| Hemlock was to me the best way to start out my college career. Hemlock is an outdoor obstacle course meant to build companionship and comradery, and it did just that. Before I even knew everyone’s names I was up close and personal with then balancing on a tree stump teeter-tottering over lava, figuratively speaking of course. In a couple of hours it quickly broke down my personal barriers that I am sure would have taken me weeks to overcome in the classroom. The competencies that made Hemlock such a success for me was were critical thinking, communication, and group interaction. Since Hemlock was a group oriented workshop group interaction is a given and occurred during each activity no matter how intense (high ropes course) or lax (name memory game). A vital element of group interaction is communication which was definitely important in activities such as the helium hoop which was when everyone has to correspondingly rest a hula hoop on both their index fingers and gently lower it to the ground while maintaining contact with the hoop at all times. It sounded easy enough but we quickly learned it was harder than we thought when the hoop continued to rise though everyone was supposed to be lowering their hands to the ground. It took both talking and listening in order to get everyone in sync and once we had that the job was rather easy. But before we had successful communication we as a team had to devise a technique to successfully complete the task and lower the hoop, this took critical thinking. |
Going to the National Gallery of Art and the
National Museum of African Art were my favorite parts of NCLC 130. These two
field trips helped me to most directly apply what I had learned from readings,
group discussions, and class in general. Therefore I can easily pick out the
competencies at play here were valuing, global perspective, effective
citizenship, and aesthetic response. First visiting a museum in order to
experience and witness different cultures demonstrate valuing and concern for effective
citizenship. Valuing is realizing how for example Africans are different than
you and the desire to take time to go to a museum make you an effective citizen
in itself. Once in the museum to adequately examine exhibit and the artifacts
and be able to discuss what it your interpretation of the piece is
demonstrating your response to aesthetics of the museum. And once you leave the
museum and have witnessed and understood what you have seen then you are
gaining a global perspective meaning your world is no longer the only one you
are acquainted with. In a simple visit to the museum many of the concepts and
goals of NCLC 130 are met and they all intertwine. |