Category: Introductions

In this introductory Blog Post, please include the following elements:
1. Describe your previous experience with science including the courses you have taken in college or high school, and explain which ones you liked most, and why?
2. Explain what would you most like to get out of taking this course.
3. Explain which of the four Watershed UGA projects you are most interested in working on and what Watershed UGA could get from having your perspective on this issue.
4. Provide examples of things you might learn relative to civic engagement by helping with this service learning.

Self-Portrait Reflective Writing Assignment

I have a very beginner-level relationship with science. During high school, I took introductory classes in Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Of those, I enjoyed Biology the most because of my teacher.

I’d like to learn about environmentally conscious practices and how to apply them as a future policy analyst.

As a student, I’d ask questions about how to increase composting across campus and how to make composting easily accessible to those living in dorms. For this reason, I’d be most interested in projects that involve doing so.

Ways to easily, almost thoughtlessly, contribute environmentally while still focusing on student life because of ways that environmental destruction impacts their individual lives, such as their home and the UGA Campus.

Things I might learn are the importance of civic engagement and how it can positively contribute to aspects of my individual life, such as food,  air travel, and more. 

John Kutteh- introduction

  1. Hello! My name is John Kutteh and I am a sophomore studying public relations from Memphis, Tennessee. I came into college as an undeclared science major, so I have taken a few semesters of chemistry and some other random science classes here and there. I took an anatomy class in high school that I really enjoyed as well as some other required science classes that were not as interesting, but necessary.
  2. I am very excited for our study of compost. I hope that I learn a lot and am able to use that information to convince the people around me to start composting.
  3. I would like to learn what can be done to remove antibiotics from the soil once they are there. It is a huge problem, but it must have a solution, however difficult it may be.
  4. I think my fellow students would like to learn more in depth about how composting can have a positive impact on the environment and how antibiotics in the soil can have a negative impact on the environment.
  5. I would like to learn how to effectively engage the community in order to enact real change within that community regarding environmental issues. 

Kunho Kim Self-Portrait

In high school, I took honors biology and chemistry my freshman and sophomore year, respectively. After that, during my junior and senior years, I took AP Physics 1, AP Physics C, and Environmental Science. I really enjoyed all of my AP science classes because we were able to more deeply discuss topics during class and were able to learn more material beyond the standard curriculum.

I hope to achieve a better understanding of general biology. I have not taken a biology class since freshman year in high school, so I hope that this class will be able to help me stay educated in biology. I also hope that through the projects we will be working on this semester, I will gain more experience working with other people in a group in different environments. Additionally, I hope to develop an appreciation for biology by taking this course.

What exactly is happening that is causing such a large increase in antibacterial resistant bacteria in the soil? Where is it the worst (locally and globally)? What can we do to prevent this? What measures are already being taken and are they effective? How is it affecting other life? What exactly is compostable? What can we do to increase the rate of compost being created?

I think composting would appeal most to the class because it seems slightly less daunting than antibiotics in a sense. Composting is something that anyone can start doing at any time– it seems like a very simple yet effective solution to helping preserve our Earth.

I think that I will be able to learn that everyone can play a part in protecting and improving the environment. If everyone began to recycle, compost, and be more aware of how they are affecting the environment, then I think that positive changes will immediately begin to happen to our environment.

 

Reflective Writing Assignment 1: Self-Portrait

  1. a & b . I took physics, biology, and chemistry my freshman and sophomore year of high school. At my school, we were allowed to pick one and continue it, so I chose chemistry which I then did for the following two years. I decided to continue chemistry because I excelled in it the most compared to the other sciences, and I also found the real-world implications of the chemistry topics to be very fascinating. This class is my first science class taken in college so far.
  2. I am interested in understanding more about my personal impact along with my fellow humans impact on the earth and perhaps ways in which I as an individual can have an impact on reversing the negative effects of our actions and presence here on the planet. I am looking forward to understanding more about the condition of our planet, because I feel we as a generation are becoming more and more ignorant to it.
  3. What exactly is the role of antibiotics in soil and the process of composing? Where can and do these antibiotics originate from? What are the long-term effects of antibiotics in the soil?
  4. I think that many students are concerned about global warming and the deterioration of the planet, but are reluctant to act because of a lack of knowledge. However, I feel that, with enough repetition and emphasis, students would be most receptive to the issue of global warming.
  5. Perhaps this experience will help me to realize that a single person or idea can actually make an impact on a global issue. I believe that it may also help to teach me how to approach a community atmosphere with major problems such as composting and global warming. I may also learn methods of explaining these topics and making them important to the general public rather than just the science community. 

Introduction – Julianna Mallette

I personally love science, and took a lot of elective science courses in highschool, like AP Chemistry and AP Physics.

My favorite of those classes would have to be AP Environmental Science, because the teacher was an amazing person who taught the material in an interesting way.

I would like to expand on what I have previously learned about biology, and hopefully this class will help point me in the direction of what major I should be in.

I would like to ask more questions about what the effects of these antibiotics in the human body are, over long periods of time. It makes me wonder what all these modern chemicals in our food could be doing to us in the long-run.

I think my fellow students would be most interested in methods of making composting not only more accessible, but also more mainstream and appealing to the general population.

