on their own.


That's all for this week! Hopefully our next class doesn't leave a bad taste in my mouth...


#platypus

Isaac Personal Reflection 4/11

I find that one of the hardest things I have to do academically is write a paper on a subject that I really have no interest in. To meet a diversity requirement, I am forced to take a Sociology course. The class itself isn't bad at all, but I have found it almost impossible to be motivated to write papers for this class. This is because of two reasons: 1) The papers in this class make me write about something that doesn't interest me at all, and 2) the papers are hard to come up with a conclusion for, since "social problems have no one, clear solution", as my professor would say. This makes staying motivated to write this paper a problem, and I decided to take a creative approach to solve this problem. It may not be the healthiest thing, but I began to reward myself with treats. For every paragraph or so I wrote, I would feel that I had "earned" a snack. And if I ever got writers block, I would just take a shower, and take my mind off the thing entirely. Once I returned to the paper, I would find that the answer would just flow naturally. I'm quite proud of myself for finding a motivation technique that works for me.

#platypus

What to do with the weekend now...

My original plans for this weekend were to go down to Simpson to pick my girlfriend up and bring here back here so we could catch David Cook in concert. Well that changed when she called me Tuesday saying she had an impromptu 3 hour rehearsal on Sat. So problem solving time... we stay the night there then leave Sat afternoon and come up here to catch the Village and then go out with some friends and see Into the Woods. Then the festivities happened (angry face) and problem solving 2.0 occurred. So now the final plans are to go down there and come back Sunday. Weekend plan solving throughout the week... now lets just hope it's a success.

#platypus

Isaac Class Reflection 4/7

I had a lot of fun this week with the brownie activity. I never considered the possible creative things one could do with a brownie recipe. A few of them were actually pretty good! Others (pad thai), not so much. Still, it helped me to realize the potential creative things I could do everyday to add a little fun to my life.

On another note, I benefited greatly from the little resume/interview workshop we did. I never thought about all the little nuances that can go into words, body language, and document formatting that could make one stand out as a potential employee. I had an interview this week, and I used a few of the tips provided in the lesson, and I feel like the interviewers were impressed. I'm glad this class has helped me.

#platypus

Delicious Problems...?

So Monday was a very interesting class because I love to eat but don't know a lot of what I eat. I know the main dishes of course but when it comes to spices or other additives I can't necessarily pick those out when I eat so our problem solving exercise was quite difficult for me. I tried my best to use my other senses besides taste in order to get around this problem which helped a little bit but was not the greatest strategy. I guess that is just something I need to work on... enhancing my palette.

Creative Problem Solving on Campus

With VEISHEA activities "suspended" (cancelled), I thought that all club showcases would be over. However, it's great to see that students are creating events to still show off their organizations and show how positive the ISU community can be. Iowa State just made national news in a negative way - now students are showing what they can do to fix it.
#playtpus

New+Old -> Better?

Ok, I admit, those peanut brownies were not the greatest thing in the world. I had a mild stomachache afterward. Anyway, I really liked the creative message of the activity. I'm a casual cook, and jump at the chance to add new ingredients to old recipes. It carries over into my drinks (wooooo! 21!) and into my (limited) glass blowing. In fact, I think I'm going to try something new (based on something old) today. I'll let you know how it works out.

Creative Marketing

One of my goals when I came to ISU was to get involved in a variety of different organizations. I did that, but I never anticipated how much they would overlap. Next week is VEISHEA, and I am a member of the Alumni committee, so I will be helping out with many different activities throughout the week. I am also the secretary of Freshman Council and we will be holding the first annual VolleyBrawl in two weeks!


As a member of both organizations, I am able to promote both activities through the other group. For example, FC will be having a booth at VEISHEA Village to promote our VolleyBrawl event. And we will be handing out information about VEISHEA activities to all the members of Freshman Council at one of our meetings.


By having information and connections in both groups, I am able to help make both events more successful!


P.S. This is a shameless plug for attending both events! VEISHEA info can be found here.
Registration for VolleyBrawl ends on April 15 and can be found at this link.

