Overall, my experience in the SGC Scholars program has been very positive, and has taught me a lot about not only climate change, and related environmental topics, but also about critical and logical thinking and how I can watch out for problems in these. I feel that my experiences in the Scholars program have made me better at figuring out what types of arguments or news articles are not so trustworthy, and what to be looking for in a scientific publication. If I had not taken this class I am sure that I would not have been as good at identifying the scientific method, at using logical and critical thinking, and at recognizing fallacies in arguments. This has greatly helped me in my college career so far as it has helped me be able to identify arguments that are not true, and helps me decide which side is the best to support in many cases.
An example of this that I had was when reading an article about a new report published by the UN that highlighted how we are on track for well above 2 degrees Celsius of temperature rise due to climate change, and how this could affect us in the future. This article caught my attention because it was alarming to see how much could change, and how this could be the new norm in the future. My experiences in Scholars, specifically in learning about climate change topics like this one helped me understand this article better, as it helped me understand a lot of the terms and ideas that were discussed, such as how extreme weather events, like the floods in Germany and other events, are getting more and more frequent due to climate change. The Scholars program has also helped me learn more about climate action, or inaction, and policy among countries, which was discussed in this article with the Paris Agreement and the related climate goals. This helped me understand and connect this part of the article.
Another example of what I have learned in Scholars becoming applicable in my college career is during a debate that I had for another class this semester. This particular debate was about fracking, and whether or not we should continue to do it. I feel like some logical fallacies were committed by the team that was for fracking during this debate, and my time in the Scholars program has helped me realize these in real situations like this. One of the logical fallacies that I think that they committed was the slippery slope fallacy. While it was their job to fight for the pro-fracking side, it felt as if they went too far with some of their arguments, trying to prove that their point was right for every topic. For example, when discussing fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energies, it was argued that since fossil fuels are being continued to be used in the future since we can’t switch right away, that we should continue fracking since it is not any worse than other types of fossil fuel power generation.
Two examples of classes that I have taken that are supporting courses and have further solidified what I have taken away from the Scholars program are AREC365 World Hunger, Population, and Food Systems and GEOG330 Society and Sustainability in a Time of Great Change. The class about world hunger taught me more about the applied effects of climate change and how this can affect the food security of many people in both developing and developed countries. I was also able to learn more about how we can try to solve world hunger. In GEOG330 I learned about how sustainability can and should be incorporated into our society in the future, and how climate change is affecting us, especially about how it will affect cities and urbanization. This class helped me explore how the knowledge I have about climate change could be applied to society and city planning.
My learning was positively affected by interacting with fellow SGC Scholars during this class since I was able to get to know other people, and I was able to collaborate and share ideas with others. This helped to enhance what I learned since it provided me with new perspectives about certain situations and helped me learn more about the subjects. A specific example of this is during the Search for Solutions project that we did in class. From this project, I was able to meet people from the class, and also learn more about our topic, Urban Design. By working with others, we were able to incorporate more different ideas into our presentation than if we were working alone due to the differing perspectives that everybody offered.
I believe that I actively contributed to the SGC a fair amount in multiple ways. First, in the in-class discussions and projects that I took part in, such as the aforementioned Search for Solutions project, I believe that I contributed to SGC with these works both in and out of class. Another way I actively contributed to SGC was through the field trips. While I was only able to go on one of these field trips as a result of the pandemic, I still learned a lot from these and had great experiences. The field trip that I went on was to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, where we learned about the research that was going on there, and much more. Both of these examples helped me contribute to the program and also become more knowledgeable at the same time.
Being in the Scholars program has led me to challenge some of my previously held thoughts, although not necessarily to a large extent as what I believed before was mostly in line with what I learned. One of the main areas that my ideas were challenged was in the area of thinking. I had never really thought about critically thinking this in-depth before, and this changed the way I view this subject. Other than this, I didn’t encounter much that went against or challenged previous beliefs.
Overall, I think that being in the Scholars program has positively affected and informed me. Everything that I have learned about climate change in this class will likely prove to be beneficial in my future studies given that I am an Environmental Science and Policy major. This could even carry over into my career past education. I also think that I will positively benefit in the future from what I have learned about the scientific method and logical and critical thinking in this class. Topics like these can be applied in many situations, not just academic ones, as shown by the many examples that I have already encountered above. Overall, I think that Scholars has made me more knowledgeable and thoughtful, and better prepared for my future in education and beyond.