Aaron Chen's "3 Semester Review" SGC Essay

Over the last three semesters in SGC, we have made many examinations and had many discussions about the Nature of Science and the Science of Nature. Over the course of SGC, we have learned about many uses and applications of scientific knowledge, and how to incorporate them into our own lives. I often find the applications of science that I have learned in SGC showing up in my daily life, though I may not be keen to recognize it immediately. However, after some reflection, I have realized that many parts of everyday life are all intertwined with science.

My experience in SGC has helped me in making more educated scientific assumptions and evaluations on some occurrences in my everyday life, including when I have encountered multiple instances of people failing to use critical thinking skills properly. One logical fallacy that I see people often falling victim to, is the appeal to authority (Argumentum ad Verecundiam) fallacy. This is when one person tends to believe an expert on something they have said, even though the respective expert is not commenting on their own area of expertise. For example, the president or a large political figure makes a comment or statement that could be controversial, but some people choose to blindly believe their statement solely on the grounds of their status. Another fallacy that I see almost every day is the sunk cost fallacy, where people believe that just because they’ve spent money or time or something of value on a project or good, they must continue that project or good based solely on the fact that they’ve already expended resources into it. Often at restaurants, when a dish is not as expected, people still try to force themselves to finish it because they paid for it. However, finishing the dish ends up providing them with less satisfaction than if they just ate some and didn’t have to endure as much of the good. Another example is when someone pays for season tickets for some sport, for example baseball. You would want to go to all of the games given by the season pass, but sometimes you truly do not find enjoyment and thus end up wasting your time on that too.

Furthermore, we were exposed to a large variety of projects, assignments, and aspects of science in SGC. Originally coming into college, I planned on majoring in Civil Engineering, but over time I grew a liking to Computer Science and have since switched over. Our assignments in SGC have also played some role in my switch. The first one that strongly stimulated my interest in computer science was our projects with our online SGC portfolio and CSS editing. In the beginning, when we had to first grow accustomed to the process, it seemed grueling and tedious, and I honestly did not enjoy it much. However, over time and after experimenting and playing around with HTML and CSS, it became much more enjoyable for me. After taking CMSC131 and CMSC132 at UMD, and playing around with shell, terminal, and ssh, I have grown a lot more familiar with terpconnect and actually now do all my edits through my macOS terminal. Without this exposure to HTML and CSS coding, I do not know if I may have discovered my love for computer science so quickly, if at all. Another assignment in SGC that enhanced my approach towards my major is the existence of a “SGC Gallery” that we had to put on our website. After our original terpconnect website to upload files/images was taken down, I had to spend hours experimenting with terminal, file system, and ssh in order to upload my files to terpconnect without the use of an outside source. This was a particularly eye-opening learning process for me, as I was able to discover the reach and versatility of computers.

Two items in SGC classes that were covered that support my thesis was our time spent on learning about logical fallacies and the scientific method. While they seem very basic at first, they truly play a large role in daily life, and you can find their applications in many actions or events that you witness.

In working on my “Visions of The Future” group project, I was able to meet some new friends that were also in SGC, and we worked together to cumulatively created a vision for the future that we all supported and agreed on. This strongly aided in my learning, as I was given more motivation to do more work and research – I had a group of peers relying on me and also striving for the same goal. Additionally, living in the same dormitory as many of my SGC peers also helped me, since many of us shared similar majors and were able to bounce ideas about SGC off each other.

Though I do not believe I have contributed to SGC to an extraordinary degree, I believe my active participation, attendance, and activeness in the community of SGC is what I have brought to the table for us. For example, I believe showing up to classes every week and conversing and collaborating with my classmates are an underrated form of contribution. While physical work can be measured, talking and collaborating with others is one that cannot truly be measured. Throughout my time in SGC, my exposure to peers in SGC have shifted my perceptions on my own work ethic. After being exposed to others in SGC who were strongly motivated in their work, it seemed to have a contagious effect on me, since my personal motivation seemed to also grow slightly.

After experiencing SGC, I believe some of my experiences in SGC do stand out as something that will inform my future. For starters, our service day event, while gruesome and exhausting, served to be a true lesson for my future. In a way, it was an important exposure of mine to the real world, and the hard work that had to be put in. Another event in SGC that stands out is our trip to NYC late first semester last year. It was a fun experience where we got to explore the AMNH, but I think what I learned more from that was the true camaraderie between us college students and a transition from our childhood lives into our adult lives.

All in all, I believe my experience in SGC will serve a noticeable role in my adult life, even though some of them have not fully blossomed yet. Without a doubt, I know that any skills and friendships that I have made through this program will continue to be a part of my everyday life for years to come. I am also thankful for the connections, bonds, friendships, and knowledge that I have gained throughout this course.

Last modified: 01 December 2022