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March 28, 2024, 07:13:33 pm

Author Topic: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership  (Read 26164 times)

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Joseph41

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2018, 01:12:21 pm »
+1
mass^3 bbq and downball competition

More information required.

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Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #16 on: July 23, 2018, 03:37:14 pm »
+6
More information required.

So you know how there's a club or society for everything in uni? 
mass^3 is the society for monash advanced science students and I'm on the commitee representing first year GC students.

We planned this social event for our members to welcome them back to 2nd semester (although we have now changed it to free pizza instead of free bbq due to the weather) & encourage bonding in the advanced science community. We're also giving a small prize to the person who wins the downball comp.

In the past mass^3 has had significantly more engagement from research students so my main responsibility is to try and engage more global challenges  students in these events & mass^3 in general. It's a bit ironic that my role is needed given that the GC course explicitly promotes network building.

K888

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #17 on: July 24, 2018, 12:22:26 pm »
+1
Quote from: miniturtle
Finally, while writing this I opted out from the montrack program. It's nice that first year students have older students call them and check up on them, but I don't need it and I'd rather avoid the random phone calls.
You know, I didn't even realise you could opt out. This knowledge would have been useful last year! I just added the phone number to my contacts and ignored the calls every time they came haha

petermur7

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #18 on: July 24, 2018, 04:41:52 pm »
0
WOW!!! I'm full of energy after reading your posts. Looking forward to future updates.

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #19 on: July 24, 2018, 09:19:40 pm »
0
WOW!!! I'm full of energy after reading your posts. Looking forward to future updates.

Thankyou for the feedback!
I'll make sure to update soon :)

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #20 on: August 19, 2018, 05:50:55 pm »
+9
I had written up a few paragraphs week 3 Thursday  (week 4 for the high school students) but I have been able to find that document so I'm starting from scratch again.
biology
The first year global challenges students tend to hang out at Wholefoods (a very budget friendly vego place at the top of campus center, it has couches and stuff that we all sit on) and it was during one of the conversations here that I was persuaded to switch from BIO1022 (Second semester of standard bio) to BIO1042 (environmental biology).


I wanted to check with Science Student Services before changing units (even though I already knew it worked fine with my course progression plan) and I only had livestream lectures on Monday so I ended up talking to SSS Wednesday after my 8am BIO1022 lecture. At this point, you may be asking "why did you attend an 8 am lecture for a subject you're leaving?" and the answer to that, is because I am me ( 1. If I didn't transfer I would be glad not have missed it 2. If I did transfer, I would be missing out on learning this specific bio content...).


The good thing about seeing SSS at 9am is that there is absolutely no queue or wait time, so I was in and out in about 2 minutes as there were no issues. Since this was week 2, I could still change units on the Web Enrollment System and I did. This is when things started to get worrying. Since this was week 2, and labs for enviro had started I couldn't self enrol into a lab, and the first year biology office wasn't open yet. Furthermore, I couldn't yet access the enviro bio Moodle (online thing where you get infomration, view lectures/prereading, hand in assignments etc.) which means I couldn't do any pre-lab inductions. This was the last day that enviro bio labs would run for the week, so I made a decision: I went to the lab anyway. I told the staff there about my situation and there were some extra administrative hoops to jump through, but in the end I was officially enrolled into that lab session and had access to everything I needed. 

Environmentally biology labs are held in a classroom connected to the Jock Marshall reserve, and being able to casually look out onto the vegetation through the windows running all around the room really helps me feel at peace and gain that nice "relaxed focused attention" state. Even just listening to the introductions from everyone reassured me that I was in the right place, and once I learned that there were turtles in the reserve.....
Still, my favourite aspect is actually going out into the reserve, walking the paths between the trees and hearing wildlife calling out. I've always been at home in nature, and suspect that my wellbeing would be significantly worse if I was studying somewhere without much of it.


Everyone in the lab has a designated table that they work with for the semester, and each table was assigned a species to track over the semester to see if/how its behaviour was being influenced by global warming. My table was assigned Magpie Larks, which we were pretty happy with as they are fairly common and easy to find. The only problem is, since they are birds they have a tendency to fly away from you when you get close to take a half-decent photo (slightly envious of the people who are tracking trees).


