Amanda Muzzey WRD Blog

[ukwrdblog]

Reflection

I think that researching the transportation options on UK’s campus was definitely interesting. I think for this presentation I was less nervous and more prepared than I was for my first presentation (still nervous though). I think everyone in general seemed more confident this time around. After the presentation I felt relieved. 

I spent about 7 hours total preparing for this, between blogs, research and prepping the actual powerpoint. I practiced with a few friends a few times, changing small things each time. I was happy after my presentation but I wish I had stuck more to my script.

Overall everyone did really good presenting and I liked that everyone was passionate about their topic. I hope the audience was receptive of my topic. 

I would like to be more confident going into my next presentation. I would like to memorize more of what I had to say.

[ukwrdblog]

Additionally, the University of Kentucky and the Lexington Transit Authority (Lextran) have partnered to offer UK faculty, staff and students FREE unlimited access on all Lextran routes through the BluPass program.  The partnership, which began July 1, 2015, allows UK students, faculty and staff to ride any Lextran route free of charge, simply by showing their valid Wildcard ID. The BluPass program is funded by UK Transportation Services as a proactive effort to decrease single occupancy vehicle use, give members of the UK community more choices in transportation options and to ultimately reduce campus parking demand.

https://www.uky.edu/transportation/

[ukwrdblog]

This is good information about the bicycle system, another great option for students that want to travel off campus without a large cost associated.

[ukwrdblog]

This is a good form of transportation for students and can replace the expense of Uber.

[ukwrdblog]

This is a map of the campus parking but what I thought was interesting was that the ideal parking space near Woodland Glen is reserved for athletes which stinks for everyone else.

[ukwrdblog]

At the start and end of all academic breaks, Transportation Services offers students an alternative way to travel on the Ride Home Express. This charter bus service operates four routes serving 15 cities, within a six-hour radius of UK. Round-trip tickets start at just $55.

https://www.uky.edu/transportation/

[ukwrdblog]

Update

Hey guys, so this is my update post for the week, and this week I’m super nervous for our speech. I hate giving speeches like this and I am totally not excited at all, but I do think the final project should be good, and I’ve been considering doing a documentary-type final project. In high school I used to make movies all the time and my senior year I did an internship at the Northern Kentucky MakerSpace and I got to make cool videos for them all the time, below is an example of a video we made, which took a lot of research and we got to interview all kinds of people, a lot like this project, so I’m excited for the end result of this project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH0E8ih8WbE

[ukwrdblog]

Speech Topic

Today I think I am going to try and do more research for my speech topic. I was considering Ubering today and if I do I have a few questions I would consider asking the driver, questions like:

Are college students your typical clients?

             If the answer is no, then who is?

What are some of your busiest days/hours?

Do typical Uber users tip?

What’s the craziest thing you've had happen in your Uber?

Why did you choose to become an Uber driver?

Where do you drop off the most?

What’s the deal with surcharge, when does it happen, why, who sets the limitations of surcharge? 

Where’s the furthest you’ve Ubered someone?

[katie-wrd110-blog]

I took this photo while I was volunteering at William Wells Bryant Elementary School. This photo spoke volumes to me for several reasons. The first being that these young children ages ranging from 5-10 years old are seeing all this violence in the world. I think this can cause some issues between people as some parents don’t want their children to be exposed to the harshness in the world, but when it is in your daily lives it can become very difficult to avoid. I also think this mural points out a point of tension is society itself. Everyday there is arguments about people killing people, and not having empathy for one another. The one question I have from viewing this mural of papers is why is the violence not stopping? and why are we not hearing what the youngest generation is saying?

[ukwrdblog]

I found this post by Katie, very moving. This makes me consider the possibility of joining her for her topic. I think it’s so awesome that she is involved in volunteer work, and I want to know more about it and if she had a chance to talk to any of the kids whose artwork was on the wall? I think an interesting idea for the research project would be how the violence in the world effects students in Lexington, and you could even consider how it effects not only young students but also college students. 

