Category: Blog Entry 3 (Page 2 of 2)

Throughout the semester, we engaged in several events, projects, and assignments.  There were some that I found interesting and meaningful while others I felt like it wasn’t very useful or well integrated into the class.  The Bio Blitz was a good opportunity to work with the other Macaulay students from the different campuses and enjoy nature, which most of us don’t really have the time for anymore.  However, the Bio Blitz report that we had to do with the data that was collected from our Bio Blitz felt random in the context of our course at the time and I felt like it interrupted the flow of the course.  I think it was good to challenge us to somehow interpret the large amounts of data and display it, but in the end I don’t think it wasn’t helpful outside of the Bio Blitz.

I enjoyed the 3-D printing health care innovation project.  If it weren’t for this class, I wouldn’t have been introduced to designing on the Tinker cad website or 3-D printing, which is a widely-used technology in a variety of industries today.  I’ve always been fascinated by 3-D printing so I appreciated the workshops we had and the actual demonstration of a 3-D printer at work.  I also thought that the STEAM Festival was a good experience.  I enjoyed seeing other Macaulay students’ works and posters that they worked hard on throughout this semester.  It was also nice to have others talking to me and group about our project and it was clear that many people were genuinely interested in our design.

Overall, I liked the many different things we got to experience in this IDC course.  It was an array of activities and projects that made this class interesting.  I also enjoyed the two labs we did at the end of the semester where we had the opportunity to do some hands-on experiments.  It was a nice way to wrap up the semester in which we experienced technology and chemistry.

When I first learned about the three science senses  that were repeatedly mentioned in the course, I was not really thrilled to use it. Eventually, I realized these senses are simply angles of looking at events in our lives. When dealing with numbers, we use our number sense. When describing observations, we can use data sense. When we try to form conclusions or speculations, we can use knowledge sense. All these perspectives help us build a framework around our course as we learn that science is closely tied to our lives.

We learned this message again when we worked on the health innovation. As we tried to come up with innovations or alternate uses of existing products, we tried to address issues affecting people or our families. What was interesting in this project that took a few months was that we made use of 3D printing. I personally love using 3D printing. The project taught us how to use Tinkercad–something we can add on our resume–and taught us to not give up when our ideas are turned down. It also taught us to consider designs in a scientific perspective; it needs to be plausible and helpful. When attending the STEAM festival, I thought about how I panicked during the beginning of the semester and how surprised I was when I was there. I actually made it with a working, approved design.

Although I enjoyed the course overall, I did not really find the Bioblitz very consistent with the flow of the course. It appears to just be an assignment forced in by Macaulay (this may be true). Then again, going out to visit nature is a fun experience, though it could be better incorporated.

Besides all the educational aspects, what I enjoyed most about this class were the aspirin and soap lab, as well as, the “That Chemistry Show.” Because the first lab involved a lab report, I enjoyed the second lab more. I haven’t been in a lab since high school. Following instructions, watching everyone fail to produce pure aspirin, cleaning up the lab utensils, and getting to the 8th floor when it was almost 2:30PM were all events that lead to a calm, enjoyable environment. The Chemistry show was quite fun to watch. However, I was disappointed because not everyone went. Compared to the previous IDC courses, IDC 4001H lacked the group outings that made each visit to places better.

Finally, thank you Dr. Greer and Jake for being lenient, critical, friendly and understanding!

Coming into this IDC I was expecting a boring and dull class and curriculum. Many people I spoke to said that this IDC was one of their worst, so my standards were pretty low. However, after taking this class I can gladly say that it has been my favorite so far. Most of the things we covered were interesting and relevant and it was made enjoyable through fun activities like labs and 3D printing.

I really liked the poster presentations, steam festival and the 3d printing. I thing this part was my favorite part of the class. The 3d printing was something novel and intriguing that I may never be able to experience again. However, I do think we presented our posters in class way too many times. By the time we finished I was able to present every other groups poster. I felt as we wasted time presenting too many times. Sure it obviously helped when presenting at the festival but we could have prepared more on our own time. I do like that we were definitely the most prepared and well-presented groups at the festival. People were constantly amazed at how professional our poster looked, how well we presented and how cool our 3d printed objects were. The time consuming work definitely ended up paying off. I also liked the in class presentations we had to do on the plants and drugs. I felt as those taught us interesting and cool new information regarding scientific stuff. Presenting also helped improve our communication and public speaking skills which was also a plus.

