Kevin Zheng's Three Semester Review

The Science and Global Change program has helped expand my scientific knowledge and improve my critical thinking skills. SGC has been a great opportunity that allowed me to learn and grow amongst a community of scholars.

SGC has taught me the importance of the hypothetico-deductive method of science. The scientific method isn’t just something you follow for an elementary school science fair project, but it is a way of thinking that you can apply to everyday life. For example, I used the hypothetico-deductive method to determine which Yahentamitsi food was giving me a stomach ache. I first made the hypothesis that the pizza was giving me a stomach ache because of someone else’s negative experience with it. I tested this hypothesis by eating pizza on some days and comparing the comfort level of my stomach to the control days where I don’t eat pizza. After collecting data for about a week, I was able to analyze the data and conclude with about 75 percent certainty that my hypothesis was correct.

I have also learned to recognize examples of logical fallacies through SGC. I was interested in the views of people who don’t see climate change as a real issue, and was led to a Fox News video called “The Left's hypocritical world of climate change”. A Fox News reporter first asked several college students about their opinions on climate change, and they all agreed that it is a pressing issue that everyone should be working to combat. The reporter then asked the students to sign a pledge to do their part in combatting climate change. The pledge includes never taking a plane, eating a cold dinner three times a week, selling their car, and only using a bike to travel for the rest of their life. When the students refused to sign this pledge, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld laughed triumphantly as he scores a crushing victory against the hypocritical students that can’t even do their part. Gutfeld then concluded that “it’s easy to poke fun of young minds who endorse crap that they really haven’t thought through.” However, the logic Gutfeld used was filled with fallacies. The pledge that the reporter asked the students to sign was a complete misrepresentation of what the students were advocating for, an example of the strawman fallacy. Just because the students weren’t willing to never drive or fly for the rest of their lives, it does not mean they are not willing to do anything for climate change. The pledge was also a red herring fallacy, since it distracts the audience from the importance of combatting climate change onto something that no one will take seriously.

My SGC supporting courses have also expanded my scientific knowledge. One of my supporting courses is PHYS271, where I applied the hypothetico-deductive method during weekly physics labs. The labs always involved testing a hypothesis or multiple hypotheses by collecting and analyzing data, then answering analysis questions and drawing conclusions based on the data. Another one of my supporting courses is CHEM135, where I was able to learn about the science of nature by analyzing elements, molecules, and compounds.

The one thing about SGC that I am most grateful for is the people that I have met. When there are fellow SGC scholars in my other classes, we often help each other learn and work on projects together. For example, I worked with an SGC member for my first group project at UMD, the truss project for Enes102. But in addition to just helping me in classes, SGC has helped me meet some of my closest friends, friends who I’ve been hanging out with since the start of SGC. And unlike some other friendships that slowly fade after a class ends, I expect to remain friends with some SGC members after the end of colloquium. In fact, I will be rooming with Max, Charlie, and Akshay next year, three of my closest friends that I met through SGC.

Active contribution from students is crucial to maintaining the SGC community, and although I have made some contributions, I wish I did more. I participated in colloquium discussions and group projects and attended the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center excursion, but these were all requirements. I have thought about becoming an SGC peer mentor but decided against it due to the potential time commitment. But considering all of the opportunities that SGC gave me, I wish I had contributed more and given back to the community in some way.

SGC has challenged my thinking about climate change. In high school, I did not know much about climate change. I knew global warming was happening, but I did not really pay it much attention. This was mainly due to the politicized nature of climate change, and I categorized it with other political issues like abortion and gun control, which I did not pay attention to either. However, upon deciding my major, I found out that many mechanical engineers go into the field of renewable energy development. This contributed to my decision to choose SGC over the other Scholars programs since I wanted to learn more about climate change — and I definitely have. SGC has changed my thinking about the seriousness of climate change; I no longer see climate change as a political issue that doesn’t concern me, I now realize that it is one of the most pressing problems of our generation. I’ve learned that the way the world is currently operating cannot last, and we must take action now before the damages of climate change become deadly for billions of people.

The improved critical thinking skills and the scientific way of thinking I have gained from SGC will help guide me in the future. I will be a more informed consumer of information, whether or not it is related to climate. These skills will be applicable to all of my future classes, internships, and full-time jobs. SGC will push me toward a career in engineering that makes the world more sustainable.

Last modified: 11 December 2022