Science and Technology of New York City

At the beginning of the semester, when I first got the syllabus, I was actually quite discouraged because I saw a “Group Podwalk project” that was worth 60% of my final grade. What intimidated me the most was that I did not even know what a podwalk was. I had heard of it before, but I never knew what it was or what it was used for. Furthermore, when I saw the three topics available for the podwalk project, I immediately wanted to do Brooklyn College, as that was the only one place out of the three that I was familiar with. When I was placed into the Gowanus group, I knew that this was truly going to be a learning experience, as at the end of the project, I would know what a podwalk is and what the Gowanus Canal is. Working with my group was truly a memorable experience, as every member of the group was responsible and contributed his/her fair share in order to ensure the ultimate success of the group. While there were times that a few of the members, including myself, slacked off, at the end we all contributed our fair shares. Under the effective guidance of Albert (who was already quite knowledgeable about the Gowanus Canal), our group worked hard to write scripts, record the podwalk, design and make the interactive brochure and map, and come together at the Macaulay building to present our project, which, if I may be so bold, was quite a success.
What I learned from this podwalk more than anything else was the beauty of working together as a group. This project would have been completely overwhelming had it been individually done. However, by forming a group of six dedicated students, we were able to accomplish what would otherwise have been a significantly difficult, tedious, and time-consuming task. Furthermore, as an aspiring doctor, it is quite elemental that I learn to work in groups. In the future, I could be placed in small teams when performing medical practices, such as surgery, and I might not have the luxury of having members in my team who share my point of view or like to do things the way I prefer. For this reason, it is quite crucial to learn to work successfully in a group, especially when the members in the group might not want to go about the task in the same manner as me.
However, apart from this, I learned much more as well, namely what a podwalk was and what the Gowanus Canal was. Since I had never been to many tours before, I was not aware of what a podwalk was. As such, I was indeed quite apprehensive, but also a little intrigued as to what a podwalk was and what it entails. After going to the Gowanus Canal field trip, I began to develop a rudimentary idea of what a podwalk was. From that point on, I was actually quite excited to complete this project. I realized that this would be no walk in the park, however I also knew that after completing the project, I would all feel a sense of joy and accomplishment that nothing else can give.
As a boy who essentially grew up in Long Island, I knew little to nothing about the city. I knew a fair amount about Queens, as New Hyde Park and Queens border each other. Consequently and quite unsurprisingly, when I was put into the Gowanus Canal group, it was the first time I had even heard of the name Gowanus. However, now, after successfully completing the project, I know a lot more about the canal than many other Brooklyn residents do: something which would have been impossible was I not granted the privilege to work with this group.
The strengths of this group were numerous. Our biggest strength, however, was that all of us were motivated and dedicated enough to complete a project that would truly make us feel proud and accomplished. In order to do this, we realized that we would have to set up an effective means of communication that would allow each of us to contribute our fair share. Therefore, we set up a Facebook message thread that allowed each of us to do our fair share (write scripts, do part of the PowerPoint, etc.) and post it on the group so the rest of the members could provide feedback. Another major strength was the nearly equal distribution of responsibility. As soon as one member of the group would post part of an assignment, all the other members would quickly jump in and offer their feedback in addition to posting their share of the assignment. Such fluid and timely responses made our project a true collaborative effort that resulted in a well put-together presentation.
However, along with strengths there were also weaknesses. One major weakness was that while all the group members responded to one another eventually, often times a few of us, myself included, were late in replying. This made completing the task unfairly onerous for the other members who were diligent enough to keep up with the group messages. Another weakness was that our entire group could not meet together at one spot prior to the presentation. Whether it be class conflicts or just unavailability, our group was not able to meet together even once prior to the day of the presentation. While this did not seriously hamper our presentation, we could have presented in a much more articulate manner had we finalized the tasks for everyone beforehand.
As I mentioned before, by doing a podwalk instead of a generic project, I learned a great deal: what a podwalk was and what and where the Gowanus Canal is and why it is so reputed. Apart from learning all this, the most striking aspect of this project was that we were able to efficaciously complete this podwalk. A project of this caliber would certainly not have yielded the same result had it been an individual effort. By working together as a group, we were able to tackle a rather large and arduous project and complete it in a manner that is truly commendable. Furthermore, by completing this project, I was able to fulfill a multitude of the learning objectives for this class. A small portion of our research was on the pollutants present and the different clean-up plans by the city, state, and federal governments. Therefore, we were able to gain a thorough understanding of urban sustainability and were able to “take an informed standpoint on issues of importance to New York City’s sustainability” (MCHC 3 Seminar Syllabus 1). In addition, our heavy research coerced us to learn urban sustainability jargon, such as brownfields and superfund site, which allowed us to broaden our understanding on the three different pillars of sustainability. In essence, by investigating the Gowanus Canal area, compiling as much data about the site as we could, learning about our project so we ourselves would become more acquainted with it, discussing the three pillars of urban sustainability, and creating a podwalk that acted as our means of communication to our audience, our group was able to explain how urban sustainability can be viewed from multidisciplinary perspectives.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group for this podwalk project, as the amount of knowledge I gained is inexplicable. Beside that fact, I also learned that I enjoy working in groups and that group work can accomplish projects that individuals might not be able to. Furthermore, I welcomed the podwalk project, as it was a novel idea that was drastically different from the conventional idea of a traditional research project. I would certainly recommend professors to do such projects, as I believe students would be delighted to do something out of the ordinary. However, one thing I would change is the number of sources that were required. I believe this project had an unnecessarily gargantuan amount of sources, most of which were not used in the projects. Each student was required to have so many sources that ultimately, the issue evolved from getting relevant sources to getting sources that other members in your group did not have. This introduced numerous irrelevant sources that were not used in any manner for the project. However, apart from this, I enjoyed working with my group, and I would, without hesitation, recommend professors to give more such projects.