Science Forward Fall 2017

Overall, I enjoyed this course very much; I found it to be engaging and interesting, and i would definitely recommend it to others. It was very clear that time and effort were dedicated to running the class (as demonstrated by the fact that a double space nested in my sources was spotted). I think some aspects of the class could be improved upon, however, even if kept as it currently is, I would absolutely retake the course.

For the good:

-The website was laid out in a clean and helpful fashion. I had no issues with it.

-The lab sessions were interesting and very entertaining. I definitely feel like it was necessary to complete at least one expriment within the science-based IDC.

-The 3D printing experience was one of a kind. It was a fascinating learning experience and a great skill to know. If it weren’t for this course, I don’t think I would have ever taken it upon myself to learn or experience 3D printing, so I am very grateful for the opportunity. I certainly will not forget it.

– The presentations were a great aspect of the class. From the PMOPs, to the poster presentations, to the plagiarism presentation, and the history of drugs and healthcare innovations, I was able to absorb a lot of information in an enjoyable and engaging way.

-We were very well prepared for the STEAM festival.

For the bad:

-The BioBlitz Diversity Report felt like a filler assignment that didn’t add to the class or teach anything. It was also quite a pain to complete. I understand that it’s purpose might be to incorporate the BioBlitz, but given the theme of our class, I don’t think it was necessary (unlike many other IDCs throughout Macaulay which use the BioBlitz as the backbone for their course).

-In regards to the poster creation phase, I enjoyed listening to the presentation about scientific posters, however I think it would be tremendously helpful if, in addition, there could be some guidance about creating posters specifically designed for our class and our projects. There was a lot of confusion when it came time putting the posters together (section titles, what should go where, etc.) and I think that could be cleared up with a quick mention and examples of how to structure our poster for the 3D project. This way, I think we would be able to shorten the time dedicated to practicing and critiquing our poster presentations.

-The three science senses were confusing because, as we found, they’re not clearly defined categories as there is plenty of overlap between them. I don’t think it added anything to the course.

-I was pleasantly surprised by the STEAM Festival as I didn’t have very high expectations for it. It was very interesting to listen to the presentations of others and run into other Macaulay students that I hadn’t seen since Macaulay orientation. I was disappointed that there was no longer the competition for best poster (because I think our class would’ve killed it). I know this isn’t related to our class, but I thought the “maker space” portion of the Festival was useless. It seemed like a filler piece geared towards a kindergarten arts and crafts class. It was wasteful.

-My aspirin contained way too much salicylic acid for my taste 🙂

Thank you for a great semester! I feel very fortunate to have been able to take this course with the both of you.

Initially I was unsure of how much I would enjoy this class or even get out of it because I am not a science major. That being said I think all the activities or assignments we did this year were very accessible and I actually enjoyed this class very much. I liked that we talked not only about the science side of creating new drugs and healthcare innovations but also the very real and tedious process that has to happen to take an idea or a discovery and turn it into an acceptable and feasible product on the market.

The STEAM festival totally subverted my expectations, andI actually had a lot of fun that day. I am so grateful that our class focused on 3D printing projects because not only was it more fun to create, it was more fun to present. I was constantly presenting and getting positive feedback from students from other schools. When we did our series of in class presentations I did think at the time that we were maybe practicing too much, but our class definitely had the best posters and I was fully prepared to present my group’s project and field questions.

I do think the Bioblitz report was a stand alone assignment, and I think maybe if we were given more guidance on what to look for in the Bioblitz data it would have been more interesting. I also think that after the Bioblitz weekend we should’ve  had an in class discussion on what we did, because I definitely would like to know more of what other groups did.

Overall this class was fun and informative. After working on our 3D printing project I’m definitely taking away skills from this class that I never thought Id have the chance to learn in this lifetime.

As someone who does not typically enjoy science courses, I found this class far surpassed my expectations. Dr. Greer presented the science in a way that it was accessible for the science impaired such as myself. The labs were a great learning experience, while also being somewhat simplistic in nature and fun.

