For the Book Club Fishbowl assignment I read "The History of Bees" by Maja Lunde. I don't usually enjoy reading books, and I am a very slow reader so I started reading the book as soon as I could get my hands on it. I chose this book because I knew that while it was fiction, it was a realistic story based on facts. It seemed to be more interesting than simply a non-fiction book about bees. The actually Fishbowl discussion for this book seemed more like a presentation to class. And because no one else in the class read the book, they had to trust that what we were presenting was true (and vice versa when others were presenting). I chose to present on Tao and her search for her son Wei-Wen, because I was intrigued by the idea of what would happen to the earth if bees did die out. While William's story taught more history, and George's story was more relatable, Tao's story was thought provoking and suspenseful. But what really made this book unique, was how all the stories fit together by the end of the book. Spoiler Alert: George is William's descendant who still uses the family's beehive design. And in the future when bees are rediscovered, they use George and William's family beehive design that Tao finds in the book that George's son, Tom, writes.
The second Fishbowl discussions were more interesting because we all had the background and information to answer all the questions, even if it wasn't our turn to talk. Listening to the first group discuss about animal rights and capitalism made me a little upset because I wanted to let my opinion to be known, but I couldn't. I believe our discussion went well because we all agreed that humans need bees for pollination, and that while there are many alternatives to bee pollination, they all create their own unintended consequences. And while we agreed on this, we also all had different perspectives and ideas on alternatives and consequences based on our own experiences and readings. And I'm sure other who were watching us also had ideas that we didn't even think of. The last group's discussion was really interesting because they discussed something I hadn't thought very indepth about before: fiction and film qualifying as arts based research. I listening intently to this discussion and tried to understand each person's argument. This allowed me to come up with my own definition and qualifications of what I believe makes something Arts Based Research.
Overall this was a new experience for me, and I learned a lot more than just the content of the discussions. I learned how and when to make my voice heard and when to let things go, even if they make me upset.
The second Fishbowl discussions were more interesting because we all had the background and information to answer all the questions, even if it wasn't our turn to talk. Listening to the first group discuss about animal rights and capitalism made me a little upset because I wanted to let my opinion to be known, but I couldn't. I believe our discussion went well because we all agreed that humans need bees for pollination, and that while there are many alternatives to bee pollination, they all create their own unintended consequences. And while we agreed on this, we also all had different perspectives and ideas on alternatives and consequences based on our own experiences and readings. And I'm sure other who were watching us also had ideas that we didn't even think of. The last group's discussion was really interesting because they discussed something I hadn't thought very indepth about before: fiction and film qualifying as arts based research. I listening intently to this discussion and tried to understand each person's argument. This allowed me to come up with my own definition and qualifications of what I believe makes something Arts Based Research.
Overall this was a new experience for me, and I learned a lot more than just the content of the discussions. I learned how and when to make my voice heard and when to let things go, even if they make me upset.