A Journey Through our Research
Design Blog #1
4/8/14
Karin Doell
Karin Doell
Our first goal for this project was to pick a topic and to decide what approach we wanted to take. Each of us contributed some important ideas to what we should do. It took a few discussions and some research for us to decide. We also came across a few problems that hindered our decision-making.
After meeting up for the first time in class and deciding what days of the week we could possibly meet outside of class, we all agreed to go home and research different topics for a few days. We also agreed to research a wide range of topics from buildings and monuments to myths and traditions.
During the next discussion in another class period, we shared our ideas. One idea raised was focusing on Jim Gaffigan and his time at Purdue. Gaffigan is a famous comedian who has appeared on several TV shows and also performs in his own comedy shows. Although this was a good idea, in the end we decided to keep looking for a topic. We wanted to focus on someone who was a little more influential on campus and better known in his achievements.
At one point, we thought of researching different rooms that are often the topic of conversation. One example of this would be the “Jedi Room” at the top of Beering. We just thought it would be interesting to find out the history of the room and the history of the stories behind it. Eventually we thought of other ideas that would have more depth to them and would be better for this project.
Another idea brought to our attention was to research all of Purdue’s myths. We could think of several that we thought would be interesting to look into. We thought of the superstition of walking under the bell tower and not graduating in four years immediately. Another one was the belief that if you drink from all four sides of the lion head fountain, you will do well on your next exam. We thought that these would be fun to research and to find out who started them and how they became popular. Eventually we decided not to do this topic since another group was researching traditions and we didn’t want our ideas to overlap too much. Our group still needed a topic that would satisfy our project; something interesting, important, and well known.
During one of our discussions, the idea to research a famous Purdue graduate became our main focus. Orville Redenbacher was pointed out as a Purdue graduate and creator of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn. We thought he would be a good candidate for a topic since he was very involved on campus and received several awards while here. Purdue also has a lot of information on him. We will be able to use the College of Agriculture and the Department of Agronomy at Purdue as resources. Our group has also found that some of his physical artifacts are in the Purdue Archives, which would be very helpful. Also, Redenbacher was in a fraternity that we might be able to use a resource. We decided that this topic would be sufficient because it will be interesting and we have plenty of resources on campus to use in our project.
After meeting up for the first time in class and deciding what days of the week we could possibly meet outside of class, we all agreed to go home and research different topics for a few days. We also agreed to research a wide range of topics from buildings and monuments to myths and traditions.
During the next discussion in another class period, we shared our ideas. One idea raised was focusing on Jim Gaffigan and his time at Purdue. Gaffigan is a famous comedian who has appeared on several TV shows and also performs in his own comedy shows. Although this was a good idea, in the end we decided to keep looking for a topic. We wanted to focus on someone who was a little more influential on campus and better known in his achievements.
At one point, we thought of researching different rooms that are often the topic of conversation. One example of this would be the “Jedi Room” at the top of Beering. We just thought it would be interesting to find out the history of the room and the history of the stories behind it. Eventually we thought of other ideas that would have more depth to them and would be better for this project.
Another idea brought to our attention was to research all of Purdue’s myths. We could think of several that we thought would be interesting to look into. We thought of the superstition of walking under the bell tower and not graduating in four years immediately. Another one was the belief that if you drink from all four sides of the lion head fountain, you will do well on your next exam. We thought that these would be fun to research and to find out who started them and how they became popular. Eventually we decided not to do this topic since another group was researching traditions and we didn’t want our ideas to overlap too much. Our group still needed a topic that would satisfy our project; something interesting, important, and well known.
During one of our discussions, the idea to research a famous Purdue graduate became our main focus. Orville Redenbacher was pointed out as a Purdue graduate and creator of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn. We thought he would be a good candidate for a topic since he was very involved on campus and received several awards while here. Purdue also has a lot of information on him. We will be able to use the College of Agriculture and the Department of Agronomy at Purdue as resources. Our group has also found that some of his physical artifacts are in the Purdue Archives, which would be very helpful. Also, Redenbacher was in a fraternity that we might be able to use a resource. We decided that this topic would be sufficient because it will be interesting and we have plenty of resources on campus to use in our project.
