Mexico or Hispanic Labor Group Project - revised 2017 (Cases)

Introductory Remarks - Take a breath and relax. The project is really no more than a group term paper with a different presentation format. All the detail that you will be reading below is so you understand what is expected and not to make your life difficult. You will see that we planned very specific learning outcomes and project goals for you to achieve. As time goes on, we are adding more potential cases for you to work on. In 2014 we added a case on Condor preservation in Baja California. In 2015 we are adding a case related to cattle grazing in the western US on federal lands. All cases relate to Mexico or dealing with labor issues when having individuals who do not speak English as their native language. Remember that since all the documentation (this page and other associated pages) of what is required is on-line, you can refer to it at any point in the semester.

Background - In this course and within the university in general, we do not train students to be the labor of the future, but rather the directors/managers of industry. Within agriculture, the ability to be effective in an international work place is essential. Current undergraduate students therefore need to develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving and have a global perspective of agriculture and how cultural, social, economic, ethnicity and language or literacy effect solutions to problems.  Even if they do not speak Spanish, they must develop skills to solve a potential language divide. Within Wisconsin, greater than 40% of the agricultural work force is Hispanic and 50% of the those individuals do not speak English. The percentages of hispanic labor is higher in the meat industry or even in construction. Students must understand the impact of the global experience on the workforce in order to be effective in the 21st century. What will you do if you need to communicate in Mandarin Chineese, Russian, Thai, or any number of other languages as a part of your future job on a daily basis?

The project you will undertake will give you experiences in how to solve problems (ie. critical thinking) that we hope will require you to step outside your comfort zone, develop new skills, refine previously acquired skills and force you to connect theory in reproduction with application. As this is a group project, you will also need to develop conflict resolution/solving skills and how to make sure each member of your group is holding up their responsibilities. The project is designed to be more than what 1 or 2 students could do in a semester.

Global Learning Outcomes of the proposed work are to: 1) solve problems related to a foreign country or novel regions of the US, 2) display communication skills and in particular, strategies to communicate in a language other than English, and 3) display appreciation of ethical issues in global agriculture, wildlife management, federal grazing lands as they relate to reproduction manipulation. The overall impacts we expect to have on students include: 1) illlustrate how theory applies to application in the novel environment of a new culture, location, and ethical system, 2) recognize how differences based on cultural and ethnicity impact individuals, and 3) create human capacity for competitiveness in global agriculture.

General Instructions - You will be participating in the solving of a case in Mexico or western US grazing lands. Not all the cases are fully developed but you have a chance to define some of the cases. You can also develop your own case. All cases must achieve the global outcomes and impacts described above. Your work will be presented as a website and an audio public service announcement related to your case as if delivered to people in Mexico or if you project is in the US mountain west, then individuals in that location. You will be assigned to a group to work on this project during the semester.

• Your group will consist of 3 - 4 students within your lab section, solve a case and demonstrate your solution to that case via a website and audio podcast.
• You must include a Spanish translation of the problem (you can use google translation or word on-line has a similar function, if you do not speak Spanish).
• As part of your presentation, you must demonstrate that you found and used original references from research/governmental/NGO articles on the subject and references to the primary literature used in the preparation of the material. New in 2019 - we will accept no more than 50% of the references as websites but for a website you must inlcude 1 -2 sentences for why this website should be trusted as authentic information.
• Your final solution needs to include some type of Spanish translation as a summary along with the English version.
• Prepare an audio podcast that you can think of as a public service radio broadcast on the case, identify the problem, its importance and your potential solutions. Come to a conclusion as to what the groups thinks is the best solution. This will be a 3 minute audio podcast.
• Everything must be original or properly cited. All tables should be retyped and not just scanned as images.
• Each student must clearly create some equal part of the project or they will not recieve full credit. A signed indication of this is required.
• New in 2018 - each website page completed by an individual student must demonstrate 2 of the 3 global learning outcome and/or impacts and the written communication skills described below as project goals.

The project goals are and you must somehow demonstrate:

• Achieve the global learning outcomes.
• Broaden your horizons in reproduction and grasp how theory relates to application.
• Learn how to utilize software essential to communication in the modern age.
• Written communication - be able to present and explain figures, tables, images and text.
• Oral communication - learn how to construct an audio podcast
• Scientific literature knowledge and evaluation - the project you will develop must include some actual data from technical published articles (substantial penalty for not doing this) as well as information from review articles, books or website justified as containing authentic information.

Cases - Your group specific case will be assinged to you in week 3 of class.

