I really enjoyed doing the BioBlitz. I am already a person who enjoys hiking and nature and the guides that I was with were very intelligent and had a lot to say about the plants in the park as well as some geological history of the park and even some information about the indigenous people who lived there. Everything they explained sparked my curiosity and would lead to more questions so it was a very educational experience while being relaxing.

Working with MakerHub was also a really good experience for me since I had never worked with 3-D printing before but I have been curious about it ever since the news story a few years ago about 3-D printed guns. Tinkercad was a very good tool for introducing someone like me to design because I have absolutely no design experience whatsoever but I was still able to figure it out very easily. I got to talk with one of the MakerHub guys one-on-one and we had a very interesting discussion about all the possibilities of this technology and how it is going to impact our lives in the future. When asking about the 3-D printed guns and the ban on the designs, he explained to me that with some basic design skills a person would be able to design almost anything that could be made out of plastic and there is really nothing the government could do to regulate something like that. I found that really interesting since this is clearly going to greatly impact our lives in the future, thankfully mostly for the better. While I have already chosen a career and skill path that I want to go down in my life I can see that for the next generation, skills like programming and design are probably going to become absolutely essential or offer a huge advantage and open many possibilities for people as the technology to create anything from the comfort of our homes on our computers will become a reality.

Our work in the lab was also great for me since I had no idea how soap was created at all and have also been curious about how drugs are actually synthesized in a lab, though I am sure it can get much more complicated than the simple procedure we followed to make aspirin.

I definitely believe all these experiences have made me a more well-rounded person

Other than that, I have to say working with my group I learned a lot about communicating and managing workload with my partners especially when other obligations begin to interfere. In this case I thought it was a good thing that we had the same groups for both of the projects.

Finally thank you Jake and Professor Greer, I thought both of you were great instructors and class time was always a pleasure because you made it so much fun.