Benchmark One: 

List of different Projects I am considering: 

• Are the communications at UNE enriched or not? (Presentation)
• Following a college newspaper for 8 weeks UCLA  (Journalism Project)
• Maine Big Night (Mini video)
• Rare baby lobsters born at UNE (Mini video)  
• Bullfrog battle Royal (Mini video)

• My article about the controversy the new UNE research pier caused in the community
• My final essay for my Future of humanity class where I talked about aliens and an AI taking over in the future. 

Summary of what me and Mr.Cripps discussed: 

When me and Mr. Cripps met we talked about my ideas for the project and I got his approval to go ahead with the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge Podcast to Documentary. We also discussed several different approaches I could take when doing the project regarding what I want to highlight in the documentary and who I should start to reach out to. He also made me aware of a new development project that is happening on the Refuge so an approach I could take could be to see what’s going on there.   

When should we meet again?

Mr. Cripps:  I think after you’ve done a bit of research/outreach to the RC Preserve.

To Be Determined…… (Probably Mondays & Sundays) 

Mr. Cripps encouraged me to read Silent Spring, RC’s most famous book. It blew the lid off pesticides and the environment. Also, he said that I need to do a bit of online inquiry into the history of RC preserve, developments under way, etc. 

Resources that I will be relying on: 

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/rachel-carson

https://www.friendsofrachelcarsonnwr.org

https://www.recreation.gov/gateways/1575

https://www.ducks.org/newsroom/coastal-erosion-habitat-loss-threaten-rachel-carson-nwr-

Mr. Cripps also recommended  finding a couple docs that spotlight preserves or other kinds of organizations and analyzing what are some of the key structures/moves they make?

I found a variety of sources to help me gain a deeper understanding of how to properly represent this kind of narrative.  

PBS series called Refuge  

https://www.pbs.org/show/refuge

Americas National Parks (Disney +) 

Mission blue (Documentary) 

Mr Cripps then advised that I do a little work on how nature documentaries work. 

So I started by watching the following behind the scenes videos to have a deeper understanding of everything that goes into these types of documentaries. 

Questions: What am I going to highlight in my Documentary? 

Budget cuts

New developments

Specific restoration projects

Specific types of wildlife that life in the refuge (Follow the story of a specific species) 

Brief history of the preserve why its important and the challenges it is facing (like budget cuts) call to action