Chem 336HONORS ORGANIC CHEMISTRY (II)
Organic chemistry is, by nature, memorization-heavy and Dr. Nelson's class was one of the first that I began to learn, in-depth, mechanisms that I needed to memorize and differentiate by conditions. It was in this class that I first created an in-depth set of notecards, of which I have attached a photo. For every mechanism and condition I would create a card, sometimes more than one if the detailing of the mechanism required it. This is one of the classes I am frustrated with myself about the score. Two more points on any test would have given me a 4.0 in the class - an amount worth less than most questions. I made careless mistakes and my grade reflects that, but I am still proud of all the note cards I made and the studying I did for the exams.
CHEM 346ORGANIC CHEMISTRY HONORS LABORATORY
ICHEM 346 was the first class in which it seemed that we were directly applying the knowledge earned in lecture and actually practicing the theory. It was incredibly rewarding to perform successful syntheses and see them pan out while understanding how theoretical and practical methods relate and pan out. Furthermore the lectures by Professor Hopkins were incredibly informative and was able to answer any question the class had. Furthermore, he worked around the snow days in a way designed to allow us to get the most out of the class without increasing our stress levels. Attached as an artifact is my graded final exam, which I am proud of my performance on. Although I made some foolish errors, I am proud overall about all the organic chemistry laboratory techniques that I learned and was able to actually understand through this class.
GENOME 361FUNDAMENTALS OF GENETICS AND GENOMICS
The problem with genomics is that, frequently, it is memorization heavy and the application of memorized facts is not all that intuitive. However, to me, Genome 361 material was similar to a puzzle. Although there was a large memorization aspect, I made sure I had the material by creating an extremely detailed note card for every test. I have attached my note card for the final as an example and my artifact. In this class I was actually able to understand the material quite well and better understand it by helping my peers through problems. Furthermore, I better understand the helpfulness of problem sets. However, while I personally benefited from somewhat vague teaching style by relying on past knowledge and problem sets, I saw that many of my peers had difficulty with the material, even if they tried to learn it for many hours. This bolstered my desire to apply to be a CLUE tutor and better learn to teach.
BIOL 220INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY (III)
In all honesty, I didn't like this class and my score in the class reflects that feeling. I didn't enjoy the class and, as a result, slacked off studying for it and paid the price. It tested my desire to apply for the biology major. The first half of the quarter was mediocre, but I was off-put by the second professor and unwilling to put time into the class. Furthermore, I made a mistake studying for the final and missed a unit while studying. As a result, my projected 4.0 from the first three exams did not carry over into the final and my grade dropped a significant amount. My artifact for this class is that incomplete study guide that I created for the final - while it was not as useful or well organized as it should have been, I knew almost all of the material on it and am proud of how detailed it was.
Looking back on it, my dislike for the class stemmed from the structure, haphazard attempts to make up for snow days, and one professor's complete disregard of the random poll guidelines as explained in the syllabus. The material, itself, was interesting to me and I enjoyed learning about it and the physiological mechanisms of plants and animals. However, when I compared the class to BIOL200, I found that I enjoyed the previous class more. As a result, I decided to continue with my plan to apply for Biology MCD and double major with biochemistry. To Spring Quarter 2019 |
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