My experience these past three semesters in SGC wasn't really like I expected it to be. I didn't quite know what I was getting into when I first signed up to be a College Park Scholar, but I initially thought that I would be able to foster a sense of belonging within this program. Unfortunately, with the pandemic forcing everything online and with me being a commuter, I feel like I wasn't able to reap many of the benefits. Nevertheless, I was able to learn a bunch of things that I can apply to other aspects of my academics by being in this program.
One topic that I learned from SGC that I was able to apply to my major is to view things with a sense of skepticism, and to never blindly believe anything that I read online. This concept became even more apparent when I took PSYC200. In that class, I learned how much statistics can be used to mislead, and how our prior knowledge of certain concepts like mean, median, and mode can make us more susceptible to falling for some of these deceitful tactics. It was really eye opening to see how much this SGC topic overlapped with many of my classes, but I noticed it more in this class in particular.
One way I have employed the hypothetico-deductive method of science outside of this program was in one of my classes, EDHD200. One of the assignments in that class was to formulate multiple hypotheses based on a topic that I chose, and then choose one of those hypotheses and analyze it based on several theoretical perspectives. Although I wasn't able to conduct an experiment to confirm whether or not my predictions were correct, I was able to use the knowledge I learned from SGC to make a set of hypotheses that were falsifiable.
I wasn't able to really make many connections or engage much with the Scholars community. I felt like there weren't many opportunities to get involved because field trips were canceled and classes were online due to COVID. However, I feel like the few opportunities I had in-person accentuated my experiences in this program. Particularly for the "Impacts of Global Change" and "Search for Solutions" projects, I was able to work with like-minded individuals and really get a better sense of how to apply and comprehend the materials I was learning in this program. The small team assignments in colloquium also helped challenge my beliefs; not in terms of any of the materials learned in SGC, but rather the way some of my peers applied those materials differed to how I would approach the issues we learned in this program. Seeing how differently others thought about climate change issues made me realize that there isn't just one solution to climate change, rather a bunch of different solutions that could be used either individually or in unison with other solutions. I feel like participating in these projects and in-class assignments allowed me to actively contribute to the Scholars community.
Although I wasn't able to get as much as I wanted from this program, SGC has taught me a bunch of valuable information about both climate change and about science in general. I can see myself using the knowledge I learned (particularly about skeptism and analyzing sources) not only in my other classes, but also in the way I navagate through the news and other sources in the future.