Life Sciences (LS)

What did you learn by completing the Signature Assignment? Be specific concerning your work on the assignment and the topics/skills/concepts you learned in the course.

Reflections on My Signature Assignments

The rapid evolution of the internet and the exchange of information have increased information accessibility. This accessible information empowers individuals of all socioeconomic statuses, opening doors to advocacy, education, and opportunities. The signature assignments we were given were reminders to "think" before we "believe" what we read online.

The popular expression "Don't believe everything you read on the internet' -Abraham Lincoln" is an amusing example of how the internet can feed us both truths and lies. Fortunately, there are methods we can utilize to verify whether a claim is accurate or not. For example, an article's lack of a methods section or peer review can signal that the information is unreliable. We cannot verify whether claims are true without the instructions in the methods section of an experiment.

Similarly, we cannot trust information from scientific literature if it is not peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewers act as gatekeepers, ensuring that only trustworthy papers are acknowledged. Others may lean into their authority on a subject matter and lose objectivity when speaking, which can signal to readers that information may be subjective to the speaker's opinion. These topics, and various others, were covered in our readings, reminding us to learn wisely on the internet.

Reflect on how you thought about the biology concepts before you took this course and how you think about it now that the course is over. Have any of your assumptions or understandings changed? Why? What experiences were influential in this process?

Social work, my major, finds itself intimately connected to biological principles. We cannot understand the whole person without understanding biology. A person's biology influences their social environment and psychological well-being, and those, in turn, can influence biology. As an aspiring clinician, I must familiarize myself with various topics, such as the neurobiology of addiction, the metabolism of substances, heredity and genetics, and various biological impairments.

Reflections on the Course Experience

My relationship with this course has been ambivalent. Biology is a subject deserving of respect, and I have acquired useful information by taking it. However, a significant portion of this course involved personally unserviceable information, which I had to memorize to pass exams, knowing that the information would not be utilized during my career.

Evolving Perspectives

I do have a greater appreciation for biologists. I knew that biology involved complicated formulas and processes that scientists had to familiarize themselves with, and participating in just a portion of their sciences reaffirmed that. Anybody can learn to become a biologist, though one must pass through the rigors of understanding it before calling themselves one. Once they do, they can investigate the metabolisms of human biology and describe to others the expressions of their findings. Their findings, in turn, can be utilized to improve medicines, understanding of human biology, and treatment. Their findings, too, can contribute to our knowledge of history and ecology. It's a truly respectable field of study, something that desperately needs to be upheld, especially now in a political era of anti-intellectualism.