One thing I disliked was Bioblitz. The concept seems cool, getting hands on experience and everything. But I feel as it was a mess, wasn’t relevant and didn’t really teach us anything. We just had a mush of data of organisms. I felt as it was very random to the coursework and it could have easily been avoided. Another thing that was a little confusing was the eportfolio website. There were so many assignments, things to complete and due dates that everything became confusing. I had to constantly check the syllabus and texts others to find out what we had to do. I felt it could have been more simplified.

Overall, I really did like this course and would recommend it to other students. The classes were captivating and the course was well structured.

Thank you Professor Greer and thank you Jake.

Here are some of my thoughts about this course. Overall, it was a great experience watching Professor Greer (and some of my classmates) do hands-on experiments. And the labs were interesting and brought what we learned about to life.

I was kind of surprised how much I enjoyed the STEAM Fest. What I imagined would be a waste of time, a precious commodity on the weekend, was actually a lot of fun. Not only did I learn about the projects Macaulay students researched, I also got to see some acquaintances I have met through various Macaulay events. Everyone who came by to hear about our 3-D design was impressed, which made me realize that our project design may have manufacturing potential.

The 3-D printing experience I really did not enjoy. Design is not at all my forté (I do content, not format) and I found it stressful even just playing around on the tinkercad website. It was really nice to work in a group because that way each member was able to contribute to the poster what s/he does best.

I really liked how the website was used because it was easy to navigate and had a similar format as IDC classes I have taken in the past. Also, it was great to receive emails letting me know when to check the website because otherwise I might not have known to check my grades or remembered important due dates.

Thank you for a great semester!

When we originally began the course, I was actually quite intimidated by the list of the assignments and due dates that were covered on the first day of class. However, as the course progressed, I quickly realized that the assignments were nothing like I had originally thought. I know I was especially nervous about the healthcare innovation that we were to create, but that turned out to be the best project! Although the amount of times we had to present in class got a bit tedious, I really liked the end result. At the STEAM fest, our class’ projects were definitely the highlight of all the projects being presented. Not only did some of the professional spectators enjoy out designs, but the students were also very much intrigued by them. Overall, I thought the STEAM festival was a really great experience to have and I learned quite a bit about the process of creating a healthcare innovation and 3-D printing.

BioBlitz was an event that, at first, I really did not like the sound of. I am not a fan of getting “touchy” with nature, especially dragonflies. When I was told that I was the dragonfly group, I was extremely disappointed and thought that the next couple hours of my day where going to nerve wracking. Surprisingly, it was the complete opposite! I never thought that I would ever hold a dragonfly in my life, let alone on my own will! It was probably one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had.

All in all, I really think that course was very well organized with each of the assignments having a vital motive behind them!

Over the course of this semester there were a few events that I enjoyed and a few that I felt were not so meaningful.  I really enjoyed the whole 3D printing experience and I felt that although we may have spent a little bit too much time on the posters that it was rewarding to have the best posters at the STEAM festival out of any other group.  At the same time I felt as though we did not really do much regarding the BioBlitz and I felt as though it was hard to know what was coming up in class because it was hard to remember to check the syllabus because every other class uses BlackBoard.

I really enjoyed the 3D printing because unless the technology becomes very widespread in my lifetime which it might I don’t know if I ever would have used a 3D printer.  I really enjoyed learning how to design 3D objects and had a fun time actually creating something.  The poster was not exactly my favorite thing to make and I definitely did not enjoy presenting it four times in class, but it was really nice that our posters were so much better than everyone else’s and the STEAM festival as a whole was nice although the stamping system seemed kind of childish.  If Macaulay cannot trust people to explore different projects without policing us then it should not be running such an event in my opinion.  I very much enjoyed the labs, but overall though my favorite part of the course was the 3D printing.  I also feel as though my communication skills improved throughout the process because of all of the times I had to present.  This was definitely my favorite of the first three IDC classes so far.  However, there were still things I felt could’ve been better.

Something that I did not enjoy about the course was the fact that at times it seemed as though homework was assigned just because nothing had been assigned beforehand it did not seem like there was any rhyme or reason to some assignments.  The BioBlitz was an interesting event, but I feel like it did not teach me much.  I enjoyed learning about plot.ly, but I’m not sure what the benefit of using it is over Microsoft Excel.  I know that every IDC course has its own website, but honestly I’m not sure why.  If everyone else is using Blackboard then I feel like it would be easier to have everything more centralized.

As a whole I definitely enjoyed the course and would recommend our section to those taking the class in the future.  However, there are some areas where I feel as though a class can be spent a better way and I’m not sure that the Macaulay website system is the most effective one.  I appreciate the hard work put into the course and I’m happy I got to experience 3D printing.