Design Blog #2
4/15/14
Zeynep Kart
This week was my week, and it was the week the bibliography was due. This week we separated the assignment within the group, so all five of us had to find two sources. We all need to cite our own sources and write our own paragraphs for the assignment. Then they were to email me their parts, and I had to put it all together on a word document and make it presentable.
This week was another that a meeting Saturday morning was unnecessary. We all knew what we had to do, and no problems came upon us as we were doing it. Since we canceled this week, we have yet to have a group meeting. We do get sufficient time in class, and we all have busy schedules that conflict with each other. We all have a GroupMe and text through there.
Everyone has done a great job contributing to the project. The all do what they are supposed to do, and they give out ideas. For one of the days we met in class for a few minutes, we were trying to figure out what to center our project around. We wanted to have topics so when we research we know what we are researching. We came up with a few topics like Orville Redenbacher's life at Purdue, his life after Purdue and after he got his popcorn industry going, his life before Purdue and his childhood. Those were the topics we all collaborated in a few minutes.
After we got all the different topics together, we separated each idea within everyone in the group. Karin is looking at Orville Redenbacher's life at Purdue and his accomplishments here. She is also researching his involvement on campus and his major. Tyler was in charge of researching Orville Redenbacher's life after Purdue and what he did. Ed researched more on his products, like his popcorn. He was searching on how they are made and what he makes. Megan was looking up how he got involved and how he got to where he was. Last but not least, my job was to research on his life before Purdue, and what kind of man he was. I looked into his passion and how he got interested. Although each of us were assigned a specific task, there were times where we came across some interesting things and included it. We turned only 10 sources for the assignment, but there many more that may come in handy later on in our project.
To avoid us getting the same sources since we are working individually, we inform each other of the source we found to make sure that another person doesn't read the same source. This prevents us from having replicated sources. Also, to make sure the sources we chose were valid, I went through the websites and made sure that they are credible and do not have bias. If I had some questions about what was valid or not, we would discuss it as a group and decide. Like a democracy, we do everything based on everyone's say and majority votes; therefore, we do not have any conflicts with each other.
Zeynep Kart
This week was my week, and it was the week the bibliography was due. This week we separated the assignment within the group, so all five of us had to find two sources. We all need to cite our own sources and write our own paragraphs for the assignment. Then they were to email me their parts, and I had to put it all together on a word document and make it presentable.
This week was another that a meeting Saturday morning was unnecessary. We all knew what we had to do, and no problems came upon us as we were doing it. Since we canceled this week, we have yet to have a group meeting. We do get sufficient time in class, and we all have busy schedules that conflict with each other. We all have a GroupMe and text through there.
Everyone has done a great job contributing to the project. The all do what they are supposed to do, and they give out ideas. For one of the days we met in class for a few minutes, we were trying to figure out what to center our project around. We wanted to have topics so when we research we know what we are researching. We came up with a few topics like Orville Redenbacher's life at Purdue, his life after Purdue and after he got his popcorn industry going, his life before Purdue and his childhood. Those were the topics we all collaborated in a few minutes.
After we got all the different topics together, we separated each idea within everyone in the group. Karin is looking at Orville Redenbacher's life at Purdue and his accomplishments here. She is also researching his involvement on campus and his major. Tyler was in charge of researching Orville Redenbacher's life after Purdue and what he did. Ed researched more on his products, like his popcorn. He was searching on how they are made and what he makes. Megan was looking up how he got involved and how he got to where he was. Last but not least, my job was to research on his life before Purdue, and what kind of man he was. I looked into his passion and how he got interested. Although each of us were assigned a specific task, there were times where we came across some interesting things and included it. We turned only 10 sources for the assignment, but there many more that may come in handy later on in our project.
