Group Project Presenation

In our presentation of our group project, we will make it fun and show what we have done for our group project. Our group project is a PSA on saving money on campus while raising student satisfaction. I believe a presentation has to be appealing and interesting for people to take heed what is being said. Also you have to be a professional while captivating your audience. First, we will start the intro music from the PSA and get everyone into the mind set of for our presentation. Then we will have some beginning conversation to bring attention to our purpose of our project and what it actually is. Then we will play our PSA, which is about a minute long. Then we will have some last words about saving money on campus and thank the audience for taking the time to listen to what we have to say. Here is the actually script that could be use for our presentation:

Michelle walks in,

Michelle: Doesn’t every student have issues about the rising tuition costs?

Then Chelsea enters as to answer Michelle’s question,

Chelsea: Well of course, who doesn’t!!

Then Anna enters as to comment to Chelsea’s comment,

Anna: You may think that student’s can’t do anything to bring the costs down.

Michelle: But you are so wrong!! Here is our PSA on how students can help

save money for the campus.

PSA begins to fade in, then comes in full swing, lasts about a minute

PSA fades out and Chelsea begins to talk

Chelsea: See how student’s can help bring down the campus costs by doing

some simple things

Anna: Keep these things in mind whenever you leave a room and tell others how

they can help

Michelle: Thank you for your time and I hope we have brought light to how we

can do our part in saving money on campus

Website Improvements

To: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim (Creators of YouTube)
From: Chelsea Egbert (YouTube Customer)
Subject: YouTube’s Usability

My name is Chelsea Egbert and I am an avid YouTube user. I appreciate the free access to videos that normal no one would have access to. My concern is the design of your website. I feel like as though it could be better, and could attract more people to your website. Here are some of my suggestions on improving the layout and design of YouTube.

First, I would suggest that the organization of the videos on your website be more organized. One way that could make the organization better is by having links to different sections of YouTube on your homepage. I do like the way the newest and most viewed is on the homepage, but it would be nice to see more of the different sections on there too. For example, have a link to your funny videos, another link for your music videos, another link for your movie videos, another for your parody videos, and etc. This will help with new users to your site to be able to locate exactly what they are looking for. Having this change will get new users the incentive to use your website again and again.

Another suggestion I have is having the explicit videos better guarded. Basically any person, young or old, can have access to explicit videos at anytime. This discourages parents from allowing young children from using your site, because of the easy access to those types of videos. So what I recommend is that no one can see explicit videos without a driver’s license. Only people who have an account with their driver’s license number on the account can access explicit videos. By doing this, young children will not have any access to those kinds of videos and parents can feel safe to let their children view your site. Now I know by doing this will not keep all children from seeing them, but this will for sure cut down on many that could.

My last suggestion is that you could make a child friendly YouTube. Like have a YouTube section just for kids. I feel that with child friendly YouTube section would draw more child and parents of children to your site. The child friendly YouTube would have like movies and videos that are popular and most common in the children field. This will help crack down on children finding themselves watching videos that children are not suppose to. They would have their own section and know right where to go. I truly believe that this will bring more people to your site, and parents would have a better view on YouTube than they do currently.

These suggestions are not to degrade your website or you as creators of YouTube. These are merely suggestions that as me a fellow customer sees that will help improve your website and increase viewer counts. If you do like my suggestions and would like to act on them, you can contact me from my email and I would glad likely go into more detail into these matters. Thank you for your time and I hope these suggestions will help your website and your company as a whole.

Sincerely,
Chelsea Egbert
YouTube Customer
Email: chelsea.egbert@yahoo.com

Project Progress Report

Introduction
Our project is an audio PSA for saving money on USM’s campus and raise student satisfaction. We are required to finish this project by the 3rd of December. The purpose of this report is to inform you about our project and see the progress that has been made.

Facts and Discussion
We have met two times a week for two weeks up to this point and we plan to do so for the rest of the project period. We have discussed what we are going to do for the project and completed a finished proposal. The things we have learned in class will be applied in doing this project. Some examples of things we will use in our project are using our rhetorical situation, persuasion, and audience. We have not yet really decided on what we are doing for the project other than it is going to be an audio PSA. We will be meeting next week about the major details of our project. I am worried that we will have to cram things together to make sure we finish on time. I do know the project will be completed and acceptable on the due date.

Conclusions
For the most part, our group is doing pretty well overall. When we meet, we wisely use our time to get things done. We maybe behind in our projects other groups because of our schedules. Every one of our schedules are extreme and don’t exactly correspond with the others. Because we have decided to do all project work together face-to-face, we can’t meet and work on the project as much as another group. We do, however, all work equally as hard as the other. No one person does more than the other. We work together and share the work load that is put upon us because of the project.

