Tag Archives: The Nature of Science

Papers and Projects and Presentations (Oh My!)

Posted on by
Reply

I love college and I love McDaniel college. But one of my least favorite things ever is coming back to campus after Thanksgiving break to wrap up fall semester. I have a lot of things that I need to work on over the next two and a half weeks. For the most part, these papers and projects aren’t so bad on their own, but because there’s so many of them, they’re all too overwhelming. But since I do have a lot of neat things to work on, here’s a rundown of what those things are.

For Approaches to Everyday Discourse, I have to write two more papers, the first of which is due tomorrow. In this paper I’m doing a genre study of articles appearing in popular news sources that are written about Facebook. Doing a genre study of this nature involves reading a lot of these sorts of articles; my paper requires me to read and analyze 20 articles selected by my professor, but in a true genre study, you can expect to read dozens more samples of whatever you’re analyzing to find shared features of a given genre.

My final paper for Discourse will involve a topic of my choice. I plan on doing research on the rhetoric of internet memes (particularly Advice Animals) and analyzing them as a genre in addition to observing what stories they tell and what it is about them that we as internet users relate to them so well.

For The Hero’s Journey, I have two projects due Monday. The first will involve a paper and a presentation analyzing the hero’s journey in a work of my choice. Though I’m not a huge fan of Powerpoint, it will probably in my best interest to make one to capture my classmates’ attentions and help them understand the movie better. My project will be about the movie Stardust. Other students in my class have presented on Across the Universe, Iron Man, and Pilgrim’s Progress, to name a few examples. My second project is supposed to be a creative project in a medium of my choice that describes my own hero’s journey. I’ll also be presenting this in class. One girl in my class who already presented described her hero’s journey in terms of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors, which was really creative and funny.

In my Grammar and Usage class, I have to give a partner presentation in addition to doing a take-home final. The presentation will involve my partner and I discussing the grammar of the German language and how it relates to and differs from English grammar. My partner and I have taken German for years, so even though that will make the project easier for us, we’re still excited for it because we think German is a neat language and we want to share it with others.

Lastly, for The Nature of Science, I’m working with a group of three guys on a project that has involved us designing an experiment the involves some combination of sticks, boxes, balls, and string, conducting and analyzing the experiment, and presenting our findings to the class in addition to writing a paper about it. Truth be told, I’m pretty nervous about how this is going to go, and it’s the project I’m dreading most out of all the things I need to do between now and December 13, the magical day when my last final takes place and I get to go home for Christmas break. I’m not a big fan of experiments, and since we have to construct and conduct it ourselves, I’m afraid that something isn’t going to work out. I just keep reminding myself that once this class is done, I’ll have my science requirement taken care of!

Needless to say, I’ll be hitting the grind pretty hard tonight (or at least I’ll try), but not before inviting my suite mates to join me in watching the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas tonight at 8. I’ll make myself some hot chocolate and get some paper for paper chains to decorate our suite, and it will be a nice little breather before tonight’s long road ahead.

Share

Continuing My First Week

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a fun last couple of days for me here at McDaniel. Yesterday, Wednesday, was a pretty light day for me since my only class was grammar in the afternoon. From 11 to 1, there was a farmers’ market at Red Square, where vendors came to sell fresh produce, bread, honey, and even jewelry. I picked up a free nectarine. Apparently, yesterday’s farmers’ market was such a success that they’re going to have one on campus once a month from now on. I hope the vendors bring strawberries, pumpkin bread, and other more dorm-ready foods next time!

One of the great things about college, as opposed to high school, is that there’s time during the day that can be put to good use by taking naps. I’m not afraid to admit that I took one before grammar yesterday—I needed it! I felt pretty good going to grammar. We discussed our textbook, spent more time getting to know everyone’s names, and took a diagnostic test.

Wednesday evening is one of the most fun nights of Welcome Week, since that’s when the annual activity fair takes place. Student organizations and a few local businesses have tables all along the quad to give students more information about their organizations and let students sign up for their email lists. There’s even some free stuff! In conjunction with the event, dinner is held outdoors in Red Square with choices of hotdogs or hamburgers and brownies and cookies for dessert. Though the event was a lot of fun, I didn’t stay out for the whole two hours because I wanted (and more importantly needed) to get some homework done for Thursday.

