Welcome to my blog post where I described my PLP Oregon Coast field study experience !

I will be writing some of my trip highlights including restaurants and important locations we went to :

Our first important stop was a Cabela’s ,a huge outdoor equipment shop .It was a fun experience as I got a taste of US culture for the first time .Because it was labour day there were a ton of American themed T-shirts and banners .This was also my first time going into a hunting store that had guns and other hunting weapons in it .Although I didn’t purchase any firearms it was really interesting seeing different snipers and rifles for the first time in my life .Cabela’s really gave of the vibe of a hunting store as there stuffed animal heads all over the place and a huge fake mountain with a mini aquarium inside.

The Astoria Column an important part of my trip because thats the business my group had to interview .We asked a lady questions about the Astoria Column business to create our ads .Our group practiced what we needed to ask during the interesting and how we would introduce ourselves .I personally thought the interview itself went smoothly and our group got a better understanding what we needed to advertise .We didn’t get exact answers on what exactly we had to put in our ads or on how we could advertise Astoria Column to convince more people to visit .But instead I got a general sense its business.I leant about what type of people usually come here the most ,what they come here for, and how important the Astoria Columns history was .Other than the interview we also got a chance to walk up Astoria Columns spiral stare case and look at the awesome panoramic landscape views once we got to the top .Seeing Column itself was an amazing experience as its the world’s only large piece of memorial architecture made of reinforced concrete with a pictorial sgraffito frieze.

My personal favorite part of this trip was the Tillamook cheese factory simply because I love cheese .We went on a tour of the cheese factory .We got to learn about the factory’s cheese product process and see the factory in action producing cheese .Seeing the different machines for cheese production and packaging was so satisfying because everything just seemed so flawless and efficient. It was also a great learning opportunity as we leant about Tillamook ,Oregons agriculture history and the origins of the cheese factory .After tour we got to sample some of Tillamook’s 🧀 ! The different cheeses were all so tasty in their own ways .In my option the smoked cheddar was the best flavor because it was just so rich and it was my first time tasting smoked cheese .Finally we went to the factory’s gift shop .Sadly we couldn’t buy any food related items but the I had fun looking at the shop’s merch .

Another highlight of my trip was the Marine Hatfield science center(We went to the Marine Hatfield science center twice I am only about some of my personal highlights throughout the whole experience) .The Hat field Marine science center is a marine research center and an education center .Some staff toured us through the visitor area at the center which had an cool tsunami machine and a topographic map projector where we got to play with sand ,and a flight simulator .I enjoyed trying out all there interact machines that taught us about marine research that were related to the Oregon Coast .

The most memorable part of my visit and the center was R.O.V challenge .We had to work in groups to create R.O.V’s limited pipe’s ,connects ,and motors to pick up spoons.My group came up with a decent R.O.V design that worked in theory but we failed to figure out ways to connect our motors.But at the end we figured it out and created a successful R.O.V that could pick up spoons .Reflecting on this challenge I wish I thought about and discussed with my group the mechanics of how the R.O.V would actually moved by following the standard protocol of assembling the motors .But overall this challenge challenged our teamwork skills and creativity.

The food:
A lot of the meals we eat in Oregon week trip were easy prep food like wraps or crackers ,but we also got go to restaurants and try tasty food.
-A restaurant went to was a road side restaurant called Clark’s .The burgers and fries where nice and this was my first time going to a road side restaurant.
-Thai food takeout ,I am happy I got to try unique foods from different cuisines .
-Pig and pancake was a fun family-style restaurant with a cool gift shop .I ordered their french toast and it was mid ,but on the bright side their other food that I didn’t try look appetizing.
-The buffet we went to in Oregon was by far the best restaurant we went too .Their desserts were exceptionally good and they just had a good food selection like ribs and pasta .

Overall the Oregon trip was an enjoyable and great learning experience .I made many fun and memorable experiences with my classmates ,teachers ,and friends .friends. While it had its share of ups and downs—living in camps and yurts wasn’t exactly my preference, and the constant traveling became quite tiring—the overall experience was definitely positive.I am looking forward to future PLP trips!!

Overview :
Welcome to my blog post documenting the Medium is the message project .We leant about different concepts of media specifically advertisement ,what it is ,techniques ,and how it affects society etc  .This was a really great hands on learning experience as we actually got to create an ad for a company using what we leant .

Keystone 1:
Keystone 1 introduced us to topic .Learning and analysing media to understand what media was .We had to fill out questions relating to our experiences with ads and interview a person for their answers .And finally we had to write a paragraph about what media is .This keystone gave me a better understating of what Media was and how it was effecting peoples life .

Keystone 2:
Keystone 2 taught us about media literacy ,what media is doing .We leant about 5 core concepts and applied them to some media we see on a daily basis to see how different types of media are trying of affect us .Our assignment for this keystone was filling out an ad chart about different types of ads and information about them including the ad form ,the target audience ,the ad techniques used ,the appeals ,what types of ads there where and the message of the ad.Researching 3 different types of ads(commercial ,print ads ,web ads) gave us an opportunity to target different forms of ads and learn more .

