Reminder: Your report must be an essay written as an HTML webpage, of 1000-1500 words length (longer if necessary). You will link it to your "SGC Activities" list on your ePortfolio. Please respond to the prompts below. If you wish to add additional material, however, go ahead. And keep in mind the rubric on ELMS.
This assignment is to summarize your experience in SGC so far. It must hit all the points listed below, but feel free to express this in your own style. After all, it is YOUR experience you are writing about!
And don't forget to apply your own css to this page.
[A FINAL NOTE: We do recognize the end of the semester is often a time when many high point value projects become due in all your courses, but we really hope that you will put serious thought and reflection into this Three Semester Review. We hope that it will help you think of SGC as a single entity instead of a series of courses. Additionally, we (and hopefully you) can use this essay in future years to look back at your time in Scholars to reflect on how that experienced affected your future experiences at the University of Maryland.]
The Topic: Over the last three semesters, we have examined the Science of Nature and the Nature of Science. Specifically, we've looked at how we use the foundations of scientific practice to explore the evidence, causes, and implications of past and present global change, and examine the use of scientific knowledge and communication when making decisions for the future. Ultimately, we aim for the program to help students plan for resilience in a future of global change.
How has your experience as a Science & Global Change Scholar helped in that understanding (compared to what you have received if you were not in SGC)?
Choose and discuss at least two (2) of the following:
Also, cite at least two (2) specific items from classes that are SGC requirements or supporting courses, but which are not CPSG classes, that additionally support your thesis.
Additionally, discuss how your learning was improved or enhanced by interacting (in or out of class) with one or more fellow SGC Scholars. Please use particular examples of how being in this living-learning community actually aided in learning (or, if it did not aid in learning, indicate such).
Scholars aims to encourage active contribution on the part of students, either in specific academic situations (e.g., Colloquium discussions and projects; field trip activities; etc.) or as part of the larger Scholars community. To what degree do you think you have personally contributed to SGC, giving particular examples?
Furthermore, discuss to what degree (if any) did being in Scholars brought you in contact with people or concepts that challenged previous beliefs or opinions you had (either concerning the academic material of the program or other personal issues in your life). [Please note: a challenge is not necessarily a contradiction! Consider a "challenge" as any situation that caused you to examine or reflect on a belief or opinion that you already had.] How have these beliefs and opinions changed as a result of your experiences over your first three semesters?
Finally, how do you think your Scholars experience might inform your future? Are there particular lessons, methods, events, or other aspects of your time in SGC that you expect to draw upon as a junior and senior? In post-undergraduate education (if any)? In your professional career? [Obviously this is just speculation on your part; it is often the case that it is only in hindsight that we discover what was really our most important or formative experiences!]
My Semester Review:
Over the past three semesters in the SGC program, I have learned a lot from the Science and Global Change series of classes and how these foundational skills are used in order to navigate a world that is undergoing rapid global change. The skills learned here will help us to steer our way towards a future where we can remain resilient in an ever changing world. On top of the skills, I have also met friends and acquaintances along the way who have become very close to me and who I have worked with side by side navigating through this course as well. It is hard to believe that three semesters have already gone by and to sit down and reflect on what has happened in the past three semesters is quite crazy to think about.
In all of SGC, I would say that the idea of conservation of the global health of the world was one of the topics that I kept in mind when I was pursuing my major. Being in the SGC program only solidified this idea that I had in mind when I was pursuing my major in aerospace engineering. I was looking towards becoming a propulsion engineer in which I would tackle the problem of fuel efficiency and the development of electric propulsion, both ideas which would greatly reduce the emissions and provide for a cleaner environment surrounding them. Many people believe that rockets and planes are major contributors to global emissions on a daily scale, but that misconception can be tackled with the proper approach of developing a system where such emissions could be greatly reduced. In my ENAE283 class we were researching propulsion equations and a series of aircrafts where fuel efficiency was increased which in turn reduced the amount of emissions that were present in many of these aircrafts as a whole. The learnings that I received in my SGC class where it was highlighted just how important it was to tackle emissions as a whole and to make sure that efficient energy was used, which we learned this semester, simply added onto my interest in my major. It let me know that it was possible, could be done and that there were proven ways to finish it.
Throughout my college career so far, I had a limited understanding of what carbon footprint itself was. I had no idea exactly how it was measured and what exactly it stood for. I always assumed it was just personal levels of carbon emissions that were emitted and that we somehow monitored them. When I was in my ENGL101S class, I had to have a deep conversation for a class discussion on carbon footprint. Leading up to this discussion, being in SGC was what prepared me most to do extremely well on this assignment as a whole. My misconceptions on what caused carbon emissions, what were leading factors and what were not, and what we could do as individuals as a whole to limit our carbon footprint was completely changed during the first two semesters of class. Walking into that discussion, having known at that point what carbon footprint was, I was able to hold my own in my ENGL101S discussion effectively and educate my peers as well on how to tackle this problem of individual carbon footprint. My own misconceptions had been challenged by both classes, and I fixed my misconceptions for the better I would say.
In all the sections that I have discussions, without the help of my friends that I had made along the way, I would not have this degree of understanding that I have to myself now. A specific example of this that I took with me was to a club called Terps Racing. I had made a friend in the SGC classes and community, and together we navigated through the club process and learned how we could apply our engineering skills and science knowledge in the club to achieve tasks. Slowly, our community that we had built in SGC slowly merged into the community that was terps racing and allowed us to excel in a new environment. Had I not had the exposure I received in SGC, making this kind of bonding would have been very difficult. Having my friends with me made me that much better on this campus, and I have SGC to partly thank for that.
I would say on the colloquium field trips is where I was able to contribute most back to the SGC field trips. Being able to do service activities and help out the community around me was the most striking experience in my memory where I gave back to the SGC community. Taking on those opportunities to apply what we have learned in the SGC path and then physically see it being put into action is something that a member of a community can deem to be heavily efficient in terms of giving back. For example, we built pathways and cleaned up ponds for a park where we knew what impact we had. We knew that we were helping to keep nature in balance and maintain a good environment. We as SGC students knew what impact we had and how exactly we were giving back to the community. It was gratifying.
Being in a class full of students from different backgrounds allowed me to see other points of views that I had not been exposed to before. Working with these groups of people on group assignments throughout the three semesters and reading our daily discussions every week allowed me to see different perspectives to the same questions that we all had to answer. I had learned that scientific approaches not only had only finite paths, but an infinite number of approaches to them. What I had known about science and its methods had taken on a new view coming into the end of these three semesters. I am evermore grateful for the experiences that I have encountered now more than ever because these differing points of views allowed me to answer questions and challenges to a much more effective degree than was possible before.
In short, the SGC program is one of the most pivotal experiences that I had in these three semesters that allowed me to blossom as an aspiring scientist. Everything that I had described above reshaped my view on this world in a scientific sense and has made me perverse to misconceptions and falsifications in the scientific community. In a world where we are undergoing rapid global change, it is these experiences that will keep me level and steady while I lead my life and help the lives of others.