I think that through civic engagement and service learning, we will bring new perspective to younger generations, since this problem will only worsen for them as time goes on. Hopefully I will learn how to make strong arguments for our planet’s sake.

Introduction

In high school, I only took a few life sciences. I started with biology freshman year and then took anatomy/physiology senior year. Anatomy ended up being my favorite one, just because of how much I liked the teacher and how enjoyable the class was as a whole. I took physical sciences throughout high school, both APs and normal. However, this will be my first science course of any kind in college. For this class I hope to gain a better knowledge of biology and the environment, and especially how the two of these interact.

To find out more about antibiotics in the soil, I guess I would ask not only how they are getting there, but also what effects they have on the soil and crops. The videos we watched largely addressed carbon, compost, and soil, but never really the harmful effects of antibiotics in the soil.

I think composting would be the best issue to approach other students about. It’s a pretty simple thing to do that can make a big difference, and wouldn’t be a large inconvenience on someone. Because of this, other students would be more likely to listen and even try composting.

The service learning project sounds like it could really help expand the way I think about helping the environment. By contributing to a national database, it shows just how easy it can be to help make a difference. The project also will help demonstrate the effect antibiotics has on the soil in various locations.

Introduction

In high school, my experience with science involved biology, chemistry, and two years of physics. My senior year I took AP Physics, which I enjoyed because it was a challenge yet one in which I was very interested. I enjoyed learning about the science behind everyday things, and I enjoyed it particularly because the things I learned in physics were applicable to everything around me. I hope to get a new perspective on biology in this course, as in high school my biology class only focused on evolution and genetics. I would be interested in working with the Clarke Central High School students because I love to work with other students, and it would be a great opportunity to engage with the local community while learning about biology. I am also interested to learn more specifics about composting. I’ve seen it in action, but I would like to learn more about what is compostable versus what is not and how the process works scientifically. I feel we can all understand the problem of climate change and how our environment is changing, so since we are all directly impacted by this issue, we would all be interested in compositing and other ways to exist while benefiting the environment. With civic engagement, we will learn about local perspectives and what people think about environmental issues. At UGA, we often are isolated to the community of students and their perspectives, so its important to step beyond the boundaries to learn how other people think so we can better teach and learn from one another.

Hi! I’m Josh!

  1. I took honors biology, chemistry, and human anatomy as well as AP Physics. I liked human anatomy a lot because I learned about the anatomy of the human body and the physiological nature of humans which I was able to apply to myself when I go to the gym. I also enjoyed physics because I felt like I had a better understanding of nature of motions by the end of the year. This (BIOL2103H) is my first science class in college.
  2. I want to have fun, get a good grade, and be more environmentally aware so that I can live accordingly.
  3. The outreach with the high school students seems very fun because we get to give back to kids who likely look up to us and we all get to help contribute to a national database, and being apart of something on the national scale is something that is very cool for teens.
  4. Given that our class is an honors course, I would imagine that many of us are interested in creating a new type of project/initiative as we are all very high achievers.
  5. By helping with this service learning, we can learn about how ideas involving civic engagement are thought of and developed, the importance and impact that involving the whole community can have, and about other successful civic engagement programs and the qualities that enabled them to succeed.

Introductory Blog Post/ Self Portrait -Ku Kim

at Paris Baguette in Duluth! 

Hi, I’m Ku (pronounced as Q)!

I took honors bio at Lambert High School and I loved the class despite my disinterest in the sciences. It was very interesting! Bio was probably my favorite high school science course. I only decided not to continue with the AP course as it was not essential to my future major and because I did not want to risk my GPA. I also took honors chemistry as well as AP physics. I found that I did not enjoy those classes at all.

Mostly, I am here in 2103H to learn more about bio and further my understanding of what’s going on right around us.

After the video, I am particularly interested in composting since I have not tried it before. Not only would it be a fun challenge to take on but it’d also be helpful to the environment, big or small. I want to know which antibiotics are currently in soil and why/how fast the soil becomes antibiotic-resistant.

I think my fellow students would pay close attention to the whole excess carbon issue. We hear all the time about global warming and climate change as well as sustainability issues, and so for each of us to be able to possibly play a role in better our atmosphere, I think we all might want to do what we can to help.

I do expect that by doing this, there will be more awareness about the soils in our community. I’m excited to see people wanting to get more involved!

Introduction

  1. I took the regular classes in high school: biology, chemistry, and two Physics, and have yet to take a science course at UGA.  I actually haven’t taken a science course since my junior year of high school.  Out of all of them, i’d have to say I liked either chem or bio the most because physics was just absolutely terrible.
  2. id like to get a better understanding of the material in this class.  I’ll be honest, when I signed up for this class, I thought we would be learning about like how the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but nos that I know that this is not what the class is about, I would like to learn more about the soil and the ways we can reverse climate change.
  3. I guess I’d like to learn about how we can stop the misuse of antibiotics in our society and how specifically they hurt the soil.  Really a basic run-through would be nice.
  4. I think the issues to appeal to my fellow students would be that climate change causes weather extremes and nobody likes it to be too hot or too cold, or that no one really wants to die from infections nowadays.
  5. With helping with the service project we can learn how to head change and be the leaders of change to get things done that we want to be done in the community.  Really we can get a good understanding of how to go about changing the bad things in our community.