In that first lab session we also started a leaf decomposition experiment, where we have submerged leaf bags containing leaves from three species to investigate how decomposition varies across species and location in the JMR lake. After that, we had a no-lab week that we were encouraged to spend tracking our species and writing a reflective report. I've had one more lab, and in that one we collected water from the lake and identified the invertebrate species in our samples (they were put back in the lake where we found them), which was really enjoyable. One of my friends even got a yabbie in their sweep net, and no turtles were caught (the bags were pretty small so it would've been extremely unlikely anyway).

Only issue with the JMR labs so far has been that the reserve being relatively far from the main section of campus makes it almost impossible to get to my GC workshop on time. The other GC-er in the lab and I even tried using the free bikeshare system and still didn't avoid lateness. I'm sure we'll eventually find a system that works.

chemistry(CHM1052)
Chem lectures are my favourite at the moment. I really enjoy learning about mechanisms and spectroscopy was my favourite topic in VCE. It helps that organic chemistry is strongly connected to biology, but more than anything I enjoy the problem solving aspects and actually thinking rather than just memorising content.

One of the chem lectures clashes with my environmental biology lab, which is unfortunate (and I had to send emails saying I was aware of this, couldn't claim special consideration due to this etc. before being enrolled in the lab), but hasn't really caused me any difficulties so far.

Chem's also the only  subject where I haven't lost any marks yet this semseter, which is interesting given that biology has ALWAYS been my strength  (disclaimer: this will change once I submit my lab report and my only marks so far are from prelec quizes). My first lab was making a specific ester then analysing it (pretty simple stuff). Unfortunately, my flask broke part way through the experiment, so my percentage yield is going to be pretty poor, but at least I can discuss that in the discussion.


maths(MTH1030)

I expected to be thrown into the deep end with this subject, but everything has been explained starting at a very foundational level and building up, which is nice. The tutorials are all centered around group work, and my table has been working together cohesively - to the point that when the tutor tried to seperate us last week we kind of refused and just kept working together. Everything was going so well that I was sad that I wouldn't be doing any more math units after this one - until the assignment. If you've got great memory and pay attention to the random thoughts thread you might remember that I lost hours of work on this when I tried to start it early. Further efforts to work on it were hindered by visiting a family member in hospital (they've been discharged now), and so I was stressed, dehydrated, and tired when I tried to work on it in the week it was due. I certainly haven't gotten full marks on this, but hopefully I did ok.  I did learn from it, I'm better at Mathematica and maths now, and I can do better in the future - so that's the main thing I guess. 





Impact through science
Last semester focused on science communication and leadership theory, and although this is important, I'm keen to dig into applying science to policy this semester. For one of the assignments in this topic we're working with people from the class that haven't been our teammates yet, and this new team looks very promising so far - I'm keen to see what we can achieve. We also have another round of student led seminars coming up, and I've been working on my leadership quest in the background. Djuke (the unit co-ordinator who we all immensely respect) wants us to disagree with eachother more this semester in class discussions, and I'm interested to see how this turns out and impacts class dynamics. I can't see it devaluing our relationships, as we have high levels of trust, understanding, and respect, but I suspect it will add an extra dimension to them.      More updates on the leadership quest to come at the end of this week.



« Last Edit: August 19, 2018, 05:53:54 pm by miniturtle »

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #21 on: August 20, 2018, 01:10:50 pm »
+9
You might be thinking "What kind of double posting insanity is this? miniturtle posted less than 24 hours ago, surely they aren't justified in making another one??" but I assure you, that I am in fact, justified.
First of all, it's only 10am and I've already had a nutritious breakfast (s/o to Poet for reminding AN about healthy eating), watched 2 lectures, completed a quiz, and sent off an important email - so I'm in productivity mode right now, which makes it the best time to post.
Second of all, (and most importantly) you're allowed to double post in your own journey journal
And thirdly, I owe a reply to a user who kindly gave permission for me to post my response to their message here

Quote
Hey,

I was wondering how you find Monash as university? What was your experience like in the first year?

