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First impressions of  Pre-sessional course

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First impressions of  Pre-sessional course

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Thursday was my first time to joined the 10-week pre-sessional course. I felt a little nervous but more excited. The interaction between our tutor and us was more interesting than I thought. Between Monday and Wednesday I missed some classes because of problems with enrollment, It seems that I need to spend some time after school to check the previous class materials and homework.

Our class introduced many new tools such as Zoom, Teams, Padlet and Quizlet, Many of them are my first contact with them in my study, it might be interesting if I can master them and learning them was also one of the most useful skills for me.

I felt some language difficulties in the beginning of learning but I hope I can overcome them slowly. What’s more, my goal is to acquire enough practical English skills to complete my college studies. Next week, I will try to learn English more actively, use the language, get used to it, and become good friends with it. Cheer up for myself~

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Sustainability in relation to the graphic design

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Sustainability in relation to the graphic design

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When we do graphic design, packaging design and everything else. We are exposed to a variety of materials like printing materials, such as paper. In our design process, the heavy use of paper is unavoidable.

In order to reduce too much waste, we should do some research to replace these items with things that are easier to recycle, such as paper that is now available for recycling, or paper made from plants and biological materials, which will be more friendly to the environment.

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A tray made up of cartons with fewer inks used on it. It is biodegradable and friendly for the environment.

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Made from totally biodegradable and compostable materials; corn starch, PLA (synthesised from corn) and PBAT (Polybutyrate Adipate Terephthalate). PLA (Polylactide) is a bio-based, biodegradable material made from renewable plant materials (starches such as corn husks, rice straw and wheat straw).

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In the last lecture we learned how to identify reliable sources, introducing a method called "CRAAP" where each letter has a unique meaning to help us filter information more accurately, like the notes I upload besides.

However, compared with all kinds of our own search website (some are everyone can edit, it does not as a trusted reference), I think the most reliable way of reference source is our UCA online library, there are many materials including books, articles, newspapers and magazines, etc., each of which can provide a lot of help. In the process of my study, I will use these resources more actively and frequently to support my projects.

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I used to think of bamboo as a common plant, but after today's class, I learned that bamboo is a very useful environmentally friendly material.

It is one of the fastest growing plants on earth, and it is so strong and durable that people can even build houses out of bamboo. Moreover, it is a very environmentally friendly material because it not only grows fast, but also can absorb twice as much carbon dioxide as trees. It is environmentally friendly to use bamboo to make clothes or other products. Besides, it can be completely degraded naturally, which cannot be replaced by many metal materials.

In the future study, if I need to choose an environmentally friendly material for design, I may give more consideration to bamboo. I like this plant very much now.

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-Description

Today we watched a series of research videos on recycled chewing gum in class. It says chewing gum is one of the most common forms of litter in the UK after cigarettes, and it costs 50 million pounds a year to deal with the problem.

I think this problem needs to be solved urgently, because leaving gum on the floor is a very bad thing to do, chewing gum is not biodegradable, they will never disappear.

-Evaluation and Analysis

It's interesting that we follow up with a study by designer Anna Bullus on chewing gum recycling, who is looking at this issue by collecting people's discarded chewing gum to create three different products: dedicated bins, shoes, and reusable cups. These products are both amazing and useful, and she is conducting her research on the University of Winchester campus.

On the University of Winchester campus, they gave free reusable coffee mugs to students and staff and then encouraged people to use them to buy drinks. Also, if they use disposable cups, they will have to pay extra tax.

The experiment paid off so well that they saved 28,000 disposable cups in just two years. Further research has found that if 33% of drinks in the UK were sold in reusable cups, an even 825 million disposable cups a year could be saved,that’s a significant amount for the environment.

I'm pleased to see these videos because it’s sounds like great design, as Anna said, good design can change the way people live. This design project about chewing gum recycling gave me a lot of inspiration.

-Outcome

Now I realize that the process from finding problems to finish working is very meaningful. For example, our first project was about sustainability related to our major. Not only do we need to find out what the problems are, but we need to think about how to solve them, how to apply them, and how to make those solutions accessible to people... In order to deal with these problems, a lot of research is still needed in the next step based on the current situation. I am looking forward to completing these steps slowly.