To avoid us getting the same sources since we are working individually, we inform each other of the source we found to make sure that another person doesn't read the same source. This prevents us from having replicated sources. Also, to make sure the sources we chose were valid, I went through the websites and made sure that they are credible and do not have bias. If I had some questions about what was valid or not, we would discuss it as a group and decide. Like a democracy, we do everything based on everyone's say and majority votes; therefore, we do not have any conflicts with each other.
Design Blog #3
4/22/14
Tyler Frizzi
Tyler Frizzi
This was a very crucial week for our group. This week we all met in Wiley’s lobby except for Megan. She was unable to physically be at the meeting but thankfully for technology we were able to keep her in the loop by text messages. We accomplished a large amount of the project, by collaborating all of our ideas. In the meeting we were able to set a clear path of research for each one of us.
The first thing we discussed in the meeting was combining all of our information we each had gathered in our research. Karen and Zeynep both had valid information regarding some of the events that Orville was involved with while he was at Purdue. Ed and Tyler both had information pertaining to Orville Redenbacher’s company. From the text messages we received from Megan she had information regarding Orville’s younger life. Also during our meeting we were able to do a little research on the internet to see what else we could find out about each topic.
Along with useful information we were also able to recommend other sources for each one of our pages we are doing. After sending in the annotated bibliography we continued to general research over Orville Redenbacher. After completing some of the research Karen was able to find a great source that provided even more information pertaining to the awards that he had won throughout his lifetime. This is a great source for both Tyler and Zeynep.
Next in the meeting we began to say which information would be provided in each section. This was another step forward on the digital archive. By stating what information would specifically be said we were able to narrow the research for each topic. After figuring out what information would be given for each topic we discussed amongst each other which topic we felt most comfortable with. Once we discussed the information each of us had, we concluded the Megan would do the section on Orville Redenbacher before Purdue, Zeynep would do the section of him at Purdue, Tyler would do the section of him after Purdue, Ed would do the section comparing the company, and Karen would do the section of his legacy he left at Purdue.
The last part of the meeting we began to create the website. As a group we chose to use the website Weebly to design the website because that was the one we all felt most comfortable with. For our website we picked out a layout and began to add the different pages that we would have on the website. Creating all of this was fairly easy for us and as a group we all feel comfortable using Weebly. Lastly before we left we decided on a couple deadlines of when to have our work done, as well as our next meeting time.
The first thing we discussed in the meeting was combining all of our information we each had gathered in our research. Karen and Zeynep both had valid information regarding some of the events that Orville was involved with while he was at Purdue. Ed and Tyler both had information pertaining to Orville Redenbacher’s company. From the text messages we received from Megan she had information regarding Orville’s younger life. Also during our meeting we were able to do a little research on the internet to see what else we could find out about each topic.
Along with useful information we were also able to recommend other sources for each one of our pages we are doing. After sending in the annotated bibliography we continued to general research over Orville Redenbacher. After completing some of the research Karen was able to find a great source that provided even more information pertaining to the awards that he had won throughout his lifetime. This is a great source for both Tyler and Zeynep.
Next in the meeting we began to say which information would be provided in each section. This was another step forward on the digital archive. By stating what information would specifically be said we were able to narrow the research for each topic. After figuring out what information would be given for each topic we discussed amongst each other which topic we felt most comfortable with. Once we discussed the information each of us had, we concluded the Megan would do the section on Orville Redenbacher before Purdue, Zeynep would do the section of him at Purdue, Tyler would do the section of him after Purdue, Ed would do the section comparing the company, and Karen would do the section of his legacy he left at Purdue.
The last part of the meeting we began to create the website. As a group we chose to use the website Weebly to design the website because that was the one we all felt most comfortable with. For our website we picked out a layout and began to add the different pages that we would have on the website. Creating all of this was fairly easy for us and as a group we all feel comfortable using Weebly. Lastly before we left we decided on a couple deadlines of when to have our work done, as well as our next meeting time.