Keystone 3:
Our final keystone we interviewed a business in Oregon and created ads for them .Then we showcased our ads with our business group and presented it in an exhibition .We used a launch cycle to help with the learning and making process of creating a good advertisement
-The first stage was Look ,listen ,and Learn .This stage was mostly learning about my business the Astoria Column .What the column was ,it’s business ,and other additional info that we thought was important .We also had to define the brief ,which was basically understanding our end goal and what we need to learn in the process to complete it .
-The second stage “Ask Tons of Questions” was for asking questions to get a better understanding about our business .In my case my questions where mostly related to marketing to get some info on what my ad should focus on or target .
Some examples for my ads were:
-What would you say is your biggest problem in attracting customers?
-What makes Astoria Column Unique compared to other land marks in
Astoria
-Is there any specific design principles you want your ad to follow?
-The third stage about understanding the problem or process
In this stage we looked at potential competition the business might have and it’s target audience .We also spent some time understanding the process of making an ad ,which partly did when researching and investigating ads in our earlier keystones
-The fourth stage “Navigate Ideas” was about navigating ideas as the name suggests .I looked at different design ideas to brainstorm what I might want I ad being .I did that by creating a mood board of Astoria Column .The mood board included beautiful photos of the Column ,its breath-taking scenery ,and its rich history ; that was the vibe I wanted to give of in my ad .Our whole group had to come up with 3 design principles to follow ,this helped us with understand ,remember ,and  uphold important elements we want to include in our ads .One of our design principles was that we must include a photo of the Astoria Column(Obviously)
-The fifth stage was to create prototypes ,these where some of my prototypes before the final product .I was fun experimenting with different colours and photos to create an appealing ad .

-The sixth stage was to highlight and fix our ads
I noticed that the colour scheme of my second draft .The green seemed really unnatural and contrasting to the rest of of calmer photos .I though that I would ad white space in my ad to bring attention to words Astoria Column  it it just didn’t match with the color scheme and high quality photos .So I decided make brown my main colour scheme bc it relates to Astoria Column , it’s the column’s colour scheme,and  conveys emotion relating to nature and wholesomeness .Another main problem is that people don’t know what Im actually trying to advertise
To fix that I changed the border from green to brown .And made “Astoria Column” the same font .I also changed the white space to art depicting Lewis and Clark showing part of Astoria Columns historic appeal (it also fits the colour scheme).Then I added more contact information and a QR code on the bottom of the page .Finally ,I added a quote from Astoria Columns’s official website that imply that Astoria Column is a fun adventurous place that tourists can visit .

My exhibition experience :
I worked with 5 other classmates to set up our exhibition area .We had about one week to discuss foods to bring ,costumes ,how we would arrange our stand ,and individually worked on a keystone presentation .It went pretty smoothly and our communication was ok .Before the actual exhibition we helped set up the gym and our exhibition area and it looked really great .The preparation was also good as we all had our outfits and brought our food .This exhibition itself was pretty fun as got to see other peoples exhibition and I was happy to finally get the exhibition over with .I do hope next exhibition we assign breaks because people including where leaving for way too long and leaving the area empty .

Keystone 1:

Keystone 1 was mostly learning about how we interact matter .What matter is and ways we can describe matter .

Their are two main ways we can describe matter ,we can describe its physical properties or chemical properties .A physical property is a property of a substance that can be observes without changing the substance itself .Like its looks or its density .And a chemical property is related to its chemical attributes like its reactivy or pH level .During keystone 1 we did activity’s observing chemical or physical properties .Some things we did include ,finding the density of objects by dividing mass by the volume or doing experiments to find out wether something it was a physical or chemical change .
Our final project in keystone 1 was about making observations about an object we choose :

keystone 2:

Keystone 2 was learning about different states of matter

We learnt that there are four states of matter solid ,liquid ,gas, and plasma .We also learnt the kinetic Molecular Theory and how matter changes in state .We played with an program that showed how different matter act when in different temperatures.It showed us how matter was always moving and how different temperature can change the state of matter .Also relating to KTM we leant about diffusion and osmosis which we did an experiment on .Out final project in keystone 2 diffusing gummy bears .This project was very intriguing as we had to come up
with our own experiment including our hypothesis ,our process, and our findings .

Keystone 3:

Keystone 3 was to create a video game that showcases any scientific concept we leant during this project

I used scratch to code my video game because it was easier to grasp and actually make a game that other coding programs .I decided to make a zombie shooter game that highlight the four stages of matter .I tried to play with scratch for a little bit and watched some videos to understand the basic mechanics of the software but I couldn’t actually figure out how I would make my game actually work .So I decided to break everything down by starting on the basics and adding more complex elements to the game as I go. Using this method and watching some scratch tutorials I managed to finish my game .
The game – You had to shoot matter zombies and each wave gets increasingly difficult as the zombies changes its state .It starts out with slow solid zombies (Because the molecules in a solid are slower than the other stages) and ends with an extremely hard plasma final wave .

Overall this project challenged my critical thinking skills and improved my understanding on