At the beginning of the semester I had to work to adjust to there being very few classwork assignments, which forced me to work at my own pace. All through high school, there would always be assignments along the way between quizzes and tests, but in many of my classes this semester, I was in charge of making sure I covered all content in a reasonable time on my own. One way I worked to facilitate this adjustment was to use a planner more so than I had throughout high school. Making sure that I knew when the next quiz was and what content was being covered was essential in being able to manage my time. Another thing I had to adjust with in many of my classes was the grading system. In high school I was used to having to get 90% to get an A, but now that multiple of my classes curve all exams and such at the end of the semester, I feel much more worried and uncertain about them. Without knowing how well I need to do on a final exam to get an A is a bit unnerving and does make me a bit more nervous about the exams.

Something we covered in this class that I did not anticipate we would is how science works and the nature of different types of scientific papers. I did not anticipate that we would have to cover this in order to understand the nature of climate change and the methods of resolving it, but I did find it very relevant and useful in researching a topic, which is something we will be doing much more in the next semester. Something we did not quite cover that I anticipated we would is the methods of solving climate change issues. At the beginning of the semester, the professors did tell us that we would be focussing more on the solutions in the 3rd semester of Cpsg, but I did wish we would have talked more about hope instead of the gloomy reality, although I understand we will address this eventually. For my excursion, I attended a live zoom that discussed OSIRIS - REX, a space mission to the asteroid Bennu which plans to collect samples from the rock on the asteroid. I found this excursion quite interesting and I definitely believe it was a good alternative to an in person excursion. One thing I did wish my excursion covered more of was the impact of the space mission on earth. I think the space mission was really relevant to this issue in that being able to gather resources from outside of the earth could be essential in maintaining the climate on earth, as other materials may produce less waste or be more effective. The technology being used for this mission could have also been explained in the context of other missions intended to mine materials from other asteroids, or to try and redirect the path of other asteroids, which are both pressing issues.

I am currently living at home and I would say the college experience is far from what I expected in high school. I really had to force myself quite a bit to be interested enough in some of the material in my classes throughout the semester so that I could get it all done. I’m really quite a social person and I thoroughly enjoy group work, so I really missed this aspect of many of my classes. I really look forward to a time where I can intend in person classes and be able to work with others on hands on projects. I especially look forward to going on excursions with my classmates and being able to discover how climate change can be resolved and what I, and others, in the University of Maryland community can do to resolve these issues.

I would tell other incoming SGC students to not be afraid to be themselves in front of other students. At the beginning of the semester, I was very conscious of the way I acted around my peers, I wanted to give of the effect of being really composed and studious but, as the semester progressed, I became much more confident acting like myself and it really freed up space for me to focus on other things. Even if you are online, it’s still really important to have good conversations with peers and to build relationships with others, so definitely try and do that. One more thing I would tell an incoming SGC freshman would be to find other people in your classes that you can work with/ study with. I found this really helpful in some of my classes, especially because it’s hard to ask questions to a professor with over 100 students and sometimes it may be hard to contact your TA, so make friends you can work with.