This morning the earth group had their long awaited meeting with Eric and Zhihong and it went amazingly. We have left behind our original plan of focusing mainly on agriculture and medicine and have moved in a new and wonderful direction. As of right now our plan involves taking a detailed look at the many travelers who along the silk road visited the Mongol court. We will be cross examining and comparing the multiple accounts and primary documents we have from the travelers, as well as looking at how the Mongols presented themselves in their own records.
I feel much more confident about our groups plan right now and am feeling much more involved and excited about working on the project instead of fearful and anxious. I’m personally very excited to get to work on any aspect of this project because the topic as a whole interests me and the primary resources are especially exciting to read. I think this new start is really what our group needed to get going on the project and really start to delve in on our research and get involved in our project in a more intentional and driven way.
The stories of travelers is a topic that has always been interesting me, and as a child I was fascinated by historical journeys across the world and the way the travelers would describe the new world that they were seeing. Our new project topic allows us to look at these kinds of documents and do the important work of dissecting who’s writing them, what kind of lens they’re viewing the world through and comparing them to one another to try to paint the most accurate and telling image of the time. I’m especially interested in getting to see how Marco Polo’s travels compare to some of those for whom the travel was a political mission or driven by religion.
Another big step that I am excited to take is to make sure we look at the travelers visiting the mongol court who not only came from white European nations but also those who came from Persia, Arabia, Russia and hopefully even smaller civilizations so that we can get the full view that were looking for in this project. I am incredibly grateful for our team being so flexible about this topic and for our wonderful professors for helping guide is in our decision making process and supporting us sin finding a topic we were excited about.
Category Archives: Team Earth
All of the blog posts for the Team Earth research project.
First Blog Post: Team Earth and Plants in the Oasis Cities
I was initially placed in the Heart group, which was a sound placement considering that my main passion is music and art in general. I would have enjoyed studying musical instruments on the silk roads, but decided otherwise. The study of plants and their relationships with human society (mainly agriculture and religion) fascinates me deeply. I think that plants are beautiful and incredibly complex. Plants are, on the surface, quite alien to us, yet they’ve become chemically intertwined with human physiology. In order to pursue this interest in an academic setting for the first time, I switched to Team Earth. We initially brainstormed ideas of agriculture, irrigation, oasis cities, and the cultural significance of different herbs and crops. After some deliberation, we focused in on the Taklamakan Desert. Oasis cities were a key aspect of the trade routes that ran along the northern and southern borders of the desert; they allowed merchants to only traverse the desert in the small increments between towns. Those cities had to develop technology to control their environment in order to grow food and maintain the agrarian lifestyle. Of course, only certain crops were able to grow in the harsh environment that accompanies even the fringes of a desert. We plan on researching the diffusion of technological innovations such as irrigation systems and growing methods, the specific crops that were used, and perhaps the spread of different seeds or plants along the silk roads.
Our group has not yet decided on a specific place or time yet. We have the region and subject down, but there are so many options within each. Eric mentioned Samarkand, and Kashgar is a possibility as well. I suppose the time period will be limited by the amount of information we can find. Ideally, we would research different developments over a longer time period, but it may be too difficult. I think that narrowing our focus will be really hard, and will require a good deal of broad, preliminary research.
My individual focus will be on the specific plants used by humans in oasis cities. Whether a plant’s native, where it came from, its nutritional components, it’s prevalence in agriculture, etc. Beyond that, we don’t quite have assigned technical roles, it’s difficult to decide that this early in the project. I like to write, I like to research when I enjoy the subject. I’m pretty good with technology.
That ties into my main anxiety in this project, which really just boils down to time passing us by. It’s easy for me to say now that we can start narrowing things down once we really start researching, but weeks can fly by so easily. The only answer to that fear is to be proactive. I’m working on it. Within discerning our subject of research, my fear is a lack of information about agriculture and of historical documentation in this region. Solving my first problem will solve this one, because once I dive into the sources I found I will know where the information is. I have high expectations for this compilation of knowledge that we are about to create, I’m excited to see where it takes us. It is also exciting that on the trip to China we will travel along the Taklamakan desert and I will finally see what was once only a distant reality during months of research. The sheer amount of information that I will have to dig through this semester overwhelms me, and currently I’m not sure where to start, but I can’t wait to learn it all.
