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Honors Biology I
Honors Biology I
I enrolled in Honors Concepts of Biology I for my first semester at IUPUI. The course had an Honors lab section, in which we completed various lab assignments. Some labs involved researching various biological cooncepts, while other labs required us to complete tests and experiments in order to analyze data.
During this course, I learned how to effectively study biological concepts and understand various processes occuring in organisms. My understanding of concepts grew from basic definitions of molecules to diseases associated with these molecules and the events that had to occur to reach disease levels. This experience encouraged me to find ways to study my own interests and relate it back to the topics studied in class. This helped deepen my understanding of the concepts because I was applying the material to topics I had previously studied. Nearing the end of the course, I know I have grown not only in my knowledge of various biological concepts, but how to effectively apply those to other subjects to draw conclusions.
Jag Challenge
Jag Challenge
Before coming to IUPUI, I had never completed a project quite like the Jag Challenge. This project taught me more about viewing a problem that affects a large audience from all angles and about weighing the priorities when it comes to crafting a solution to benefit the audience. As a team, we focused on effectively communicating our ideas to create the best pitch possible. We worked together to coordinate schedules and ultimately create a diorama, a model of one of our care squares, a PowerPoint presentation, and our final pitch video.
Cardiac Class Project
Cardiac Class Project
My class project in biology is another project from this semester that I learned a lot from. While creating this project, I was able to learn more about cardiac care. I also learned about common disparities in cardiac care for females vs. males. I located a research paper by Dr. Stacy Westerman and Dr. Nanette Wenger. This paper dove into deep into the disparities and the need for change within clinical research. On the website I have created, I focused on analyizing their research and suggested improvements for the future. I was also able to highlight how non-researchers or physicians can get involved in the push towards improved cardiac care and research.
My First Semester Reflection
My First Semester Reflection
One of the most significant learning experiences I had this semester was that failure provides a large opportunity for growth. This was discussed in not only my First Year Seminar course, but my recitation sections for science courses. I believe it is good to go into new experiences with this mindset. I don't think the most efficient learning happens if you are constantly afraid of failure while learning. It helped that I was constantly reminded of this during my first semester while going through changes and figuring out the habits and skills which work best for me in college. This better taught me and reminded me to not be afraid to leave room for failure and growth. Another significant learning experience I had stemmed from my biology course. While the little things we did in our labs did not always seem significant, I quickly learned how to apply smaller concepts to what I was helping with in my first year research apprenticeship lab. I also learned things from my research apprenticeship which helped me connect the dots when it came to learning new lecture material.
A couple of strengths became clear to me early on in the semester: communication and studying/learning skills. During the first round of our JagChallenge, I found myself easily able to initiate conversations in dividing work for our project and narrowing down ideas. When it came time for exams, I learned what worked best for studying for each class, and I was able to continue applying these methods. I also watched for learnign strategies which helped me retain the most information during lecture and continued applying those. When it came to weaknesses, the JagChallenge was a reminder to me that I can still stand to improve my public speaking skills. The second round of the JagChallenge gave me an opportunity to do just that. Another weakness of mine is focusing on making time for myself in everyday.
In fact, this is probably the biggest lesson I learned this semester. I have improved my schedule over time so that I am completing all work and studying enough while still making time for myself to take a break. This is going to be important for the rest of my life, as I hope to attend a rigorous medical school and eventually become a doctor. The biggest piece of advice I can offer for myself next semester is to take things one day at a time and to focus on learning rather than being perfect.
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