Hannah Garrity

Portland FRINQ
6/5/2015

Examining UNST Goal: Communication

Throughout this year at Portland State University in Portland Freshman Inquiry, I have

been developing many skills and growing on the ones I have acquired. In all of the Inquiry
classes we work to reach the goals that are given to us. There are four University Study Goals
that I have been working towards in my Portland Freshman Inquiry class. Working on these
goals translates and help in all other classes as well. We have had many opportunities to continue
to grow and learn in each goal throughout this term.
The goal of the communication UNST goal is for students to e nhance their capacity to
communicate in various ways-writing, graphics, numeracy, and other visual and oral means-to
collaborate effectively with others in group work and to be effective with others in group work
and to be competent in appropriate communication technologies. This goal was reached many
times throughout the year. I had the opportunity to learn new ways to express myself and ideas
without just discussions and writing essays. I learned how to present, make graphs, make movies,
and work in groups. Learning these skills were not only important in this class, but many of my
other courses.
The last assignment that we completed in this Portland FRINQ best reflects my
achievement in this Communication goal. I worked in a group of people, and learned how to
make and use iMovie. Throughout this last term, our class visited the Learning Gardens
Laboratory to learn what they are doing to help the community. After learning about and visiting
LGL, my group hoped to gain more insight when we interviewed Heather Burns, the assistant

professor and coordinator of the Leadership for Sustainability Education at Portland State
University.
After conducting this research, we then created a digital story about the Learning Gardens
Lab. A digital story is collaboration of photographs, videos, sounds, music, text and nervation to
give viewers a message and knowledge on a topic. We had the freedom to that the story in which
ever direction we wanted. In the interview, Heather Burns said: s ustainability is a process not a
product which stood out to us. We built our story from this quote and framed our message
around it. Viewers watching our three minute digital story will learn what LGL is and why it is
so important to the surrounding community.