[nataliehahs-blog]

Coffee on Campus

Coffee has become a necessity for many college students to make it through a long day of classes. What I noticed in one of our recent assignments was that people spend a large portion of their time between or before classes waiting in line for a drink that will keep them going the rest of the day. People can spend definitely over 30 minutes total waiting for a drink on a busy day. The problem is that people spend more time waiting for their drink than the time it actually takes to drink it. So why do people spend so much time from something so insignificant? I don’t really understand, since I am not a coffee drinker myself. Some people’s days are affected by whether they have had coffee or not, and what time they have the coffee. People will choose to be late to class than not having their little caffeine boost. That makes me wonder about when exactly did coffee become priority? A couple things at stake are definitely people becoming “coffee dependent”, as stated early, and the time spent waiting could be used towards something else. 

[nataliehahs-blog]

I found an article on CNN that a reporter wrote talking about the necessity of coffee. Barbara Starr was in Ethiopia on an assignment and had this to say:

“ When you are a CNN reporter out on the road, nothing is more important than the first task at hand every day – securing the morning’s first cup of coffee. After that, you can handle just about anything, from the war zone to the flood zone.”

That’s really interesting and brings up another question; does morning coffee before class make a student feel invisible?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/03/starr.afghanistan/index.html

[ukwrdblog]

I found this post interesting because I also have found this very same thing around campus, and I also have this same issue on campus, do I wait for my drink or do I skip it and save a huge chunk of my life? Sadly, I admit, that most of the time I do end up waiting, but apps like Tapingo help a lot and cut down a huge chunk of time when used properly. I wonder how many students on campus utilize Tapingo for their coffee needs? Does this alleviate the strain? If a lot of students were to use Tapingo, would it defeat the purpose?

[sobreathtakinglybeautiful-blog]

Campus Struggles

Last week, I had the greatest struggle with transportation around campus. I was let out of my last class of the day 45 minutes early, (yay!) but as I am walking to the bus stop, I check the Transloc app, just to find the next bus is 15 minutes away. So I decide to wait.  As i see the bus approaching the stop, the driver decides to inform us that her bus has to go to the garage. (not yay) So I wait some more and the NEXT bus was another 15 minutes away. So about 5 minutes later, I started walking from the steps toward the next stop. Still nothing, for either route. so I decided ( IN THE POURING RAIN) I would just walk to my car in the Kroger Field lot. As I am doing so, the strong winds push my umbrella in the opposite direction and break it (LOL.) So I continued walking to my car in the pouring rain. I got there the same time I would have if my class let out on time, and if I would’ve taken the bus. 

Drivers, why must you all take a break at the exact same time, and all at once? With all the busses going all around campus, not ONE crossed my path in the hour it took me to make my commute! -__- After my eventful hour of waiting and walking, my legs are jello by the time I reach my car. 

Although I should suck it up or just bring a bike to campus, my health is at stake due to how hard it was raining and how little I prepared for this, lol. So to say the least, I would’ve rather stayed in class… 

[sobreathtakinglybeautiful-blog]

I have noticed the shuttle buses being more sporadic with much better timing! I am having little to no problems with transportation now. Aside from the tragic motorcycle crash and that poor student that was killed, I would say no difficulties have occurred since this day. Although the buses were re-routed, nobody could know the new stops. But as this was a total shock to everyone, my walk was no problem. 

[ukwrdblog]

This post kind of goes along with the topic I’m considering for my speech/ final project about Uber. This is the perfect example of how services like Uber take advantage of the typical college student. In a situation like this Mckenzie wasn't going far so she decided to walk, but what if she had been going more than a mile away? She most likely would've called an Uber or some kind of Taxi service which would have been more reliable (in this scenario) than the bus. In situations like this transportation on campus is found to be an issue of sorts. 

