EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

I feel that the discovery essay is a prime example of my growth in learning in the NCLC 120 unit. I started the unit full of doubts as to how the discovery assignment would go because we did a survey. I couldn’t grasp the concept of writing an essay that had to deal with math, which only had questions about science.  The first discovery part was super easy, just hold an interview with your subject and answer all the questions, piece of cake! We had our interview and I went and uploaded my answers, and didn’t think anymore about it, until three days before the second part was due.  While re-reading the answers Mrs. Reynolds provided on the first interview I felt that there were some open ended responses. Granted the way that they were worded were partially to blame, but I felt that she didn’t give enough time to fully think through the last few questions and actually discuss them.  So we conducted a second interview and I got a whole lot more information than I could even discuss in my paper. I suppose this interview went so well because we felt comfortable around each other so she felt that she could say what was really on her mind, which in turn gave me a great start to my final paper. For once I was beginning to understand what Professor Smith meant by being able to communicate science through words, unfortunately the communication of math was significantly  lacking. But not only my communication of science was improving but my communication skills in general were improving as well. I was not comfortable with talking to older people especially my discovery subject.

As it came time to begin our third assignment, I felt confident as to what I  was going to research and discuss in my paper. Unfortunately, after researching my confidence levels drop tremendously. After researching the ozone layer I found so many biased stories that I didn’t think I would ever be able to weed out fact from opinion in time. This is where my critical thinking skills came into play. As I read each journal and article I began to look for numbers that had been researched  multiple times, and facts that seemed continuous throughout all of the journals.  I was beginning to understand how to choose articles that were going to help me make a good solid report instead of a bunch of biased opinions. Once I got my grade back,  I was able to lie some of my doubts to rest, finally I felt that I had communicated science in a way that my professor actually understood. It was not like those science projects we did in high school, I had to take the time to actually look at multiple sources and choose which one was right for my paper.I can't say that I lost my fear of communicating math in word, but  overall I felt that this assignment helped me grow as a learned because it actually got me to think deeper as a learner, instead of just scratching the surface of science.