#platypus

The BF DF Part 2: The Englishator

One of my group projects in English 314 is to create a set of instructions to build an original tinkertoy model. These instructions will be handed out to other groups, and they will use them to build said model. At this point, we have our model, well, "modeled," but now the work begins. One problem we have to solve is how to present the instructions - a booklet? Maybe a powerpoint presentation? As a group, we haven't decided yet. As such, we as a group have to use our creativity and problem solving to come up with a solution. I thought that a powerpoint presentation would be a good, interactive way of presenting the design. Other group members argued the benefits of a simple fold-up instruction booklet. Someone mentioned the idea of using a poster board with large models. There are multiple solutions here, so now we have to decide which one suits us best. 

#platypus

The Brian Fuchs Double Feature: Part 1 - The Classinating

Class this week was about vision, which can be broken down into two parts; creativity, and never settling for less. Despite the cheesiness of the video we watched, I really liked the photographer's tenacity. During his advertisement shoot, he already had some excellent photos, but he found ways to make them better. It's like he never sets concrete expectations for himself. He doesn't take a good photo and call it quits - he takes one then asks, "How can this be better?" In a lot of my work, I've practiced the idea that one solution is the correct solution. But if you challenge that, then even better solutions can be found.

#platypus

The Great Leader Matching Puzzle

So this week for my job as a UA we had the pleasure of pairing 72 honors leaders together and then using their class schedules and available times putting them into class periods. Now at first this seems pretty simple and was definitely expedited by having the leaders preference who they wanted to work with but it was still a difficult task to say the least.

The first step was to see how many leaders preferenced each other first so we knew that those individuals wanted to be matched together. Then we took those matches and looked at which individuals had the fewest available times and placed them first. This sort process continued with color coordinating very flexible and very rigid leaders etc. Then we finally got to then end and figured out a solution having a couple of people move a class here or there to accommodate us. And then when we thought we had it perfect one student pointed out that they work off campus in the mornings so the class time we had put for them wouldn't work! Our dreams were crushed, but we went to work finding another solution to the problem. The color coordinating definitely helped out and after a 6 group switch each taking the place of another we were able to successfully fix the problem and have the perfect co-leader setup.

Success!

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Failure is the greatest teacher

I thought Monday's class was very interesting because it looked at how creativity is derived. And most of it is not just an innate vision but rather it is a constant process of always looking for better. One of the things that stood out to me in the video is that he looked at one of his "failures" but didn't just give up, rather he kept trying and eventually got one of his favorite pictures. The reason this sticks out to me is because I am a firm believer in failure as being the best teacher. At first it is tough to wrap your mind around how doing something wrong can end up being the best thing for a person but it is. At least to me when I make a mistake or fail I remember that failure and tell myself that I am not going to repeat it again. Overall I just thought it was interesting how he connected ideas of perseverance and hard work into creativity because to me before watching the video those were two different things.

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Isaac Personal Reflection 4/2

When I think on my daily life, it occurs to me that I do little creative problem solving on a day-to-day basis, or if I do I don't consciously recognize it. And I think that its a good thing my daily life doesn't present the conundrums that I encounter in class. I'm pretty content to have my boring-yet-straightforward homework and my moderate social life fill up my time. Most of my creative thinking is applied to finding time to balance my education and social life. I know there will be a day when creative problem solving will be key to my career success, but at the moment it seems to be most useful in keeping me happy and productive, and that's alright with me.

Isaac Class Reflection 3/31

During Monday's class I learned something important about problem solving. Working together is key, because everyone has insight or other such skills that make certain parts of problems easier. I am not very good at puzzles such as the Cross Quote, but my hobby of crossword puzzles makes filling in blank words easier. As for the Russian/American riddle, I tried to look at it like a math problem until I noticed the line about the child with red hair. I knew from then on that it couldn't just be math, and there had to be more to it. Working with my team, we eventually found the answer. Working together made answering all these puzzles much easier than working alone.

As for the photographs, I must say that I may have struggled with this one. My creativity doesn't usually apply to aesthetics, and I have almost no photography experience. With my photos, I tried to capture the pictures from somewhere that I wouldn't normally be, such as within a fountain or off of the sidewalk. To get the best pictures, you might have to stray from the beaten path.