After taking two other IDC courses, I realized that I can’t go into my future seminars with any kind of expectation. Usually the seminars have broad titles and not such a rigid mandated structure/syllabus. This leaves a lot of room for the professor to decide in which direction he/she wants to teach the class. In retrospect, I think not having any expectations coming into the class was the best thing for me.

Coming into the class I didn’t have much of a science background from high school. I was honestly a little worried that I would be at some sort of disadvantage or fall behind the remainder of the semester. After the first few classes, I realized that was not going to be the case. Any topic that was covered in class was usually given a huge introduction beforehand so that the class could fully understand what was going on, regardless of anyone’s individual abilities. I also really liked the fact that a big part of every class was taking time to get our feedback. I think that led to me being more engaged and feeling that the material being covered was something that I had a part in.