I started the semester wanting to know more about the effects of flooding and erosion, and what can be done to prevent them. The current flood in Colorado and the Missouri River Flood of 2011 provided great examples of two very different types of floods and their impact. The Colorado Flood was a "flash" flood and preventive measures were nil; while the Missouri River Flood was predicted a few months out so many preventive measures were used to protect lives and property. I found a great piece by the Missouri River Institute that explained how the Missouri River's channel changed due to the flood and the effects on flow and species habitat. It also gave some great pros and cons of flooding; noting most think of the negatives but many good things come from flooding. Erosion control was more difficult to research but the conservation methods used along the Bad River provided examples of the many small things that can be done to significantly reduce erosion. Also, a scientific article proved that some types of vegetation provide better erosion control then others. The most fascinating topic of my blogging experience was School of Mines seminar "A History of Especially Large Floods for the Black Hills Area" by Dan Driscoll. Not only was it exciting to understand much of the seminar due to what was covered in Hydrology class but the techniques that were used to estimate historic floods before there were records was very interesting.
I personally enjoyed blogging. It was a little bit more time consuming then I originally thought but much better then writing a paper. In writing a paper there tends to be a single topic but in blogging I was able to cover many subtopics under one broad topic making for a more diverse experience. It was also interesting to read the other blogs. I felt I received a broader range of knowledge this way. The most difficult things was finding a scientific article and getting it to post, which really isn't related to the actual blogging. I think blogging is a good media for students to learn, as not only do you learn about your own topic but the topics of the others as well. For example, I would have never given much thought about the laws over water rights but I found the "Politics in Water" blogs very intriguing. Blogging would be a great tool to use in future classes.
It was really interesting learning about the power water has from your blog, through the semester. I do agree with you that being able to cover many subtopics make blogging a bit more interesting than writing a paper, as well as, making for more interesting reads when reading about other peoples topics.
ReplyDelete