Final Project Reflection — Sahir Shahryar

For my community outreach, I went with many of my classmates to Clarke Central High School to do soil samples. In preparation for the visit, we had our own lab in class in which we prepared dilutions of a soil sample. My group took a sample from the “front side” of the Science Learning Center near one of the trees. We had a lot of fun with the lab equipment and with preparing the agar dishes. Counting the colonies on the dishes later on was a challenge in and of itself, but I think it was necessary in order to adequately prepare us for the visit to Clarke Central.

On the day of the visit, I took the Milledge Avenue bus route to Clarke Central and met with the other students. Our role in the classroom was more that of assistants than it was of presenters. As such, while I do feel that the information we provided to the students was intellectually stimulating and relevant to the audience, I don’t think that I made my interactions with the students particularly creative. The assignment itself, however, was pretty creative — after all, it’s not every day that you get to count bacteria colonies on a dish! I think that having an outreach project to begin with was important, as it gave me some perspective on why we even do science in the first place. If not to spread awareness of the good and bad things that we discover through the scientific process, then why?

When talking to the students, I did my best to help them by answering any questions they had. I tried my best not to make assumptions about the students’ capabilities; after all, I’m not a biology major, so the gap in understanding is not as big as one might expect between a high-schooler and a college student. Given the opportunity to do the visit again, I think I would spend a bit more time reading about the finer details of the experiment. That way, I wouldn’t be as dependent on Blake and Dr. Brickman as I was the first time around. I definitely feel that helping students in a lab makes you understand the material better yourself. As a student in biology addressing other students in biology, I don’t think I had to spend too much effort analyzing my audience, as much of what we were covering included things that the students were already familiar with. I also didn’t have much time to incorporate feedback into the way I was addressing questions.

In the future, I’d like to perhaps spend more time being active with the students, asking them questions as they do their work instead of just when they raise their hands. I’d also like to spend more time walking around instead of spending as much time talking to my classmates (from BIOL 2103H). At the moment, I am just wrapping up my first semester as a peer learning assistant (PLA, or undergraduate TA) for CSCI 1301, where I oversee a lab and have to walk around and answer questions. I think that I can incorporate what I’ve learned from this experience into my PLA experience as well when I do it next semester.

Overall, I enjoyed the visit, as it was not only a break in pace, but also a reminder about the responsibility scientists have as teachers to the greater community.

Infographic Response

Response to an Infographic About Coral Bleaching

by Sahir Shahryar

I found this infographic when looking for infographics related to the carbon cycle. It covers coral bleaching, which occurs when the oceans become more acidic as a result of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The infographic drew my attention immediately with its stark contrast. The grayed-out coral and water really give an idea how bleak a bleached coral reef looks:

The inclusion of clownfish in the ocean scene not only provides a stark color contrast, but may also make a subtle reference to Finding Nemo, a childhood favorite of many young adults today. Although I doubt that the infographic relies on the connection to Nemo to sustain the viewer’s interest, it is a smart visual device to capture the attention of someone who may not be interested otherwise. The use of arrows and bold typography make the infographic easy to follow, and the half-emptied hourglass indicates that “the clock’s ticking” to the viewer. Key figures such as “60%,” “2030,” and “8000 years” are shown in large fonts, making them stand out.

Overall, the infographic evoked feelings of frustration out of me. Seeing the impact that we are having on other life forms when we use fossil fuels makes me upset that there are politicians willing to deliberately look the other way for political gain. I think the author of the infographic wanted viewers to see how fossil fuel usage impacts our environment in more ways than just the obvious.

I think the takeaway from this graphic is that our infographic needs to show the viewer something that they didn’t know about (or hadn’t considered) beforehand. If our infographic can give students a new perspective, then it stands a good chance of convincing them of the benefits of composting — and the need to compost.

Infographic credit: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Reef comparison image credit: Atoll Volunteers <http://www.atollvolunteers.com/coral-bleaching/>

A trip to UGArden

On Thursday, February 15, we took a trip to UGArden. This this trip got me onto the last bus route I needed to have taken a trip on all of the university’s bus routes (Riverbend South Milledge). As soon as I arrived, I was taken aback by just how different things look only two or three miles outside the city. It reminded me a lot of Americus, the city in southern Georgia where I grew up. So that’s really what I saw in the picture below:

Having grown up surrounded by farmland, seeing something like this reminded me just how much the state of Georgia depends on agriculture.

I was immediately curious where the produce from UGArden goes, and was glad to hear that it gets given for charitable purposes. And after hearing Professor Berle talk about composting, it made me feel reinvigorated about protecting the environment.

Introduction

I’m Sahir, a sophomore doing computer science as his major. I’ve always enjoyed science as a topic. My earliest interest in science started when I was only six or seven years old, starting with a fascination with outer space. One of my earliest memories from that age was hearing about Pluto’s declassification as a planet — something that I remember really bothered me at the time! My mom is a doctor, so I guess I should be inclined to be a doctor as well. However, I’ve seen the amount of effort she has to put into her work, and given how much of the medical profession seems to be testing and bookkeeping, I firmly decided long ago that I was not going to be a doctor.

In school, I always enjoyed our science classes. Up until ninth grade, we had general science classes (except perhaps Life Science in seventh grade), but in high school we had more specific subjects. I took biology as a freshman, physical science as a sophomore, chemistry and human anatomy as a junior, and AP Biology as a senior. Out of all of them, I enjoyed chemistry and the early stages of biology the most. I say “early stages of biology” because in our biology classes, my favorite parts of biology (cellular biology, genetics, and evolution) were covered at the beginning of the semester. I have mixed feelings about ecology and a particular dislike for plant biology — the latter because I feel like plant biology always ends up being a long discussion about pine cones and tree trunks, which feel like low points compared to viruses and DNA.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what I expected to get out of this course when I walked in about an hour ago. It felt like I was simply fulfilling one of my degree requirements, walking in because I have to — and hey, as long as we weren’t spending the entire semester talking about legumes, I might just enjoy myself. But after being introduced to what we’re actually doing, I think this class is going to be a lot more enjoyable than I initially thought. I like that it’s going to be interactive and doesn’t look like it revolves entirely around reading and note-taking. So I suppose what I hope to get out of this course is everything it can offer, for me to involve myself in it fully and have some fun with biology on a more active level.

As far as composting is concerned, I think what I’d like to learn more about is how the green bins work, and how composting can be incorporated in a community’s culture. My parents live in Phoenix and have a green bin there, but their bin is for recycling plastic bottles and paper — which is what I always thought the green bin was for! In Reed Hall, we have a recycling bin for cardboard and paper, but there’s a notice above it specifically asking students to throw food items into the catch-all trash can. Should we perhaps be looking to correct that, so that students are also encouraged to compost? That could make a huge difference, especially in the big dorms like Russell and Creswell Halls.

I think this topic could also apply to my classmates, as I’m sure that most people would be much more interested in recycling, composting, and generally going green if it were made easily accessible. What if there was a compost bin in the Bulldog Café, and people could throw out their food waste and their cardboard and paper separately? I’m sure that would make a big difference.

I’ve sometimes considered doing something politically related as a career option. If I ever do do something like that, I’m sure that I would have a strong position on the environment and on being eco-friendly in general. I hope that when we do our outreach, I can learn a lot about explaining why we need to be more environmentally conscious.