I was curious to find out which courses at UMW were taken by the most students over the past two semesters. Looking at the data I compiled, the top three most popular courses were psychology, English, computer science. This made sense to me, because although I don’t know many students with majors in these areas, I know many people taking classes that fall into these categories to fulfil general education requirements or to pursue a minor.
Process
This was my first time using Excel to create tables and charts, so I did a lot of experimenting, and I messed things up pretty frequently. I went through a couple of ideas that didn’t quite work out before I landed on this one. I used the percentage of students instead of the total number because there was a different total number of students each semester. I excluded classes that had no students, and all FSEM courses, because I wanted to look at classes that were chosen by students, and FSEM courses are required. I don’t like how the data is displayed, because it excludes some courses in between the ones that are labelled on the graph, so you can’t see what all the data represents. I couldn’t figure out how to narrow down my data any more or change the graph so that this was fixed.
For my final project, I would like to produce another video for my Crochet with Katy tutorial series, and post it along with my first video on a new crochet-focused subdomain. I feel like I could do a better job than I did the first time, and there was information I was hoping to include in the first video that didn’t make it into the final product. Now that I’m more familiar with the tools I have available, I can’t wait to create a new video!
The subject of my video is crocheting. This is one of my favorite hobbies, and I love to teach other people how to get started. Although I learned the basics from my aunt in person, I’ve picked up a lot of new skills through YouTube videos, so I was inspired to give back to the online crochet community.
Process
Hardware
For this project, I recorded both audio and video with my phone in my apartment, just using the materials I had on hand. It’s a little rough around the edges.
Software
I used Canva to edit my video and add a couple of effects and title cards. I used Soundtrap to put together my audio recordings, music, and sound effects. I decided to upload my video to YouTube, because adding and editing captions was much more accessible than the process on Vimeo, which was pushing paid services.
Thanks to…
Olexy from Pixabay for the music, and an unknown creator on Mixkit for the explosion hit.
Transcript
Have you ever wanted to make blankets, pillows, coasters, dinosaurs, and so much more? Welcome to Crochet with Katy, I’m gonna go over the two basic things you need to get started with crochet, beginning with the most addictive substance known to man: yarn. That’s right. Yarn comes in different thicknesses, called weights. This is a thin weight, medium weight, and this is a heavy weight. Generally, I recommend heavy weight for beginners, just because it’s easier to see your stitches. Moving on to hooks. Just like yarn, hooks come in different sizes. They’re measured in millimeters, which can be found often on the side of the handle. The packaging of the yarn should tell you what size of hook you need, but generally, the heavier weight of yarn you’re using, the bigger the hook you’re gonna need. That’s all, thanks for watching! I hope you learned something today.
In this podcast, I chose to talk about deep breathing. I think that this is an important, easy technique to use when we feel overwhelmed or stressed. I talk about a strategy I’m familiar with and the effect deep breathing can have on your body.
Project Process
Pre-Production
I began with a little research to back up what I’ve experienced personally, and make sure that my information and ideas were correct. I wrote down some notes and an outline of my talking points. I figured out how I was going to record and how I would edit my audio, and planned a time to record.
Production
I checked out an audio kit from the HCC and went down to the first floor to use the vocal booth. I took my notes in with me and recorded my podcast. When I got back to my apartment, I decided to re-record a couple of things, so I went into my closet with the audio recorder to achieve a similar quiet environment. It was cramped but it worked.
Post Production
I used Soundtrap to edit my audio. I added background music from Mixkit, and cut out some extra pauses and places I stumbled a little bit. I think it could be better, but I guess you learn with experience.
Supporting Source
I read an article I found on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website discussing the benefits of deep breathing exercises, particularly in the workplace. The authors conclude that taking periodic breaks to practice deep breathing can lower blood pressure, increase productivity, and reduce stress. Seeing that this article was peer reviewed and published in a scientific journal told me that it was likely a reliable source, but I also did a quick Google search on the NIH and found that it is a federal medical research organization, based off of information from Wikipedia, USA.gov, and LinkedIn.
Thank you to…
Arulo on Mixkit, who created the music used in my mini podcast.
Transcript
Hi! My name is Katy, and you’re listening to My Two Cents: A Podcast.
Today I’m gonna talk a little bit about deep breathing.
Deep breathing kind of acts as a factory reset for your body. When we feel stressed or overwhelmed, our brain is kind of on the cusp of that fight or flight mindset. When we’re at this point, it can be hard to focus on things, or feel productive. When we do deep breathing, that tells our body, “Hey, everything’s okay, we’re not in any kind of threat or danger.”
One of my favorite breathing strategies to use is called box breathing. In your mind, you picture a square, with each side representing three seconds. You move around the perimeter of the square, first inhaling for three seconds, holding that breath for three seconds, exhaling through your mouth.