Today, Thursday, was busier than yesterday. I got up this morning to finish my readings for Everyday Discourse, but I left enough time in between reading and going to class to go pick up a free ice cream sundae outside of Glar. Both of my classes today went well. In The Nature of Science, we got into groups and using sets of data given to us, we played a game and tried to determine its rules, an activity designed to simulate how scientists think and are able to either determine or not determine things. Once we collectively came up with a set of rules, we played the game tournament-style. Unfortunately, I didn’t fare too well in the game play, as I lost in the first round.

I still feel like a winner though! Tonight, after making a couple of quick stops to both the Free Press open house and the part-time job fair, I went to the annual Honors picnic, which had been rained out on Sunday. In addition to having burgers and hotdogs from the grill, we played games with each tables. Each table was a team, and the first round of the contest was a scavenger hunt in which the tables had to find various items and bring them to a table of judges. The second round involved trivia about McDaniel, science, and the ‘90s. My team, District 13, tied with another team for first place. Each of the two teams sent up a representative, and I represented my team. The winner of tie-breaker, much to my enjoyment was the team representative with the smallest hands, meaning that my team took home a bag filled with candy, water guns, play-dough, Ring Pops, and popsicle molds. I also met a few nice people at the picnic, and I hope to see them again at future Honors events.

I haven’t quite decided yet what I’ll do tonight. I don’t have anything due tomorrow and I have a three-day weekend coming up, so there’s no urgency to do homework right now, which is just fine with me! I think I’ll probably see if there’s anything fun going on at the Pub, our fast-food place on campus, and then I’ll come back and continue to straighten up my room.

Though I have a lot of reading to tackle this weekend, I’ll be able to do it at more of a leisurely pace.Despite the homework, I think I’m in for a fun weekend!

 

Share

Day Two

Posted on by
Reply

I didn’t expect to be so tired by day two, but considering that I had an evening class and a pretty busy last three days, I guess I’m not surprised. It takes a lot of energy to get readjusted to being at college, but I guess if I weren’t at least somewhat tired, it would probably mean that I’m not having enough fun.

This morning, I didn’t do much, but I eventually went the poster sale to look through some of the posters one last time. I didn’t find anything else I liked, but that’s not so bad because I bought three yesterday. (And if I ever need more, Amazon is just a few clicks away and very reasonably priced.) Then, I chatted with more people I hadn’t seen yet and had a pizza lunch at Glar before going to my 1:00 class, Approaches to Everyday Discourse with Dr. Kate Dobson. The class is offered by the English Department and can be applied toward the English major or writing minor. It’s my first 3000-level class, so I’m definitely a little intimidated by the workload and the degree of difficulty, but I’m happy to be taking it because I love the subject matter. Essentially the course looks at and requires us to analyze discourse (verbal and non-verbal communication) that we encounter in our everyday lives—what we read, watch, and even wear. Also, I’ve never had her for a class, but I think Dr. Dobson is pretty awesome. When I was a senior in high school considering coming to McDaniel, I got to meet Dr. Dobson, who helped me learn enough wonderful things about the English Department and McDaniel itself that the choice to come here was obvious.

Immediately after Everyday Discourse, I went to my science class, The Nature of Science. While I like science, I’ve never been a fan of science classes, so I’m a little intimidated by this class too. What I think is interesting about it though is that it focuses on how science is done, how scientists think, how science interacts with society, and what science is and isn’t. According to Dr. Marx, the professor, the course is unlike any other college science course he’s encountered, making the course unique to McDaniel. I hope the class is interesting and that it goes well for me!

It’s nice not to have an evening class tonight, since I got to spend more time relaxing and socializing than I did last night. I spent a nice chunk of time sitting and talking with some of my friends on the Quad and even got a couple of pages of reading done while I was out there. After that, my friends and I went to dinner, and from there, we went to Red Square, the center of campus, for a free root beer float event sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. I also took a moment to pick up a few copies of the McDaniel Free Press orientation issue, since I wrote an article about the resources at our Hoover Library for it.

Eventually, I moseyed my way back to my dorm, where I now hope to accomplish some homework and continue to unpack and clean my room before I go to bed—hopefully earlier than I did last night!

Share