Thanks


There's so many different angles that make up a university so I'm going to split this into 3 subsections:

1. The physical environment
2. The academic stuff
3. Everything else


The physical environment

science specific
I really can't complain here. The Advanced Science common room tends to be filled with research students (and usually not first years either) so I don't have too much experience with that environment, but I've certainly found it useful to have access to 24/7 study spaces in terms of both that common room and the Science Student Lounge on the rare occasion that I've arrived early enough for the libraries to be closed.

The first time I went into the Science Student Lounge I thought having all the quotes and everything was pretty inspiring but now I'm mainly glad of the whiteboards everywhere which are great for group work. It's also just a nice space to work on your own with ambient science occurring in the background (hearing random snatches of science jargon from conversation, science memes flicking through the display on the far wall etc.).

In general, I've found that the buildings etc. tend to be at a very high standard. Not everything is quite as pristine or high tech as the buildings they show off on Open Day, but in general it is a good built environment.

As I mentioned in the last post, having nature around is highly beneficial to me. I tend to intentionally walk down Rainforest Walk rather than cutting through the Menzies building (the tall building with the revolving doors at the front of campus) because walking with trees and ferns on either side helps reduce my anxiety and ground me. I also like studying at "the med pond" (small pond, trees, grass, near biology buildings) and lake near the Jock Marshall Reserve (lots of birds calling and flying around, trees, grass, small lake, near res buildings) for this reason.


I used to spend a decent of time at uni melb in VCE due to VCESS and KLD and in terms of comparison here's my personal opinion:
- UniMelb's old buildings look nicer and more archetecturalilly interesting than Monash's
- Monash's buildings emphasise sustainability far more (eg. Monash as a rule requiring that new buildings are built to at least a 5 start sustainability level whereas afaik unimelb doesn't have this rule
- Monash Clayton has more emphasis on nature and than unimelb


I have also discovered this year that I really like the "isolated campus" thing, where Monash is very much its own hub and not integrated into the urban environment. This isn't the case for everyone, and I know that for some people the blend of city and campus is great (especially for convenience) but I like the vibe of having a seperate campus, the solidarity of people hastily typing on their laptops on the bus during exam period etc.

You'll find that both Monash and UniMelb have lots on campus in terms of daily living,with banks, food outlets, supermarkets, an abundance of coffee places etc. Monash probably has more, but UniMelb is closer to the CBD so that makes sense.

2. The academic stuff
I'm not going to make any comparisons to other universities for this section, simply because I don't know what other unis are like.

Scary Independence
One of the quotes that some uni students strongly resonate with is
"The best thing about uni is that no one makes you do anything. The worst thing about uni is that no one makes you do anything."
I've always been pretty independent in my learning so I don't resonate with this too much, but the important thing is what this quote isn't. Often people interpret this is:
" At uni you have freedom because no one tells you what to do. But because no one tells you what to do your (academic) life falls apart"
This has NOT been my experience. 

As a highschool student, your hand is held through your academic journey. If you try to go down the wrong path, refuse to take another step, or start walking backwards you'll be pulled into line and forced to walk in the right direction. In uni, your hand is not held but you still have a tour guide showing you the way. Throughout last semester I received emails to the effect of "Some of you have not taken path A. We recommend that you do this for x,y,z reasons. Here's a map, compass, and GPS co-ordinates showing showing you the path and how to get on it. If you need navigation lessons, here's some info here."   or in other language "we told you, like 5 times already that there would be online quizzes every week. Please do them as revision so you're ready for the exam at the end of the year, we have stats showing how this improves your grades. Here's where you can get info on the quizzes and access them, here's who to contact if you have issues, here's where to go if you have trouble adjusting to uni life."

Most units won't go quite that far, but you're certainly not thrown into the wilderness with nothing. Some of the things you have free access to are:
- The unit guide. This is basically the study design but less detailed content-wise and more detailed assignment wise
- Weekly Moodle quizzes. Most (science) unit will have a compulsory quiz every week and an optional quiz every week to help ensure you stay on top of content and get practice
- Tutorial sessions. This gives you practice applying the content, and may or may not be compulsory and/or include marked tests
- Moodle forums. Very underutilised, but you can ask a question on here and everyone in your unit(aka subject) will see it including your lecturers, usually anyone can respons to these but sometimes only staff can
- PASS sesssion (only for particular subjects, but I think all of the main 1st year science ones). Book yourself into a weekly session where older students who did well in the unit will help you out and answer your questions.
- Drop in session. There are scheduled times where you can randomly drop in to the chem/bio/math (I don't know anythig about psych or earth atmosphere and environment) building and get help. Usually there is also an option to book one on one time
- How to sessions at the Hargrave Andrew library. Want more guidance on writing scientific reports, making presentations, researching etc? Just book into a session
- If you have an ongoing condition affecting your study you're encouraged to speak to disability services and they'll help you out with alternate assessments, extra support etc. as required
emailing lecturers
This is overdone. Most of the time, it is preferred (and you are better off) using Moodle instead
In my experience, if someone fails, the vast majority of the time it's because they are ignoring the support available and not attending lectures, labs, tutorials etc.

