My experience as a Science and Global Change Student has helped in my understanding of the environment and the change it is undergoing through providing informative lectures and hands on activities to help improve understanding.
First off, scholars taught me the specifics of the hypothetic-deductive method of science. I used this method heavily in my BSCI161 (Evolutionary Biology) Lab last semester. We had to conduct our own experiment focusing on how adding nitrogen to algae might increase the algae's growth. As a lab group, we had to design an experiment, choose factors and controls and decide on things like concentration of nitrogen used or the amount of trials we wanted to do. We followed the hypothetic-deductive method by asking the original question of how algae growth would be affected and by what degree, then doing research to see if there was possible answers to this question, and then constructing our thesis and experiment. We then carried and tested our experiment and analyzed results. Our hypothesis actually turned out to not be true based on what background research told us what should have happened, so we drafted a way to improve our experiment or test it again in hope to receive better results. Scholars prepared me for this unit in my lab. I had already gained a strong idea of what the hypothetic-deductive method was, which made carrying out the experiment that much easier.
Looking back at the past three semesters of SGC, the most relevant topic to me in terms of determining my major was the Climatology unit. I really enjoy learning about how the climate works. My major is Environmental Science and Technology with a concentration in Natural Resource Management. I hope to somehow incorporate my knowledge and interest for the atmosphere, seasons, weather etc into my career one day. Ideally, I think undergoing research focused on any of these topics is a career path I would love to take. While it's not directly under the scope of what my major is now, I think that I will be able to find ways to incorporate it in. Learning, processing and understanding the information presented to me in those lectures helped me realize that the climate and atmosphere is something I am interested in and want to further explore.
When completing other courses, I have found that scholars has well prepared me to obtain the knowledge in these courses. I took ENST233 in Spring 2022, which is a course teaching about Environmental Health, specifically how the environment and humans interact. In this class I learned about things like. weather patterns, diseases, and important historical events. Many of the things I learned I had already been exposed to in scholars, making the information much easier to retain since I wasn't learning it for the first time. I also took BSCI161 (Evolutionary Biology) which covered topics like evolution of animals, specific mechanisms and the implications for the future. I found this class interesting, and also found I could apply knowledge from scholars about how environmental change affected evolution of species and humans and our impact on earth to the class. Again, having previous knowledge makes the material much more interesting learn, and makes the class more worthwhile.
My learning was definitely improved by living in the same community as other scholars students. This made it so much easier to get to know some of these kids on a more personal level, and aided in making lasting friendships. I actually met my current roommate in scholars, which led us to a lasting friendship. Knowing the other students better made it easier to learn in class, and also out of class. I was able to have conversations and ask questions to other kids easily, which helped me understand and better complete the weekly assignments.
I think that I have contributed to SGC most during the excursions. I was always excited about going on these trips, and tried to bring an enthusiastic attitude that I was ready to learn and ready to ask questions. For example, on the SERC field trip this past September, I felt I was particularly enthusiastic which hopefully had an affect on my classmates who were also on the field trip.
Scholars brought me in contact with different beliefs through the weekly joint activities we had to do in random groups of other students. When completing these assignments, everyone had different ideas, so I was able to learn how to respond and take everyones ideas and beliefs into consideration before answering a question or formulating an idea.
My scholars experience will for sure have an impact on my future, in more ways then one. One thing that has stuck with me is that any hands on experience in the field, or when creating your own ideas is one of the best ways to learn. Therefore, I am going to make an effort to take advantage of any opportunity that is provided to me in understanding that it will impact my learning experience in ways I may not know at the moment. SGC has taught me that no academic or career related experience is a bad one, and I should pay attention and take advantage to things that come my way.
In conclusion, my three semesters in this program where extremely beneficial. I believe scholars is a great experience for specific learning that we may not be able to gain in any other class. I feel like I have learned so much about our changing climate and our human impact on this change. Furthermore, I feel I have learned some of what needs to be done to take action and be resilient. While we cannot completely reset to where we were before, if we want to survive we have to make changes. One thing that really stuck with me was during an SGC lecture hearing the phrase "We are not killing the Earth, the Earth will be okay." This really stuck with me because I realized that we are, in fact, only killing ourselves with climate change. The Earth is resilient, she will find a way to bounce back once we are gone. This means it is up to us to find a solution if we want to survive here. I know that in my future, I will take all the knowledge scholars has given me and hopefully find a way to at least help with reducing our effect on this Earth.