A news-related item that I have encountered outside of SGC colloquium that has struck my attention for the past three semesters was the Lake Chad Basin crisis. I learned about it in one of my SGC supporting courses called “Introduction to Environmental Health.” It really struck my attention because of the before and after pictures and how the drought has affected the surrounding society. Before the drought, the basin was large and now, it is practically non-existent. Lake Chad used to be the main support of those who lived near it for food and water but now, it has left the surrounding regions in food and water insecurity. My SGC experience enhanced my learning of this because I had never drawn the connection between climate change’s effect on the environment and its effects on humans. I never thought about the implications a poor environment would leave for us, and we see the best examples of this in impoverished countries and regions that primarily rely on agriculture to sustain themselves, which is ultimately the entire world.
SGC colloquium has included many topics and material that has been effective in helping me choose a major. I came into SGC with my major as Environmental Science & Technology, but found that I was more drawn to the history behind science. In colloquium, we have lectures that cover the history behind things like the planets or the person who developed the hypothetico-deductive method and many other scientific disciplines that we benefit from today. I particularly enjoyed learning about Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton and their discoveries as well as the societal implications of their discoveries. Learning about how science and society connect and interact with each other is fascinating, and had a big part in helping me pick my major.
I love being a history major because I get to look at science without having to do the science. Science is extremely interesting, but was not for me. However, history gives me the chance to be involved in a broader way where I get to look at science, how it was made, the time period it was discovered during, and how society reacted to it. Thus, in class when we would look at the history of certain topics, we would go over the time period and the science that came from it, then we would connect that to modern day topics. A class that also helped me to love my major was “An Introduction to the History of Science” which overlapped with topics in this class like astronomy, giving me a way to appreciate and enjoy science.
SGC being in a colloquium format rather than the traditional lecture format for classes was greatly beneficial. It helped me interact with other students and form connections to some of them, the latter taking the form of friendships. I did not live on campus for any of my time in SGC, so I did not live in the living-learning community that goes along with the privilege of being a College Park Scholar, but thanks to technology, I was still able to find ways to virtually connect with my classmates (when needed) that aided my learning, but also connect with them during class time.
My learning was improved and enhanced by interacting in and out of class with fellow SGC Scholars. I made a good friend in SGC who is a Computer Science major, and helped me greatly with software programs I did not know how to use or was struggling to use. Thanks to this friend, I am more knowledgeable and experienced in things like Excel and HTML. During our third semester of SGC, during our usual colloquium, we had mini “colloquia” where I learned much from my SGC classmates. My classmates showed great understanding in the context of what we were learning and were able to connect topics to real world situations. From them, I learned the implications and importance of what global change is and different methods and efforts that can be undertaken and made to address climate change on a global scale. Being able to learn from my peers was beneficial because I realized that there was so much that I did not know, and I am very grateful that I was able to be in contact with all the students that enlightened me.
I have found great benefit from my Scholars experience that will surely inform my future. There are particular lessons and methods that I hope to draw upon during the remainder of my undergraduate career and hopefully post graduation, whether it is graduate school or my professional career, as well. As mentioned previously, the particular lessons that I really liked were the ones where we talked about the history behind certain scientific discoveries. From these lessons, I learned about the ways that society can affect what is being produced in certain time periods. For example, the development of atomic weapons would be popular during the 20th century rather than the 16th century because of the different revolutions that took place that affected these time periods. Analyzing society and what was going on during a time period, is really important because it helps us understand why something was developed, and helps a “cause and effect” pattern to be shown. This insight not only helps me now, but is certainly going to help me in the future with other classes and in a professional career where I may be expected to be knowledgeable of patterns such as these.
A method that will help me, especially once I become an independent adult, is being aware of logical fallacies and how to detect them. The media is only increasing and has a great influence globally. Because of this, the news and reporters are always trying to grab our attention in any way whatsoever, so we must be aware of the ways fake news may be shown to us and the ways they do this. As a young adult, I already have to be aware of such things, but once I go out into the “real world,” these techniques will greatly help me to consider what is factual and what is not.