Recommendations
I recommend that we use most of the rest of our discussion meetings working on our projects. Like I said before, everyone’s schedules are different and we all know we can meet at that time to work on it. I also recommend that each group gets to meet with the discussion leaders separately. This will make sure each group is on track and gets help when it is needed. It would be nice too, if each group could meet with the Mr. Shelton separately. I know there is a large amount of students in this class and that this is not the only class Mr. Shelton has, but having time to work with him would be appreciated. This is the first time most of us have done something like this and we need just a little more overseeing of our project to make sure we are doing it right. Also, we don’t have a chance to revise this project so whatever grade we get for it is the grade we are stick with. So having one on one time with the discussion leaders and Mr. Shelton would help us achieve an A for this project.

The Next Step in My Career

Being in my junior year majoring in Biological Sciences, the next step for me in my career is doing an internship during the summer. Wanting to work at a zoo after I graduate, I needed to look for internships that dealt with working close with zoo-like animals. I found many internships, but specifically four of them were more of what I needed.
Two of the internships I found were on the job listings link on the Association of Zoos & Aquariums website http://www.aza.org/Jobs/ and the other two internships were on the job listings link on the American Association of Zoo Keepers website http://aazk.org/job-listings/job. Here are the links to the job postings:

http://www.aza.org/Jobs/detail.aspx?id=2292
http://www.aza.org/Jobs/detail.aspx?id=2338
http://aazk.org/job-listings/job/808/
http://aazk.org/job-listings/job/823/

Most of the qualifications for the internships are about the same. They require you to have are currently enrolled or recently graduated in a 2-4 year degree in zoology, biology, wildlife conservation, environmental science, veterinary technology, or other related majors. You really don’t have to have any skills, but they want you to work a certain amount of hours a week and a certain amount of months. It is, however, better to have some work with animals so that you are familiar with what you will be doing. Most internships require a participant to work at least 10 weeks to 3 months. Also, they require you to be able to lift at least 60 lbs. So basically no one with back problems or inability to stand for a long period of time should rethink apply to these kinds of internships.

I have many of the qualifications and experiences that are required to be in an internship. As I said before, I am a junior in college majoring in Biological Sciences. I also have some experiences with animals that would put me ahead of some of the applicants. I volunteered at an animal shelter for a summer and an animal hospital for a month. I got much experience in interacting with animals and dealing with them. I may not have experience with zoo-like animals, but I have a reputation for learning quick and working hard. I also know how to deal with customers because of my working at a dance studio for four years. My job at the dance studio also gave the ability to take direction and be able to work without being told to. These are important abilities to have in internships likes theses.

In the end, I decided to go with the Animal Keeper Intern at The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN, on the American Association of Zoo Keepers. I loved how they take in abused and abandoned wild and hybrid cats. I was also swayed to look more into this particular internship because of their housing situation. They are providing free on-site housing for interns. Most of all the other internships don’t have housing or is limited to the housing situations. To insure my acceptance to this internship, I will format my resume in a way that they would appreciate and would want to look more into. I would do some research on their founding and what they stand for. I would even find out who I will be sending the resume to so that it will seem as though I have done my homework. Also, I would call the organization and ask more about this internship and include the information in my cover letter. This will help me in getting ahead of the competition and show them I am sincerely interested in their organization.

Improving Professional Correspondence

To: T. Leoni, Manager, Personnel Department
From: Donald Pryzblo, Manager, Data Processing Department
Subject: The Payroll Checks Issue

It has come to my attention that there are faulty payroll checks still being sent out.

After our meeting, I thought the issue would have been resolved.
I am not placing blame on any one department, but the problem needs to be addressed.

We need to figure out the cause of the faulty payroll checks and fix it immediately.
I also recommend that you tell your clerks to review their work carefully before giving it to the computer operators.

If we could arrange another meeting as soon as possible, that would be greatly appreciated.

I changed this email in many different ways. First, I changed the subject to where it reads: The Payroll Checks Issue. The reason for changing the subject was that the original subject was harsh. It was in all caps, which meant that obviously that the person writing the email was highly upset. I also changed the opening sentence. The original opening line was making the "errors" something that was obviously the Personnel Department's problem. That may be the case, but you do not want to come out and say that. I changed to first sentence into more of an awareness that the manager of Data Processing Department had come across. I also changed the whole body of the email, making it where it was a problem they both need to fix instead of a one person problem. The original body was so harsh that Mr. Pryzblo would have been fired for sending out such an email. I also wrote that Mr. Pryzblo was not blaming anyone in perticular, but that the problem with the payroll checks just needed to be solved. I left the last sentence the same, but put also so that it would be a suggestion and not a demand. I did put an ending sentence in that says, "If we could arrange another meeting as soon as possible, that would be greatly appreciated." I felt that ending the email on that note gave the impression that Mr. Pryzblo was willing to work with Mr. Leoni, and was open listen to Mr. Leoni and not yell at him.