[ukwrdblog]

Hey guys! So today I was walking back from classes and I saw this funky squirrel and the funny thing was that the squirrel literally did not move as we approached him, which I thought was funny. Maybe the squirrel has rabies or something.

Seeing this squirrel today on campus made me remember the time that my tour guide told me that UK has a squirrel watching club. I wondered is this true? So tonight I did some research and I found this article (link below) which confirmed that yes UK does in fact have a squirrel watching club. Hey, I mean I guess if that intrigues you, you should check it out. But as I was reading this article I read that UK also has a Real Life Horror Movie Club! Which excited me because I live for Halloween, but also because scary movies and fall are my two favorite things ever, and guess what season it almost is? Fall!! 

Unfortunately I tried researching this scary movie club and I found no leads. I suppose it could be an underground organization, but for now the Late Night Movies at Memorial Hall have a few scary movies during October. 

Some of the dates below highlight scary movies if you’re interested:

October 13th- 7:00pm The Witch

October 13th- 10:00pm Friday the 13th

Thats all for this post! Hope it was informative!

http://theblacksheeponline.com/kentucky/student-orgs-kentucky

[ukwrdblog]

Hi everyone! This previous post was partially about the Memorial Hall movies, and I wanted to update that they actually offer a ticket and if you get that ticket punches five times (one punch for every time you visit) you get a free t-shirt and I think some other benefits like discounts off of candy and cookies and popcorn. Pretty cool! This was found out by doing research through other students. One of the many benefits of being surrounded by students all the time is that you can constantly do research via other people and their sources, expanding your knowledge greatly.

[ukwrdblog]

Hello everyone! Hope your week is going great! 

Yesterday there was Career Exploration Night for the College of Engineering. This was a really good opportunity to ask some questions. Some questions that were asked were, “How does Handshake work, and if I’m a freshman do I really need to be involved?” I’m sure we all already know the answer to the second half of that question though since they drill it into our heads that its never too early to start searching/building your resume.

My personal favorite part of this event (and pretty much every event on campus) is the Free Food part. But this Exploration Night could have sparked interest for some to research how to use Handshake and why it’s important. Also ask engineers we have to attend a certain number of intern fairs and lectures, so this was a good time to ask questions about that and do research for those. I wonder why there is no specific requirement to add to your Handshake account? Maybe in the years that follow there will be?

[ukwrdblog]

Hey everyone, 

So this event is pretty similar to an event coming up, the Engineering Career  Fair which I think is a pretty cool opportunity after talking to some experience students I learned that about 40% of the students who go enter their resume in the pool of applicants and a percentage of those students are able to attain internships and co-ops. 

It is a pretty good opportunity, and sources say companies are into hiring about 90 grad students per year so getting your resume into that pool early can only benefit you. Even though my source says that Career fairs can be a waste of time they can also be useful for early entry into a company.

Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/are-college-fairs-worth-it/

[ukwrdblog]

CHEM 105 Study Session

Hey everyone! I’m sure some of you are in chem 105, and last week they had study sessions pretty much everywhere on campus. But I noticed that in particular there was a specific study session in my building. After attending this specific session I noticed a few problems, were other kids in other study sessions being taught better? Were those teaching the study session in our building just as qualified as those in the 90 classroom, or in the study? For these questions, the ‘whats at stake’ comes down to passing or failing or doing mediocre on the chemistry exam. I wonder if those who did better on the exam attended or did not attend the chemistry study session, and those who did worse, did they? If so which ones at which study sessions earned better grades? 

[ukwrdblog]

Hello everyone! So in addition to this post about the chemistry session review, I did some research around campus which led me to conclude that most of the people who went to the session did about the same on the chemistry exam as those who did not go to the chemistry review. Some outliers are influencing the research for example those who did not go to the session and did wonderful on the exam and those who did go to the session and did terirble. But all in all it seems that the session did not make that big of a difference on anyone’s test score. With the average being so low it prompts the question what went wrong with the majority of students, and was the exam harder to weed people into chem 109?

