Thomas Wun

My major is Civil and Environmental Engineering, and I believe that the SGC colloquium has been effective in learning more about the impacts of my major. We have learned about climate change, and in the last semester methods of dealing with climate change. One of them was green architecture, which is what I want to do. Green architecture is designing structures that minimizes energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. I want to design buildings that minimizes environmental hazards. In addition, in my Intro to Environmental Science class, we learned about LEED certifications, which is a set of standards that buildings can apply for. There are rankings in LEED, and the higher ranked a building is, the more sustainable it is. Learning about green architecture gave me a deeper understand of topics covered in that class, and thus gave me more understanding the impacts of my major.

I applied the hypothetico-deduction method of science a lot in my Introduction to Computer Science: Web Designing class. In that class, we wrote HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. For the first half of the semester, coding was quite easy and I completed projects without any bugs or error. Near the ending however, assignments became more complex, and it started to become necessary to make comments while coding. I remembered the last project required a mixture of many aspects of web design. At that point, it was easy to make a typo or a mini mistake in the logic that would cause the compiler to fail. I used the hypothetico-deductive method in conjunction with my main debugging method. Whenever I wrote a line of "print "Hello world" this if this function works" in my code. If "Hello world" is displayed in my webpage, then I know if certain parts of my code works. If it does not display, even though I want it to, then I know that something in my code does not work. I systemically narrow my code, while applying the hypothetico-deduction method, until I find the mistake.

I live in Cumberland hall because my roommate is in the Justice and Legal Thought scholars program, so I did not have any Science and Global Change friends in my building. The one other guy who lived in Cumberland my freshman year ended up dropping out of SGC, so as far as I knew, I was alone in my dorm. However, I still made some friends within the course. I knew a few people from my high school who graduated with me to UMD and received acceptance into Science and Global Change. Additionally, I actually ended up doing my practicum with a few others in my home county. I also made friends in engineering, and specifically in Civil and Environmental Engineering, who happened to also be in the practicum, so we could walk together between classes to the CCC. My learning was enhanced because they were resources I could turn to and in turn be turned towards if we ever need homework help or wish to study together. In addition, if it was not for the fact that the CCC closes at midnight, the building itself would be a good place to study and do work in.

My active contribution to SGC.

Outside the classroom, I did not have much "SGC spirit." All my excursions were on my own, so I did not really contribute towards being a part of the larger SGC community. However, I did wear the blue SGC t-shirt at every excursion!

In class, however, I participated in all the mini projects and discussion. I got along with whoever happened to be in my randomize group that Holtz would create the day of. Weirdly enough, I always seemed to be paired together with this one girl. And in the big poster projects, I really felt like I was processed by the SGC spirit and was devoted to discussion about climate change and its impacts.

Previously, I never thought deeply about carbon footprints. I knew that climate change is "bad" and that we need to take action sooner or later. I believed that humans will just find a way to innovate and invent our way out of environmental problems. Now, I realize that it is not that simple. Climate change and its threat on both the environment and us is very much real. I knew that animals were dying before college, but I did not know that it was on the scale of a sixth mass extinction. Now, I am more disillusioned about how meaningful climate change, and even more so at the lack of response. We learned about several methods of dealing with climate change. Many seem outlandish, while others seem to small scaled. But there are solutions, but it is a work in progress.

In the first semester, we were taught to rely on numbers and to try to read the entire situations, and not rely on stories or anecdotes. Especially when it comes to data reading, or reliable information gathering, one account is often not enough, while correctly-gathered statistics are. This clashes with my personal belief of the concept of testimonies, and how impactful people's narratives can reinforce beliefs. However, instead of being trapped in a misconception of if science and religion contradicts, I chose to believe that science can actually complement religion.

I plan to pursue a minor in sustainability, and half of my major is Environmental Engineering, so I do see myself using knowledge of climate change in junior-senior level classes. In addition, Thomas Kida taught us six frequent mistakes we make in thinking. I have learned to not believe everything I think. I highly suspect that there will be times when I will be forced to interact with people who depend on logical fallacies to win arguments.