I’d say my work to date is mediocre. I’ve done enough to get by so far, but I haven’t yet thrown myself into the work. I hope that I can deeply dedicate myself to this project whilst battling through my other classes. I found a lot of sources for our project proposal, but I haven’t had time to delve into them yet. I think our group will work well together, we all seem to be on the same page and we have all contributed what we’ve needed to.
The Silk Worm from Earth
The Earth,
I am the Silk Worm for the Earth team. Other than being exploited by having silk reeled out of my body, I also advise the team. With the group sounding like it would be a huge burden, we are, thankfully, not researching the whole Earth. More specifically, we are based on areas of choice, along the silk road, which is still a large chunk of the planet.
During the first meeting, my role as a Teacher’s assistant was slightly murky. I had assumed that I would be another student in the group, except that I report back to the professors. However, after a brief explanation, it was brought to my knowledge that I am in charge of advising the group; to make sure meetings are set, progress is progressing, and time is well-managed. But other than that, I am merely a normal student going on the journey with them.
As for group members, we have Sam, whom in which shows an appreciation for medicinal plants and herbs, Austin, who is interested in architecture and agriculture, and lastly, Jake, who wants to focus on crops grown in different environments. The group started off thinking of how their interests can create crossroads for each other in doing sub-projects for the main project at hand, (as well as figuring out what that main project would be).
Austin went ahead and discussed about researching architecture and agriculture. Jake thought of possibly doing a crossroad with Austin’s research. Sam was thinking. Austin went ahead and said he wanted it all to stick together. Sam then considered that we should do a week of research so things could narrow down. Sam shoots and says he’ll research on medicinal plants and herbs. Jacob then says that he would focus on the crops grown based on environment. I was nodding and writing their speeches on my laptop.
So forth, the team had a meeting and wrote a proposal which states the research question: ““How did the fragility of the agricultural systems and medicine of oasis cities affect the larger silk road?”
And here’s the part where I state what the Earth group is all about. Slightly late, I know. Yet i’m quite certain you have a good idea on what this is about. The Earth team is assigned with the collective interest in medicine, food, herbs, magic, irrigation and farming. Crossing out magic due to some group member trading, we focused mainly on agriculture and medicine. Furthermore, the members of Earth have refined it into what their interests lie on, with the absolute knowledge of building bridges on each individual to create a larger structure. And honestly, I cannot take any credit for what the group has done. I was only there to throw in some advance, and slightly, just slightly put ideas into the brainstorming. This being said, the proposal that was posted that Wednesday night was all because of Sam, Jake, and Austin. You did a fine job, read it more than once.
As an Earthly silk worm, I feel confident that the group members that I have been assigned to will do great in the research. Even before brainstorming and official work, the group showed much enthusiasm to work with one another; a key part in group projects. Also, that our interests are very much aligned, and well grounded in the Earth group. However, I cannot say much as we are only on the first stage.
One of my concerns would be of what I am expected to do. The fear of not giving enough, or not doing a good job as a TA struck me during the first meeting. I was assigned the role of advising the team, yet what if even my own intellect and coordination would fail them. It grows into me, this feeling of being just moderate. Also, creating physical work into digitized files and publishing it into the internet where it is replicated into everyone’s screen in just a click of a button, worldwide. We are available for all that has access to the internet. More so, those who are interested in the Silk Road, and are critical to judge research. A lot comes to mind when concerning inadvertent plagiarism, slightly off data, and maybe even inadequate research. However, this is not to say that my team is below that. This is merely a fear that comes to me. But a benefit nonetheless due to the fact that I will be more aware of what is to be expected. Furthermore, I will keep this fear as a constant reminder of expectations and warnings, similar to that of Murphy’s law, in which anything can go wrong, giving the incentive to reconstruct and replicate for errors, fixing it.
On another note, I have a lot of excitement for this project. The fact that we are focusing on agriculture and farming is definitely my forte. To know more about the origins of organic product, medicinal herbs; almost following it physically as we research historical timelines about different oases and the influences of medicine that have impacted Pastoralists or Agrarians, and so forth. I am more than content that I was assigned into this group.
Also, contrary to what was mentioned above, I am quite excited to see our results go into the WordPress, and globally for all to see. Yes, there are fears of criticism and faulty information, but I do trust that my group can execute and show a well written research paper on the fragility of the silk road. A Yin and Yang of some sort, where fear makes me know that I will work harder and make it better, you can understand this i’m sure.