Materials to Prepare

• Website - The web pages you develop will be required to have at least one image (save in JPEG format), text and 1 table or graph of actual data supporting the topic. Individual pages will include: Problem, translation, subject pages (each student must create one of these), conclusion including a translation and references. In addition you will need to cite references in the text. You can place links to the references in the reference page and then to on-line sources (for example in pubmed) if available. You must find original published material for at least 50% of references. You must also prepare 3 questions (true/false only) regarding your web site that you submit within Canvas (starting in 2017). At least one of these will appear in the final exam. You are required to read, view and understand all submissions from other groups in the lab section. You are not required to read material from other lab sections but it may be interesting to compare how others solved the problems.
• Web Page Construction - We will supply you with a template of pages for your website (see below). All websites must look identical and you are not free to change general structure or backgrounds. You only need to highlight some text and then type in the changes you want. Do not delete anything directly as some items have embeded links. This approach will allow you to change titles and fill in the text. You must link to any images or figures you intend to include. While we do not restrict you to using Dreamweaver to construct your web pages, we strongly advise you to do so. Other programs sometimes use html commands that do not work in all browsers. A video was created in 2014 that guides you through getting started with Dreamweaver CC 2014. Dreamweaver is located on computers at most computer centers on campus and in the 434 lab computers as well. All of these sources allow free use of Dreamweaver. Part of the project is learning about the make up of a modern presentation platforms, therefore it is your responsibility to ensure that the site works and is compatible with Firefox, Safari or Chrome. While you can get help from instructors, do not wait until the last minute as you may have major issue that are not easily resolved. We will supply you with templates for your site,this greatly reduces your need to understand HTML programming. You must use these templates so all group sites look similar. The templates are in a zip file (Shortened website templates not yet done) that your group should download and the re-upload to your group's files in canvas so that everyone works on the same template material. A site however is not a word document and that is what we are trying to get you to understand. No one should graduate this university without understanding how websites are constructed as you will almost surely be using a website in your future job if not daily life. You may construct the site from scratch or with some other software but it must look exactly the same as the template.
• Audio presentation - Prepare a 3 minute public service audio podcast. The audio can be as creative as you wish. While some students simply read a prepared text, others do an interview or discussion about the topic. Points for originality will be given. Use the computer set up to do this in the laboratory (128 Animal Sciences). A transcript of the recording is also required.

Presentation, Due Date and Grade :

• All submission are due in Canvas assignments under "Mexico and Hispanic labor project" with specific assignments for each part of the project.
• During Lab 2 - Groups and projects will be assigned
• Moday following Lab 2 - Translate case (introduction) into Spanish and demonstrate that all members of the group are communicating by stating this in a short document and documentation of when or how the group has met. (5 Points)
• Monday following Lab 3 - Outline of approach to solve case. (5 points)
• Monday following Lab 5 - Initial rough draft of project to include something on all parts of the written material related to website and/or powerpoint slides (5 points)
• Monday following Lab 9 - Final rough draft, project essentially completed for review by instructors. (5 points)
• Monday following Thanksgiving Recess - Start working on case audio
• Due by start of your lab section - Final project (80 points), including case audio (30 points).

It is your responsibility to make sure your website is in the correct format for uploading and linking to a class page within Learn@UW/Canvas. Be sure all material for your website is within one folder. The name of the folder should be one or two words linked by an underscore that describe your site. Make sure the website and audio can be viewed on some computer other than that which you created it on. Students often do not get the material into one folder. A website is not like a word document and all components of the page are stored as separate files within the site folder. Include your podcast within the folder of your website if that is what you are doing and link it to main page of site. Also both type of projects, link your final audio presentation to website and include in that folder. You must also submit the audio presentation in the appropriate assignment as well.

We will upload the sites and audio and then listen to each group's audio during your lab in week 15. Time will be given for the class to ask questions of your group.

You will be graded 80 points for the website itself (content, grammar, effective communication etc.) and 30 points for the audio (quality of presentation, communication, style, easy of understanding etc. along with transcript of recording). A group self evaluation will also be passed out at this time. Each member of the group will receive the same score unless it is indicated on the group evaluation that certain individuals in the group did not contribute equally. Those individuals will then have their grade reduced as determined by the instructor based on the information in the group evaluation. There are a few students each year who loose points based on the group evaluations and often results in a reduction of their final overall grade in the class. A small number of additional points will be allocated to completion of milestones at the appropriate time (see above).

Evaluation Forms - Website evaluation, audio evaluation (criteria, form), group evaluation, these are also available as rubrics within canvas. In 2018 all group evaluations are now electronic in canvas.

Be imaginative and learn something new!