When I first entered ELT, I assumed that I was going to learn about only geography; however I was wrong. Not only did I learn about geology but a wide variety of topics about science. Throughout the last three semesters, I went on various fields trips and learned a great amount of things from the colloquium lectures and projects. A great advantage of being in ELT is learning about things that I will not be able to learn in class; for example, animal sexuality! ELT has also given me an opportunity to apply and understand science in the real world. For instance, the lecture on climate change educated me about how humans impact earth and about our energy sources.
One of the things I enjoyed in ELT was the fieldtrips. At first, I dreaded at the thoughts of having to go on fields trips; but after going on my first one, I enjoyed it. The field trips allowed me to have hands on experience with things that we had learned in class. The field trips also gave me an opportunity, other than in-class projects, to discuss with my peers about class material that we had learned. During my third semester, I went on the Local and western Maryland Geology field trip. First, I was surprised that I could learn so much about geology right on campus. Before this field trip, I did notice that there was a stream on our campus and that erosion was occurring; however, I never thought about how the stream was moving and how the erosion occurred. On this field trip, I also got learn new words like “point-bar” and reuse words that we had learned during first semester. Later on in Western Maryland, I also learned how to use a Brunton compass. It was fun learning how to use it and interesting because I did not know that the angles of rocks were measured by a compass.
The in-class small projects were educational and interesting. I liked how the projects were spaced out so that we did not have a project every week. Out of all the projects, I enjoyed the one with Mr. Potato Head. This project helped explain evolution clearly and was very interactive. I also like the family-history take home project. I already knew the history of my own family, but I found it interesting to learn about my classmate’s family history. Learning about how to make websites was very useful too. At first, it was confusing learning how to upload different things onto the web; but as we had more projects due, I got used to it and I can now do it very easily. I think that having more online web assignments will allow the students to have more practice with creating websites; I had to frequently go back to the directions to find out how to use the file transfer program.
Classes that I took that were supporting courses were BSCI and CHEM classes. ELT did not really correlate with the materials I learned within these classes; they kind of seemed irrelevant. However, some topics from BSCI 105 and BSCI 106 were discussed in class, such as evolution. Because I learned the material in my biology class before learning it in ELT, I got a helpful review.
ELT is a great program because covers different areas of science and gives it a new perspective. If I had not taken ELT, I would have not been exposed to all the information that I have learned during the last three years. I think it would have been more helpful if we had different in-class or outside assignment concerning the lectures because I did not remember everything I had learned and it would have helped me pay more attention during the lectures. In ELT, I also learned about topics that interested me, such as the different diseases and the biodiversity of the world. Both Dr. Merck and Dr. Holtz put a lot of effort into the lectures and tried to make them entertaining for us. One thing that I would change was to have lived on campus; I was not able to experience dorm life and meet many people. However, I was still able to meet other ELT members and become close with them. I also got to meet and interact with people from ELT during the in-class project and field trips. I believe that I would have had a greater experience if I had been more active in ELT by participating in various ELT activities. ELT will always be an experience I remember in the future.