18 July 2016 — Day 5
Blog post by Danielle Smith, Tuskegee University, USA and McKenzie Warden, Oregon State University, USA
On the fifth day of ICRPS we started off with a morning excursion to the Robert G. White Large Animal Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, better known as LARS. The weather prevented us from walking, so we took buses to the location. The animals that we saw at the research station consisted of muskoxen, caribou and domestic reindeer. Most of the animals are tame and therefore useful in nutrition, metabolic, physiological and behavioral studies. We had a wonderful tour guide that showed and told us a lot about the animals and a brief history behind the research station.
After lunch, we shifted gears to thinking about our own projects. Using SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis, each student brainstormed ways in which their proposed policy solutions might encounter these four different things. We then broke into our respective topic groups and discussed in greater detail these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The conversations were lively and helped the students work towards conceptualizing their projects to a greater extent. We finished the day with a session on Energy Security: Renewable Energy and Rural Development, which also enabled students to gain greater insights into the challenges and opportunities present within this exciting and multifaceted area of rural policy.
Tour guide, Alisha, encourages a musk ox to come closer to the fence.