Summer learnin'

Just exploring Menomonie on a beautiful night

In elementary school, I was the kid who refused to do the summer learning workbook because “I don’t learn in the summer.” Little did that kid know that 15 years later, I’d be learning in the summer and loving it. So far, with our two weeks in Menomonie, we’ve already started learning a lot, both in work and in play. I’ve learned that if you start a puzzle on the floor of a frequently-used lounge, people WILL accidentally step on it and you’ll have to repair the damage daily. Throughout the last couple of weeks, I’ve also discovered that if you spend 24/7 with the same group of awesome people, you’ll pick up their habits and idiosyncrasies without even realizing it (that’s what I’m screamin’). On the work end, I’ve also learned just how much thought goes into creating a survey. Turns out it involves a lot more than my freshman year writing class survey did.

For our research, Red (Lily) and I are working with Chris to look into a number of things. We’re studying the effects of farm consolidation on both the local community and the farmers themselves. We’re looking into the potential viability of installing solar panels on farmland. We’re researching the economic effects of creating a community with a diverse array of crops. We’re also planning to study the impact the Menomonie farmers’ market has on the city as well as the possibility of a potential “third market.”

However, I’m excited to learn so much more than just the answers to these research questions. We’ll be learning how to use programs like STATA and IMPLAN, conduct analysis, and write literature reviews. More importantly, I’m excited to continue just learning what research really is. The more I find out about it, the more I realize how simplistic my expectations for it were. I’m looking forward to continuing to have my expectations completely subverted. And on the play end of the equation, I’m looking forward to more of the little, unpredictable bits of knowledge that we stumble upon when we’re just exploring the city and enjoying each other’s company.