Design Blog #4
4/28/14
Megan Renner
Megan Renner
This week was a crucial week for our group, since we had to create a website to house all of the information we have found and been researching this whole project. We all decided to research separate parts of the life of Orville Redenbacher and his impact on Purdue and the current world. We did it this way so that we could break up the work more easily and get a lot more details into each portion of the innovators life.
We knew that on Thursday during class that we would have a lot of time to work on our website, so we decided that we would all do research beforehand so that we knew what to put on our webpages and be as time efficient as we could. So we came into class Thursday with our specific pages researched and ready to go.
I had not been able to make it to our last group meeting, so the rest of my group gave me a quick overview on how to use the website and design my page about Redenbacher’s life before Purdue. Once everyone had a basic idea of what they were doing, we went to work on our own pages. We looked up pictures and videos of Orville Redenbacher to enhance our pages and make them more interesting.
Since I had the life before Purdue page, I used pictures of Redenbacher from when he was very young, going up until high school age. Zeynep had the life at Purdue page, so she included a picture of Redenbacher while at Purdue and also pictures that represented Purdue. She also included a video that showed Purdue’s pride for Redenbacher; a documentary that the school made about him. Tyler had the life after Purdue page, so he included pictures of Redenbacher after he had graduated and was in business, along with pictures of his famous product, popcorn. Ed had the page about Redenbacher’s company success, so he included a lot of pictures and videos, ads for the popcorn and more pictures of him and his product. And finally, Karin did the page about his legacy and so she included pictures from after his death that showed how important he has remained throughout the years.
We also included an about us page because we thought that it would be fun and give sort of an insight into why we created the page and why we were interested in the topic.
After we had the website together, we met on Sunday afternoon to discuss our presentation. We added final details to the website and discussed what each of us would talk about. Our group uploaded pictures of ourselves to the about us and added quotes about why we enjoyed the project. We decided that in our presentation we would include both content and how we designed the website and why. So once we decided that, we did a practice run through of our presentation and timed everything so that we could make sure that we all spoke long enough and spoke for at least ten minutes.
We knew that on Thursday during class that we would have a lot of time to work on our website, so we decided that we would all do research beforehand so that we knew what to put on our webpages and be as time efficient as we could. So we came into class Thursday with our specific pages researched and ready to go.
I had not been able to make it to our last group meeting, so the rest of my group gave me a quick overview on how to use the website and design my page about Redenbacher’s life before Purdue. Once everyone had a basic idea of what they were doing, we went to work on our own pages. We looked up pictures and videos of Orville Redenbacher to enhance our pages and make them more interesting.
Since I had the life before Purdue page, I used pictures of Redenbacher from when he was very young, going up until high school age. Zeynep had the life at Purdue page, so she included a picture of Redenbacher while at Purdue and also pictures that represented Purdue. She also included a video that showed Purdue’s pride for Redenbacher; a documentary that the school made about him. Tyler had the life after Purdue page, so he included pictures of Redenbacher after he had graduated and was in business, along with pictures of his famous product, popcorn. Ed had the page about Redenbacher’s company success, so he included a lot of pictures and videos, ads for the popcorn and more pictures of him and his product. And finally, Karin did the page about his legacy and so she included pictures from after his death that showed how important he has remained throughout the years.
We also included an about us page because we thought that it would be fun and give sort of an insight into why we created the page and why we were interested in the topic.
After we had the website together, we met on Sunday afternoon to discuss our presentation. We added final details to the website and discussed what each of us would talk about. Our group uploaded pictures of ourselves to the about us and added quotes about why we enjoyed the project. We decided that in our presentation we would include both content and how we designed the website and why. So once we decided that, we did a practice run through of our presentation and timed everything so that we could make sure that we all spoke long enough and spoke for at least ten minutes.