My information was concluded from a general students perspective of those in chemistry 105.

But to follow up on this I will be answering and asking the same question next week regarding them Engineering 102 study session, and following up after the exam.

[ukwrdblog]

Dunkin Donuts on Campus

Hi everyone,

Today I sent an email to Dunkin Donuts because I am so sad that there isn’t a Dunkin Donuts on campus. I love Dunkin Donuts so much and the fact that there isn’t one makes me super sad. When I was in high school my friends and I would go to Dunkin everyday before class. But when I realized that the closest Dunkin is like 2 miles away and I don’t have a car on campus so I know I won’t be getting Dunkin a lot. 

So I decided that I would email Dunkin, and maybe spark a specific Dunkin bus route or bus stop. Little did I know they would send me an e-giftcard with $5.00 on it.  I wonder if everyone who writes to Dunkin gets a gift card? And if so wouldn’t that get pretty expensive?

All in all, I would say it was pretty successful, and maybe I sparked some motivation for a bus route.

[ukwrdblog]

Ok so to add onto the topic of Dunkin Donuts, I would like to say that I have been a total of 4 times this week, and each day I go I pay about $10 for the Uber not considering the price of dunkin in addition. But this led me to see that Uber surcharges there price greatly during busy times. The need for surcharge is probably caused by the laws of supply and demand, but I am left wondering why Friday’s at noon more people want an Uber than say Thursday’s at noon? To find out I did some research which lead me to an article on Forbes.com titled “How College Students Can Waste Less Money” by Maxine Joselow and Maxine wrote that “Other students fall into the trap of paying a surcharge to use popular ride-sharing mobile apps like Uber during peak hours, major holidays and inclement weather. For students who attend schools in the northeast, snowstorms like 2015’s Winter Storm Juno can raise the Uber fare by as much as 2.8 times higher than normal.” Is it fair of Uber to maximize their profit off of a college students weakness?

[ukwrdblog]

Update Post

Hey guys, so this is my update post for the week. This semester is going along pretty good, although I’m kind of running out of things to talk about on this blog to be honest. Today is Caturday so I’m very happy about that! Also I did good on my math exam so I am super happy about that. I’ve been through 2 of my exams and now I have one more next week, in engineering 102, which I’m pretty nervous about because it could be really hard or really easy and I know this week I need to manage my time really well so I can study a lot and do good on the exam.

I feel like everyone is kind of getting used to college life, and I have a routine now so that’s good.

Hope everyone has had a good week!

[ukwrdblog]

Apple

So I’m not sure who watched the Apple keynote on the 12th, but I did because I love the growing and innovation of technology (the reason I chose to study engineering). But while I was watching I noticed a few things, Apple no longer seems to be targeting the young generation, while the majority of Apple users happens to be the younger generation, it seems that Apple is also targeting older users for their new Apple Watch that includes heart rate monitoring to prevent heart attack. I wonder why Apple is newly targeting a wider range of people in the world? Also how do they appeal to the generation of students, as it seems that pricing has increased tremendously? The new iPhone X while it is shiny and full of glory (the first iPhone of its kind) starts at $999 a seemingly outrageous price, generally depleting a whole economic category of Apple users. The ‘whats at stake’ in this situation being that as Apple prices increase will their range of Apple users decrease? While I do love Apple’s newest products including the Watch with cellular, the expensive prices seem to be a deal breaker as a student.

[ukwrdblog]

As a sort of update to this blog post, the other day at UK Apple actually held a an Apple Event on campus. The idea was to promote the ‘AppleCare College Program’ a program allowing college students to work for Apple on the go. After going online and seeing the benefits of a typical Apple employee the job looks enticing, but as a student (typically working part time) does Apple still offer you those same benefits? Some of the benefits being paid vacation and such, but I can't imagine those are offered to only part time employees. The ‘whats at stake’ in this scenario would be Apple gaining happy and enticed employees, and these employees being happy with their benefits.