They aren't going to force you to go to your classes or call home because they are concerned (so that you're dragged onto the right path by your parents), but you're told what you can do to help yourself (so you can find your own way down the path).



I didn't study VCE /  what if they assume I'm as smart as the other year 12s but I'm not

There are people who take bio/chem/physics without having studied these subjects at a senior highschool level. Do they find it more diffiicult than people with the prior experience? Yes, they generally do. Is there anything preventing them from obtaining high marks? No, there is not. They'll probably need to work harder due to not having already done this (subject specific) work, but if they are dedicated they'll be fine and basically on par with the others after first semester anyway.

For all you interstate students moving to glorious Victoria, don't worry, it isn't significantly more difficult for you. Sometime you'll find a topic easier, and sometimes you'll find a topic harder. Generally if somthing is "assumed knowledge" it will be made clear to you that you need to learn about that in your own time if you dont already know it (you won't go to an exam and "surprise! VCE is needed here"). As an example, in a semi-recent chemistry lecture we were asked how familiar we are with peak splitting. I had the gall to say " we should all know and be able to apply the n+1 rule". The interstate students immediately responded (somewhat derisively) and the lecturer quickly taught us the rule at the end of the lecture.

I've found that things tend to be taught from a foundation - up perspective, so although the levels are quickly climbed compared to what you're used to in high school, you will be able to go back through the materials in your own time and use them to figure things out if you don't get it the first time.


3. The other stuff
This section could be 5000 words or empty depending on the choices you make. If you want to join a club or society around your course, your major, your political views, going to the snow, your sport, a nationality, a religon, liking Disney, being vegan (I also know non-vegans who have joined this for the food), being a muggle (I wish I knew non-muggles who had joined this), supporting a non-profit, .... go ahead, clubs and societies are always happy to welcome new people into their midst and organise events for their members. If you don't want to, you don't have to - but you're probably not making a sound economic decision in terms of free food offerred across the semester.

If you want to represent Monash in sports or outreach to highschools you can, or you can choose not to.

Likewise, networking events, overseas exchange, public lectures, live music (most Wednesdays), free counselling, and free mental health first aid courses are available. But you can choose to prioritise your time differently if that's not what you want.



One of the things I like about Monash is that I feel that they believe in their values and try to enact them more than most other unis. I'm not saying that they're perfect (they're not)  but they really do try.    This could also be part of being in a small course, needing to sit an interview to get in etc. but I don't feel like I'm only valued for my money from fees or the grades I get, and I've never felt that way.

Joseph41

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #22 on: August 20, 2018, 01:24:58 pm »
+6
miniturtle rn:


Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

AngelWings

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #23 on: August 23, 2018, 02:17:51 pm »
+6
I didn't study VCE /  what if they assume I'm as smart as the other year 12s but I'm not
There are people who take bio/chem/physics without having studied these subjects at a senior highschool level. Do they find it more diffiicult than people with the prior experience? Yes, they generally do. Is there anything preventing them from obtaining high marks? No, there is not. They'll probably need to work harder due to not having already done this (subject specific) work, but if they are dedicated they'll be fine and basically on par with the others after first semester anyway.
Hear, hear! Living proof here - didn't do VCE Bio. Went on to do an extended major in biology (genetics) and now in Honours (genetics). Anything is possible.
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2018, 06:29:51 pm »
+11
This week has been completely hectic.
So far the earliest I've stopped doing uni work is 18:45, and as I type this I am on the second-last train I'll be catching to get home to get home today. 

