Introduction
Some basic knowledge that I know about our Earth planet is that it is located in the Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way Galaxy is home to countless stars and the Sun is our star
Earth's interior has layers that consist of a core, mantle, and crust. A full rotation on Earth takes 24 hours
Water covers around 70% of our Earth
The objectives of this semester are the dynamics of earths interior, identifying rocks, geologic time, and maps
In my previous sciene classes, some of the objectives listed above were touched on, not into much detail but I have very basic knowledge. I believe as I get into more detail, I will have a much better understanding overall.
Goals and Objectives
A goal that I have for myself this semester is to really be present, both physically and mentally but more on the mental as another part of my goal is to understand the objective. This class is not graded until the end of the semester which relives stress. I tend to stress when it comes to grading. I hope that by the end of this semester, I am able to have developed a new form of organization for the future in case some of my future classes have the same grading system.
Reflecting on my inital reflection, I was not successful with my goals following up to my midterm. However, a new goal of mine is to attend every class session leading up to the final.
As the semester ends, I would have hoped that I reached my goals as I faced some personal challeneges. What I can take is that regardless of me not meeting my goals, I still tried and I was able to gain knowledge of topics I once had no clue about.
Methods
Some specific steps/ plans I intend on setting and following in this semester is staying organized. I have a bad habit of being on top of my stuff in the beginning of the semester and then becoming careless halfway in. I plan on staying organized throughout the whole semester. Some ways that I can think of that can help growth in this class is setting a schedule for how many hours a day/ week I spend on the objective of the week. My thoughts as I step into this semester are nerve wrecking. As I mentioned above, this class is not graded which means I'm not being labeled, in a way it is a good thing but it can be hard for others, like myself, as we have no idea how much we actually do know. However, I am excited to try out this new grading system.
Reflecting on my initial reflection, I was doing good in the beginning when I was organized and I fell through halfway but I am confident that I will be able to flip it around in time for the semester to end.
Reflecting on my previous reflection, I am able to say that even though I did not show up every class session or turn things in on time, I somehow managed to come up with better, resulting methods for the future. Some methods that I took from this class was to be more organized, because it is not graded, I used a calender to write down due dates, a method I will use in the future is to discipline myself and actually follow it. Another method I used in this class was to go back to a lesson that I didn't understand clearly. I would spend at least an hour re- reading the chapter and I would use resources from the internet to get some more information.
Results
I will say that my results and goals were not as highly as I had once thought in the beginning of the semester but I am glad that I will be leaving with knowledge. I remember taking the quiz in the beginning of the semester and not knowing anything. I can say that although I probably still need more time on a couple lessons, overall I have a better understanding.
Conclusion
As the semester comes to an end, It made me realize how fast time goes by. I can close my eyes and think about the first week and how I was so stressed that this class would not be graded until the very end. I will say that I did not enjoy the non grading method but it was nice to know how it works, Im sure that in the future, I will get another professor with this system so I am glad I know what to expect. I have already noted different methods and I also know what I would do differently. Although this semester was a rollercoaster for my personal and school life, I am glad that I will be walking away with knowledge I once did not have. I learned so many things and the e portfolio is a very nice assignment as you keep track of what you took from each lesson. I enjoyed being in this class for the times I did show up. I believe the most practice I had in the class was with major rock types. I spent a good amount of time reading the chapter and getting to know how rocks form. The accomplishment I am most proud of is my powerpoint from plate tectonics. I spent a good amount of time researching and getting to know how it was founded etc. I personally would not grade myself very high due to many reasons, I was absent a lot, I turned in some assignments late, etc. But I did spend lots of time going over material on my own time. Due to me continously going over materials, I gained a much greater knowledge on many of the topics we learned. The point of the no grading system is to leave the class with knowledge and not just a good grade because people can leave the class with an A and not have a great understanding. So, I would grade myself a C. C is an average grade and due to my actions in this class which were average, I believe that's what I deserve. I am not sure if you would agree with my grade as absence is a thing you are very big on but due to my knowledge on the topics, I believe it is good enough to pass the class.