1. What are you better at now than you were at the end of the previous academic year? Name all of the ways that these improvements were made possible.

I have a better understanding about what a PSA is and also even know how to make my own PSAs. I learned what a good PSA is like and I have successfully made one that I felt is satisfied. Additionally, I have learned so much about how to write a good research paper. The parts and what needs to be taken care of that comes together to a whole research paper is what the professor has taught us.

2. What are you most proud of from the past academic year? Why does this make you proud?

I’m most proud of myself even making it through this whole academic year. My grades are what makes me proud and I also don’t want to lose it, so I’ve been trying even harder to keep it that good. It encourages me to study and do homework, and therefore I made it through another semester.

3. What went well this past academic year? What tools, supports or resources aided your success?

The CCNY Library databases have played a significant role in almost everyone of my classes since I mostly have writing related classes for this semester. I have been using it to find primary and secondary resources to use in my essay writings. It is more full of information than if I just searched on google. Also another tool that helped me a lot when I was studying Spanish is my whiteboard. I write the words down and erase them to remember, but practicing a few words at a time helps me to remember more than studying a lot at one time.

4. What did not go well this past academic year? What was missing that made this experience challenging or undesirable?

Group work was a little bit hard for me this year. It happens to be that not only in English class but my other class we work in groups as well to work on a big project, but my members were also having issues for some reason and weren’t able to get the work done. In the end it all worked out but it did take some time and I also needed to communicate with the professor a lot.

5. What insight did you gain about your own needs for mitigating challenges? Where or how can you fulfill these needs in the future?

I gain more insight in not giving up even when I feel tired. I would choose to put a timer on for 15 mins to rest or play on my phone but as soon as the timer rings off then I would immediately go back to my school work. Before I was having a hard time spending all my attention on the apps but from using the timer, the issue has been solved. I also believe that it will come in handy in the future when I study as well.

6. What did you learn from overcoming challenges? How will you remember what you learned and apply it when a similar issue arises?

I learned that I need to find ways to keep myself on time management. Also from finding the solution to keep a fast speed on getting work done, I believe that when I run into similar issues I will have the ability to think of another solution to resolve it.

7. When did you feel happiest or most at ease this year? How can you experience those moments more frequently?

I actually felt the happiest this week because I’m finally finishing this semester and ended with good grades. I do enjoy studying and learning but I did put lots of stress on myself so rather saying I was happy I would say that I was more responsible. Anyway, I’m going on vacation at the end of this month, so that’s also a reason why I’m so happy now.

8. What moments are you proud of? What can you do to celebrate yourself?

I’m proud of myself when I finish a test or exam, even if I didn’t know the grade yet. I don’t really celebrate it, and actually I went home to study more if I felt that I didn’t know enough answers on the exam. I think I should do something to celebrate a little when I’m done with midterm or final exams in the future.

9. What new ideas, information, resources or research made a positive difference for you this year? What was helpful about these things?

From learning Spanish at first I thought I was going to fail and I’m already thinking about dropping it but I stayed and tried the best I could. After weeks and weeks it has become much easier than how I thought it would be. I’m glad that I didn’t give up and I also learned and enjoyed the class at the end. This experience has encouraged my confidence, so now that I have more confidence to step in totally unfamiliar or unknown fields.

1. How has your understanding of the scientific writing process changed from what it was before this class?

At first I thought that scientific writing is mostly all about doing experiments and the results. I even thought that we would need to do an experiment and then find our own results. Also I thought there would be some math relation but it turns out that there was really not much. After this class I see that we are mainly focusing on how to find different studies that have already been done and then research for multiple studies that will prove our research paper thesis.

2. Where do you believe the scientists’ primary responsibilities are, to fellow scientists, or to the public? Why?

I believe the scientists primary responsibilities are to spread out the right values or ideas of a topic. They also need to be very responsible about what they write and publish because people do have trust in them. They will affect how people learn and think in a certain way. Therefore, it is also scientists responsibility to be sure that the studies and results that they have are accurate and truthful. Also even when something is accurate or true they should also be seeing the ideas or studies in multiple views.

3. What was your experience with the PSA project? What do you think you learned from it?

I have never done a PSA project before and I never thought of doing one either before this class. I have not only learned how to use canva to make PSA but also learned how to make other kinds of short videos or ppt slides, which I believe will help me in the future. I also learned what a good PSA is like and watched several different topics of PSAs. After doing this project I actually started to pay more attention to PSAs when I see them in public. 

4. What was the most memorable example of forward Facing Science (or science focused on explaining itself to the public)? What made it stand out to you and what did it teach you about the ability to promote science to the public?

I remember that one of our discussion homework was to watch a ted talk about science, such as light,electricity, subatomic particles, electrons and protons. People use different ways to make science more interesting to the public and therefore the public can learn in an enjoyable way. From ted talk I can really feel interested in what they are talking about, even though I have already learned the basics in high school in a book. It is a really different feeling and also I felt that I have a deeper understanding of electrons, protons, and neutrons relationship with each other and also how they work as a group.

5. What will you most take away from this course that could be applied to your future classes?

The most take away from this course is all the knowledge about how a research paper should be. I have learned how the parts that it needs, the structure, and how the information should be. Before this class I didn’t know what a SOP is or how the wording should be like for a research paper, it is so different from regular essays that I wrote before. I’m sure that I will need to write more research papers in the future and this class is a good intro for me to start learning how to write a good research paper.