Biological Science Departments

I began my search for the best website that recruits students to the Biological Science Department by looking at three different schools websites. The first place I went to was the biological science department for Mississippi State University.

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/biosciences/BSbio.htm

I thought they had a very nice introduction about the department and it tried to persuade you into going into that department. I didn't think it was very interesting. It just had the different links to different parts of the website. I would have to say that the links were bold and you couldn't miss them, but that is as much excitement as it got. It doesn't have anything that would catch your eye and would want to learn more. I would probably say that if your not already majoring in biological science, this website would not convince you otherwise.
The next school I checked out was Auburn University.

http://www.auburn.edu/cosam/departments/biology/index.htm

Their website was very eye catching and would make want to learn more about the department. It has a capturing picture that appeals to the eye and there are tabs that are nicely organized. The tabs lead you to different parts of the website to learn more about the department. It has updated news information and links about the department and what is being done. I would generally say that this website was pretty good at recruiting students.
The last school website I went to was University of Southern Mississippi.

http://www.usm.edu/biology/

I would have to say that the USM Biological Sciences website had the best website for recruiting future students. It has a revolving picture on that makes you want to watch and see what kinds of things are being done in this department. The links to other areas of the website are nicely organized and easy to move around in. The website also went to much more detail about the biological sciences than any other school's website did. The website included just about everything that you would have questions about the department and its easy to go find where you need to go. So overall, I will have to give the winning website to USM for the best website for the biological sciences.

When doing my brochure for the Department of Biological Sciences for USM, I have some objectives that I would want to accomplish. The purpose I will have for making the brochure is to recruit students to major in biological science and lead them into a desire to further there studies through the biological department. I would want to create a brochure that is appealing to students and would represent the department as a whole in an appropriate way. I am planning on focusing the brochure on things that students are concerned about; like what kind of job could you get with this major, what is the job outlook for biological science majors, how long would it take to graduate...etc. The readers would read the brochure sequential from beginning to end. Some students think that if your major in biological science then all you can do is laboratory work, but I am going to address how there are many different options. I hope to bring new light to the biological science department to were people would look more into it.

From looking at different schools websites, I did learn how to be more effective in capturing peoples attention. I also learned that the website should capture your attention, but most importantly be easy to move around. You could have a great eye catching website, but if people can't locate things quickly you will lose their attention.

Biology 101

Biology is very interesting in how it explores our world around us. As you may know, Biology is the scientific study of life. Life includes us as humans all the way down to one celled organisms. One of the most controversial subjects in Biology is evolution. Evolution is how life has changed and adapted to its surrounding. Basically, evolution is the whole idea of the "survival of the fittest." Biologist are always trying to find answers to questions about life. By trying to find answers to smaller questions, scientists can piece together an answer about a much larger question. Biologist also study life by organizing organisms into groups. There are ten levels of biological organization: biosphere, ecosystem, communities, populations, organs and organ systems, tissues, cells, organelles, and molecules. The interaction between organisms and their environment also gives insight into how life works. Organisms and the environment both are affected by the interactions between the two. Also, by studying an organisms structure, you can figure out how the organism functions. An organism is structured a certain way because of the way it functions. Basically, biology helps us understand our world around us and how we as humans work as well.
I did my summary on a section in my biology book. Basically, this section is explaining what biology is and how important it is to understand our world. There are seven authors that wrote this biology book. The book has short bios about all the authors, which helps in knowing who wrote this book. All seven people have a degree in some kind of biology and some have contributed to other editions of biology books. Some of the authors are also professors of biology. I feel that these seven authors are very qualified to write this book. These authors' call to write is to teach biology students in a way that it will help them understand biology, so that they can use the information through out the students careers. The audience intended for the biology book is for people are pursuing in a career in biology or any other science based career. The tone that is used in this book is like one of a teacher. It is professional, but still in a way that a biology student should understand. The text book does have some wording that would be kind of hard to understand with out investigating a little further. I wouldn't say take out the hard wording, because you will have to learn how to read that kind of writing. I would probably say that maybe if there was an explaination of the hard wording would be a good idea. For the most part, I like how this book is written. In my opinion, I believe they achieved exactly what they where intending to get across.