I have been enrolled in the scholars program Earth, Life, and Time for the past three semesters, and from this experience I have gained much knowledge and discernment. I now analyze and survey the world in a new perspective.
One example of how Earth, Life, and Time has expanded my horizons is through the lectures that are provided to us during our class. One lecture that intrigued me greatly was the lecture of the “Mad scientists in Media and History Science done badly and bad science”. This lecture described scientists back in different time periods that believed that they were doing actual science, and what they were doing would help improve science, but in actual reality they were doing whatever they felt was right and wrong ignoring the science behind the experiments at times. To help enhance our experience we got into groups and we were given examples, and we had to categorize them according to weather they were pseudoscience, junk science, or pathological science. This lecture was an eye opener not only to how science was seen, but also to the fact of how people treat other people.
Another example of how Earth, Life, and Time was a great experience for me was through the field trips we took. One field trip was to the Koshland Museum of Sciences in D.C. In this trip we looked at many different exhibits about global warming, diseases, and how the earth has been changing. I felt that this was the most appealing trip as I learned things about this earth, that I had never known before. If I had not gone on this trip I would just go through my normal day ignoring things that were being affected all around me, but because of this I can now see how everything is changing, and also now see what I can do to help.
Additionally, another reason I enjoyed Earth, Life, and Time was because we just did not focus everything on science as we had to learn how to make a graphics poster, and html to a certain extent as we had to post material online. We were taught to use Microsoft PowerPoint, and guided on how to use html, which I think will be very useful for the future.
Earth, Life, and Time requires you to take supporting classes along with the class itself. For my classes I chose to take Chem 135, which is chemistry for engineers. This class taught me many things about chemistry, and how it is used in the real world today. Another supporting class I took is Physics 161, which is Physics for engineers. This class taught me how physics impacts our life everyday, and how important it is to learn about it so we can understand how the world works.
Earth, Life, and Time, has improved my learning because of my fellow students in ELT. By working together and collaborating with others, this challenged me to do better, and push me to use my full potential. Also, there were numerous ideas always being thrown around, so there was a large diversity of knowledge, and understanding all of it, made me expand my knowledge as well. Overall Earth, Life, and Time will always stay with me through my undergraduate years, and my postgraduate years. I have been molded to think differently, and analyze science in a correct and effective way. This will be very useful in the engineering field, as it gives me a great experience and a leg up on others. I will always value the insight I have received from Earth, Life, and Time.