I loved the 3D printing aspect of the course, and found that it was technology Baruch has that I otherwise would not have taken advantage of. I found that the 3D printing also put us a step above the other posters presented at the STEAM Festival. The other posters were very research and data heavy, but our classes were far more creative and innovative. I loved that we were able to show our own ideas at the festival, rather than simply presenting research conducted by other scientists.

Overall, I enjoyed this course far more than I ever expected to, and I am so grateful I chose to take Dr. Greer this semester!

As a student coming from a science focused high school, I thought this semester’s seminar class would be relatively similar to the science courses offered there. My expectations were to learn about specific scientific discoveries, experiments, and thinking that impacted New York City. I expected to learn about a lot of scientific theory and discoveries from a textbook, but it was much more than that. This Macaulay seminar was extremely hands-on which I really appreciated. My favorite part was learning how to use a 3D printer. With today’s constant evolving technology, learning how to do 3D design and actually doing it was extremely educational for me. I also loved the biodiversity research project. It was amazing to see an entire school come together to collect data that we would all use to present. Science is also ten times more interesting and engaging when your hands get dirty to actually make, test, or discover things and that is exactly what we did. It was difficult, however, trying to find trend in the data to talk about. Though it was challenging, it was also extremely ambiguous which I really appreciated. I also really appreciated the mini lab demonstrations by Dr. Greer to show how magical science can be!

When I first found out that this semester’s IDC was entitled “Science Forward: Healthcare Innovations” I really did not know what to expect, which in a way was a good thing. It definitely sounded more interesting and applicable to life than the usual basic science courses that I take. Looking retrospectively, I learned way more than I anticipated. This class built a foundation on the fundamentals of healthcare innovations and the legal action taken to launch it, designing as well as 3D printing. All these skills are a good edge to the scientific knowledge that I take away from other courses. The set up of the class was interesting and the topics varied which kept us engaged. I thoroughly enjoyed the 3D posters, although I would say that the process of presenting it multiple times could have been a bit shortened. The presentations that we did in this class built public speaking confidence. Overall, I believe this course was very well rounded and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for all your wisdom and for this great semester!

Going into the course at the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I had previously taken only introductory science courses, and only in high school. I have to say that starting the year off with BioBlitz was not what I expected. Even though the event was put together well and I enjoyed interacting with students from other CUNY colleges, I thought that the data collected was pretty straightforward and would have preferred to see a more in-depth study of a certain organism or species. Perhaps with that, other groups would have been able to present their findings at a follow-up Macaulay event.

However, the STEAM festival was quite the opposite. I think the chance to be creative within science was well taken by the class and we presented some of the best work at the festival. The event and presentation seems fitting because science has become increasingly innovative, which is driven by creativity. Such an opportunity is therefore valuable, because it can help students realize their potential for careers within science. I also thought the course made great use of the 3D printing available at Baruch, as this made our projects very practical and real, as compared to other classes that may have put together numerical analyses.

Lastly, I thought that the use of ePortfolios was well integrated into the course and made submitting assignments simple and straightforward throughout the semester. Knowing all of the assignment deadlines made it easy for me to plan out my work ahead of time, to prevent from falling behind. This became especially important when we had several parallel projects to work on – I think it really helped ensure that we completed all of the work that was required for the course. Thank you again for a great semester everyone!

I enjoyed the STEAM Fest it was really fun and interesting seeing other students projects and interacting with students from other Macaulay campuses as well as younger classes. Furthermore, showcasing our own projects also had it’s own merits in speaking about the things we did throughout the semester and the work we put in to get our finished products. BioBlitz itself was very fun for me, the data and information not so much, I didn’t quite understand it myself and would have liked if we went over it in more depth in the class. I didn’t feel like the science senses were a good framework for the course because we didn’t really use them all that much, it was just an idea we had that we would throw in here and there and show how it applied. I enjoyed the 3D printing experience, that was a really fun part of the course and I loved how it was incorporated. The website was mostly used to submit assignments, the tutorials were also helpful from time to time, a reminder that assignments are due would be nice like a timer, because I tend to not check the website very often. Overall, I enjoyed the course I just wish we had more time for Dr. Greer’s science experiments those were my favorite parts of the course.