Context: I composed this reflection as an assignment required for the Laboratory Physics course I took at Agnes Scott College during the spring 2019 semester. I used this reflection to pinpoint a specific skill the course was helping me practice (technical writing for science applications), as well as analyze some of my own patterns and attitudes when it comes to learning about science. In particular, a theme I expressed within this reflection was the concept of finding similarities between multiple projects I may be working on at any given time across different classes, in order to create a sort of “cohesiveness” that helps me to make further connections in the material I am learning. Developing this connections-oriented mindset will likely prove useful to me in the future, as it will allow me to “see the bigger picture” when it comes to complex problems I may be tasked with solving as part of a job- ones with many moving pieces that require careful consideration and synthesis of ideas in order to effectively solve. I have included this reflection below.
One connection I have made recently is that as I continue to gain experience in technical and professional writing with an instructional, procedural purpose (such as the lab reports and lab notebook entries I’ve made for this class), I am also furthering my skill and comfort levels in step by step, instructional writing (including troubleshooting guidelines!). This is a skill that will be very helpful in my job/internship with World of Speed this upcoming summer, as part of my job responsibilities include writing up step by step instructional curriculum material to help the museum’s education department document how to guide students through different hands on engineering projects, activities, and experiments.
It’s a unique and important skill set to be able to communicate a set of technical directions in a clear, concise, and approachable way that anyone can pick up and follow, and I am gaining increased appreciation for the “presentation of procedure and results” part of experimental laboratory science for helping me develop and strengthen this skill set- though, as I discussed with Dr. Ackerman earlier today, I have room for improvement in the “concise” department, and aim to work on my ability to edit my technical writing for brevity. In particular, the goal of “make it understandable by someone with intro level physics background knowledge” when writing a lab report has an interesting parallel to my goal of “make it understandable to someone with an education background who has not performed this activity with children” when writing up project curriculum for my job.
Another new goal of mine in this class as well as others I am enrolled in (E&M, Problem Solving) is taking full advantage of any opportunities to further my learning by making connections between the material I’m learning in each of my courses at a given time. For example, the last experiment I did in this class was Magnetic Force and Torque, and I realized upon starting the experiment that my understanding of torque was not as robust as I would like it to be, so I asked Dr. Lovell if we could spend some time solving torque problems in Problem Solving. This allowed me to strengthen my learning of the topic from multiple angles, AND get the most out of both classes. I could learn about torque academically in Problem Solving and study it hands-on in lab, while gaining a better background understanding of the theory behind torque so as to understand the lab procedure more thoroughly.
Forming these types of topical connections in the material of different classes has always helped me to feel more engaged and synthesized in my learning, which is very motivating for me as a student- if I feel like everything is “clicking,” I feel more confident in my own academic abilities, which historically helps me to relax and focus more on the process of learning as opposed to worrying about academic performance. Also, making connections between the things I am learning in different classes helps me to see the “bigger picture” in a way- it helps all my classes feel more worthwhile, because it gives me a taste of how the things I am studying in class on the small scale can synthesize in a more widely applicable way. Right now in E&M, we are wrapping up our study of electrostatics and starting our exploration of magnetostatics- this conclusion and final review of the theory behind electrostatics connects nicely with the lab my lab partner and I are currently working on, which studies the Coulombic force between two stationary, geometrically identical, charged spheres at various distances between the spheres’ centers and at various charges.
In addition to discovering opportunities to foster my technical and instructional writing skills and focus on getting the most out of my classes by trying to seek out topical connections between their material, I am also excited by the opportunities presented by the final lab project in this class, especially the brainstorming and research and experimental design stages. Earlier in this semester, and in the past in general, I would feel a fair bit of nervousness and apprehension towards the idea of designing an experiment all by myself- the thought of initiating lab science independently without external guidance brings with it a laundry list of places where I could make mistakes or make poor choices that will undermine the strength of the experiment later, in the execution stage.
However, the introspection and analysis of my own learning patterns that have been encouraged by this class through the reflection assignments have helped me to understand daunting challenges in science as an opportunity to lean in and learn and trust the uncertainty and hesitance for what it is: merely an indication that you have more to learn! I have become more confident in my own lab skills through this course, and I am now excited by the concept of brainstorming experimental setups that could let me investigate things I find genuinely interesting or exciting, or perform labs which have obvious ties to my intended work post-graduation in the automotive industry.
Finally, the final lab idea brainstorming process has been exciting for an additional reason. At the moment, I am in the process of designing and executing my own self-guided, independent, open-ended physics problems in Problem Solving, so I have many opportunities ahead of me to make connections between the self-guided project design journeys in each of these two different classes. I am optimistic that both projects will shed light on each other!
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