All this being said, I am grateful to be having the opportunity to travel the silk road this January. From advising the research to stepping on the dirt path that has been the crossroads between countries and key role in influential exchanges, it truly will be a rewarding experience. As Marco Polo says himself, “I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed”.
Initial Reflective Blog Post -Jake
As we really begin moving forward with this project, I’m beginning to feel more and more anxious. I’m incredibly excited about my groups topic, and I think that in the end we’ll produce a wonderful work, but as of right now I’m feeling a little bit uneasy. The main source of anxiety however comes from my own individual contribution to the group and not to the group itself. So far the team has been amazing, the process of choosing our topic went smoothly and everyone seemed excited to be coming up with the topic together. The topic grew pretty organically amongst our group(which is ironic because were team earth) and there was a lot of excitement and initial research being done right away within the team.
As I stated earlier, my anxiety has come from my own personal role in the research project and how I will go about doing my work. Originally I was very excited to work on the irrigation and agricultural structure portion of the project, but seeing Austin’s excitement about the project I was more than happy to have him specialize in that section. Currently I am focusing on the actual crops that were grown using the agricultural techniques and how the trade with these cities affected larger nations. While I’m excited about my section I can’t help but think that I will have a difficult time uncovering enough resources for my piece of the project.
Sam and Austin both have sub topics that are much broader and have multiple facets to them and so I worry that my portion of the website will be significantly lacking in comparison to theirs. Right now this is just in my head though, as I have worked very hard on the project to date, and have contributed a lot along with all of the members of my team. I just worry that this project will become more stressful then interesting as my subsection is not something I know anything about and am worried that there won’t be enough resources to help me find my footing. Aside from my personal anxieties however, the research project is going great so far. Our team has a large amount of broad resources already to begin diving into our topic and possibly refining it more, and I love my other team members and our silk worm.
One of my biggest hopes for this project right now, is that our final result will be more than just text on a page. There are a lot of great resources on the web and tools we can use to make our page really stand out and I hope that we get to utilize them and really make our website our own. I want the digital silk road to be something that anyone can stumble upon and be captivated by, I want it to be accessible to someone who hasn’t already taken multiple history or religion sources and most importantly I want it to be fun. My goal for this project is to help build and create a website that people want to look at, Ideally the reaction to showing it to others would be the polar opposite of when you ask a classmate to proofread your final paper. I want to help create something engaging and exciting and all together beautiful.
Along with these hopes however come some of my biggest worries about the projects, and the obstacles we may run into as we work. I’m worried about our final result being too dense and academic. Were doing immense levels of research and readings, in groups full of strongly academic and well educated people and I’m worried that our output may be too academically driven. While this is a website that is built on research and academic work, I think it’s important that we maintain something that isn’t only accessible to the people whose research we used to help get us there. If we create a website that is page after page of text about the silk road we haven’t really started anything new. If we fall into that trap, we end up just creating an online pool of resources for anyone who want’s to do something with that information, which while valuable isn’t what we set out to do with this project.
I do however still maintain a lot of faith in this group, I think we are a class of highly creative, intelligent people who with unique backgrounds and understandings of the world can come together to create a project that is truly new and wonderful. I am confident that as a team and a larger class we will overcome any small barriers that get in our way. I don’t foresee technology or group dynamics becoming anything larger then a minor interruption in the larger project. I believe that we have a class of highly resourceful students and that issues regarding the actual construction of the website will not be a problem. I think if we face any challenges as a group they will be on a larger scale, about what the final project will look like. That being said however, I don’t think it will be because of a lack of ideas or a clash of ideologies but simply because we have so many unique and creative minds in our class that everyones aspirations for the final project may not be represented in the way that they want them to be.
Overall I am incredibly excited to be part of both my team and the silk road project as a whole. I think what we have before us is an incredible educational experience and a chance to work on a research project that involves much more than restating other authors work. This is a project that really calls the people working on it to be innovators, and to dig deep and create something new and unique. Although the only research project work I have done so far was on the proposal for our ideas and working as the recorder, that alone has been a wonderful experience. Getting to see the blueprints for my teams project and looking at the goal and seeing the kind of awesome research work we’ll get to be doing is frankly pretty exciting. Despite any anxiety I have or worries I have for myself in this project I think the Silk Road Research project will be like nothing I have ever done before, and I couldn’t be more excited to see how it turns out.