My scholars experience in the Earth, Life, and Time Scholars program has provided me with the opportunity to reexamine how I perceive the Nature of Science and the way I make observations about the world around me and in the scientific community. In addition to the scholarly benefits Earth, Life, and Time has provided me with the opportunities to make new friends, encounter new and other opinions, and better prepare for a career as future Physicist.
I have gained a better understanding of what actually makes science and a scientist through the lectures and field trips of ELT and more importantly how to recognize pseudoscience and improper technique. One of the key ideas behind science is the ability for other scientists to repeat their experiments and achieve the same or similar results to a reasonable degree. The importance of the scientific method was a development over time that plays the most important part in how we view science today. In first semester of Colloquium we read Carl Sagan’s Demon haunted world in which Carl Sagan introduces the idea of a house owner with an invisible Dragon that lives in his Garage. The house owner truly comes to belief that this Dragon exists and is an invisible mass less being that lives here. The important idea behind the Dragon is that why this Dragon may exist if the Dragon is invisible and mass less then this Dragon is outside the realm of Science because there is no way to make an observation or to test the presence of a mass less and invisible presence in the garage. This passage did an excellent job of getting across the idea of the types of problems that science can postulate and test and other things that are simply outside the range of Science.
Another important lesson that I felt was the most important to me was the effect that time has played and will play in shaping and changing the world around us. In my Geology 100 course I was introduced to the rock cycle and the changes that rocks undergo from igneous to sedimentary to metamorphic and constantly changing endlessly in many different possibilities. Over time magma may cool and form an igneous rock. Then maybe the next day or millions of years later that rock may whether and be transformed into something entirely new sedimentary rock. Another important concept that deals with time is the concept of descent with modification. This is excellently seen through the concept of the cladogram which I learned about through a class lecture in the second semester. This is a useful tool used by biologist to show the change and branching of species as they branched out over time adapting to their specific environments and situations. This was seen excellently though my own eyes in the Galapagos Islands. Observing the physical differences between the Saddle-backed tortoises and Dome Shelled tortoises allowed with my own eyes to see how the shape and size of these tortoises’ shells and necks had changed over time to their surrounding food sources. Making notes and examining both the world presented to us is an important part of the philosophy behind ELT. I was able to put this philosophy to good use during my 3rd semester field trip to the Baltimore Science Center. At the science center I was able to witness both how science concepts were presented to average people through the careful use of displays and perhaps more importantly how sometimes to explain a concept at a museum a less accurate explanation may be given. Through the lectures, readings, field trips, and assignments of ELT the concepts of how the nature of science is taught and presented through examples of the effect that time will have been on humans and the surrounding world can be seen.
However, just as useful and maybe even more important ELT scholars allowed me to bond and make friends in College quickly and provided me with an excellent learning environment. Living in the scholars’ dorm with fellow ELTers has allowed me to always have a wide range of friends with different majors to always go to for advice no matter what subject or problem I needed help with. This close connection with your fellow classmate I think leads to a stronger bond working with and helping each other then I have encountered then any other group in college. Without ELT I would not have met any of my roommates let alone most of the people who I would call my closest friends. In addition to providing me with friends ELT has given me the opportunity to see the Smithsonian museums with a new appreciation that I never had as a young child. ELT has allowed me to gain a new respect for the surrounding cities that I never had before as well as allowing me to visit Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands which was truly one of the greatest experiences I have ever been privileged to experience. Through ELT I have gained a new group of friends that I will have throughout college and possibly for the rest of my life as well as see places that I never thought I would ever see in my life.
As I prepare for the rest of my college experience, and whatever lies ahead after that, I feel that ELT has helped me to become more prepared and observant for whatever comes next. As a future scientist, I feel ELT has better prepared for how to make observations in my career and I will be able to design appropriate experiments and adapt and change my hypothesis without the attachment that I have learned often plague scientist in having the realization that they are personally attached to their hypothesis or thesis statement. ELT has prepared not matter what my future has in store to recognize the biased and misinformation that exists both in the scientific community and the general news media.
ELT is a completely worthwhile experience for anyone who wishes to learn about the science of nature, the role observation and time have played in affecting human society and how we think about the world around us. As I finish my third semester of ELT I have gained a new way to observe and think about the world critically that I know I will use no matter where I end up. I am very grateful for the friendships, experiences, and critical approach to thinking that ELT has given me.