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Reflection Essay
Matt Evans
Freshman inquiry was a good way to help me transition from high school to
college. Its four goals, Communication, Ethical issues and social responsibility, Critical
Thinking, and Diversity of human experience, were taught in a way that made me open
up to the college experience. I came away with a new mindset and
When I first started Freshman Inquiry I thought it would be a waste of time. The
sections had nothing to do with my major and that concerned me. Why would I want to
go to a class and try to succeed if the information being presented had nothing to do with
my future? I was skeptical to say the least. My first term of Ways of Knowing was with
Professor Medevoi. Medevoi’s style of teaching was much different than what I was used
to, and the content being taught backed up my initial thoughts of education I would never
use. During my second term, I was introduced to Professor Perkins. Perkins was more
like my high school teachers in the sense that his lectures weren’t really lectures. His
teaching style was relaxed which made him very easy to get along with. The Natural
sciences course is on par with where I want to go later in my college career and that also
helped me get through the term. I no longer felt pointless to be there. The third term with
Professor Horowitz was about social sciences and it really helped bring the ideas of all
three together. Unlike the first two, Horowitz assignments involved in depth reading,
lecture notes, and essays written in a scholarly manner. Because of these assignments I
realized what Frinq was all about. It wasn’t meant to teach me the about Philosophy,
nature, or how to be a historian. It was about evaluating readings, interoperating ideas,
and bringing my understandings of a topic into the open.
The first goal in the University Studies was communication. “The ability to
express oneself in written form with clarity, critical judgment, orderly thinking, and
complexity of thought” was what I was trying to accomplish. Communication was a
wonderful thing to practice in my first Frinq class with Professor Medevoi. Reading Parts
of Genesis, Antigone, and Nietzsche was a great way to come together and talk about
what is happening in the stories. New ideas and better understandings of the literature
were a common occurrence that opened our minds. The paper I decided to give as an
example was one of the Greek and Israelites regarding both their relationships with the
gods. It was hard to understand how the stories read without really getting into the
paradigm of the people and talking about it in class.
Since communication can also include mathematical reasoning I thought it would
be appropriate to link my natural science project. Drawing conclusions, working with
statistics, and evaluating information, all immediately make me think of my second term
in frinq. We had to do to a project on a topic of science that interested us. Besides having
to use statistics and experiments to back our ideas up, we were left on our own to come
up with a topic. The experiment I chose to go with was to see if people could tell the
difference between tap water, and bottled water. In order to figure out all the variables
associated with this experiment, I needed to think how I would do it, and plan ahead
accordingly. My abstract read:
In this study my goal was to see if people could tell the difference between bottled
water and drinking fountain water. The importance of this test is made clear with
recycling statistics and hypothesis’ suggesting people will drink the fountain
water if it is made clear to them it tastes the same. Collecting materials is
explained followed by testing people that gave data on a satisfaction scaled from
one to ten. This was then able to be charted and understood better with statistics
which showed there was no significant difference between the two.
I really had to work hard on how I would do this experiment, how I would present,
and how I would collect information. The end result was very pleasantly surprising.
Goal number two in the university studies program is ethical issues and social
responsibility. "Students will expand their understanding of the impact and value of
individuals and their choices on society, both intellectually and socially, through group
projects and collaboration in learning communities." Fortunately for us, our class was
very small which resulted in individual learning and allowed friendships to form.
Even with the small class size, we didn’t do many group projects in my three
terms of Frinq. We did however, do one that I put down as an example was a presentation
of Nietzsche. Getting together and researching a topic with a group helped me to
understand how important collaborated responsibilities are. One of the more important
parts was our annotated bibliography. Each person was responsible for their part of the
bibliography, and sent it to me for compiling. Once done we used each others gathered
information to build our single presentation. The experience was a blast.
Ethical issues was a is a well known topic in the social sciences so it was only
right for me to give an example I did on how the social sciences address issues of social
structures and cultural context. The essay references sociologists like Karl Marx and Max
Weber, as well as various historians. Aspects of sociology aid in our understanding of
social problems such as crime, and discrimination that take place in society. The essay
touches on these issues and is a great example of viewing multiple sides of an issue.
Problem solving and investigating are not only a good way to describe the Frinq’s
third goal of Critical Thinking, but they are also great words to describe my second term
in Frinq. Natural Science with Professor Perkins gave many opportunities to better
understand the scientific method and explore the world around us. Questioning our
surroundings with an open mind and willingness to change our current thoughts were
encouraged. I took away more from this class then any of the other ones, because it is the
same area I see myself going in the near future.
Understanding paradigms is an important roll in critical thinking. This new idea
was introduced to me in Professor Horowitz’s class in third term Frinq. A book we read
that dealt with this concept was Sheila Kennedy’s God and Country, American in Red
and Blue. We discussed how she saw the conflict between Puritan and Enlightenment
paradigms and how they influenced the culture war. For this example I chose an essay I
wrote in regards to Kennedy’s views on the culture wars. Kennedy’s comments on the
19th century were talked about in Horowitz’s lectures, which helped the class think about
them from other people’s views.
From the Natural science section I chose a piece I did for my water project again.
This one was a research plan that I put together before the actually experiment took place.
I helped me analyze some facts and compose a reasonable hypothesis prior to any testing
and was a great reference point of facts throughout the time spent collecting data. With
these reference points I could easily explain assumptions and compare my findings to
others.
The University Studies last goal is Diversity of the human experience. The
university explains it, "Students will enhance their appreciation for and understanding of
the rich complexity of the human experience through the study of differences in ethnic
and cultural perspectives, class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and ability." This was
something that I did a lot of while attending PSU. With a rich culture and open
atmosphere, I could learn about other people’s beliefs quiet often, and comfortably.
During the first term of Frinq one of the first things we read was parts of Genesis.
This was a big jump for me because I was really never interested in religious texts. I
learned to appreciate the story for what it was and I enjoyed reading it. Not only reading
can help me experience these different perspectives and I look forward to understanding
them all.
In the sixth week of Professor Horowitz class we started talking about America in
the 60s and 70s and Americas history discipline. These discussions opened up our minds
to what the world was like before we were born, and how globalization altered the way
American thinks. When talking about these topics Horowitz helped us get into the
paradigm of the time, and made us understand what it was like in hard times of the early
20th century.
Overall, Freshman Inquiry was a fun experience. Although some of the things I
felt didn’t pertain to my future academic interests, the writing and research skills I
acquired will help me in the long run.