Mexico Project - Spring 2019 (Cases)

Introductory Remarks - Take a breath and relax. The project is really no more than a group term paper with a different presentation format. Specific cases and on-line infomation is greatly reduced in Spring 2019. All cases will related to Mexico and involve reproduction with agriculture, wildlife, pet species and humans. As this is a new format in 2019, be patient if there are problems or confusion, we will clarify in lab.

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. The modern workplace is international in nature. Current undergraduate students therefore need to develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving and have a global perspective of agriculture, management of livestock, pet species, and wildlife conservation 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, mangement of pet species, and control of reproduction in humans. 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, animal sciences and human reproduction management.

General Instructions - You will be participating in the solving of a case in Mexico. You will be assigned to a group to work on this project during the semester.

Cases - Your group specific case will be assinged to you during lab 2.

Materials to Prepare

Presentation, Due Date and Grade :

The hardest component of the project is that when you create a website everything is saved in a folder. To move this folder between computers you must first compress the folder into a single file such as a zip file. Copy the file to the new computer and uncompress. Be sure all material for your website is within that 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. Submit your website and audio to the appropriate places within Canvas.

In 2019 we will present the project audio's during one of the last two lecture periods of the semester so you must attend. Further clarication will be given as we approach this time in consultation with the class. It will likely only be on the last tuesday of class.

You will be graded 80 points for the website itself (see rubric in Canvas) and 30 points for the audio (see rubric in Canvas). An electronic group evaluation must be submitted by each member of the group. 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 - All evaluation forms/rubrics are available in canvas.

Be imaginative and learn something new!