I had my 3rd leadership dialogue for this week at 8:30 today and found it highly valuable and engaging.  I'm learning how to do this "networking" thing - which seems to get easier overtime - and the leadership dialouges are a good place to practice. 

I'm not happy with the mark I got for my first MTH1030 assignment,  but I guess that's to be expected when you're still working until the last minute.  The midsemester test seemed significantly easier,  so hopefully that lifts my marks.

In chem we've recently been working on an IDEA (student-led) lab activity.  In the first week of it we were given a white powder and instructed to figure out what it was.  This was by spending "chemistry dollars" on our choice of IR, spectroscopy etc. Then we confirmed the presence of functional groups using wet tests (mixing w/ chemicals, heating, pH testing etc.). This week we then synthesised that compound.  I've been working with a good group of people and enjoyed this activity the most out of our labs; hopefully we do ok in the write-up.

Enviro bio has been focused on plant adaptations, and some of it is knowledge I already had from the old bio study design.  I wish I had been able to make it to more of the lectures,  we had a good lecturer and I like the content.  Walking into the lab and having plants everywhere was fantastic.  I wish I had been less stressed and thereby been more able to appreciate it,  but on the other hand it did help with my stress. 


I've started downloading lectures onto my phone for the trip to uni, as I don't really take notes for enviro bio or maths (or chem  really). I find that I don't use the notes I take down,  so why divert my attention from the lecture to meticulously record the information?  I can always rewatch a lecture if I need to, or go through the provided notes. 


This time of year tends to be intense for all students & I encourage everyone to reach out to each other.  Many of us are finding things hard - but things are somehow better when you face them with a supportive community and allow yourself to not feel isolated

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #25 on: September 13, 2018, 07:13:10 am »
+7
R U OK day update
one thing I'm grateful for: It's hard to limit myself to one thing,  but today I'm grateful for the atarnotes community.  I think it's petty amazing that we've united from across multiple states and incredibly varying backgrounds and ambitions to support each others education. You guys lift me up,  and have helped me believe in myself. I'm grateful to be here.

I'm grateful for everyone who has been trusting and open enough to tell others about their journeys, and remind us all that we aren't alone.  Sometimes I see facets of my experiences in your journals and it helps me - I'm not sure how or why.

One thing I'm working on to improve my wellbeing:
I'm learning to say "no" to opportunities if I don't have time for them,  which helps reduce my stress.

where I'm at:
I've been very stressed and anxious recently,  and have had some periods of low mood. I suspect I'm somewhere around the "mental health problem" bit of the spectrum. (mentally healthy> mental health problem > mental health disorder.) That being said,  I feel like I'm getting better at using coping strategies and being resilient. I think that next week will be better than this one,  (and the week after that will be midsemester break!) and that next year will be better than this year.  That alone tells me that I'm going better than some of the places my headspace has been in the past - I've been experiencing an upwards trend (although sometimes it zigzags) for several years now,  which is a great position to be in. 

A big part of that change has been from learning to trust and open up to people again.  I'm still someone who will say "I'm ok" when I'm a mess,  but sometimes now I'll expand on that and explain where I'm really at and what's been on my mind.  I'll always be grateful for the friends, teachers,  and counsellor who helped me with this.


Best of luck to all of you on your mental health journeys - and if you ever want/need to reach out to someone about your mental space (stressed, panicky,  down, suicidal... anything) I'm here .  I would also strongly encourage you to reach out to a professional - especially for emergency situations such as being (or being worried about a friend being) suicidal. 

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #26 on: September 24, 2018, 08:38:19 pm »
+7
Correction to my previous post: I meant 8:45 / 20:45

Hey,

It's midsem break - which I really needed.

I have a bit of a love/dislike relationship with maths in that maths is my lowest scoring subject but also the one that I'm learning the most in. It stresses me out, because although I'm passing all my assessments I'm used to getting higher scores than I'm seeing here, and the assignments require a lot of work. I handed in an assignment on Thursday and I've got another one to complete over midsem. Hopefully I continue to learn from them and maybe even get better at them.

In chem we've recently been working on an IDEA (student-led) lab activity.  In the first week of it we were given a white powder and instructed to figure out what it was.  This was by spending "chemistry dollars" on our choice of IR, spectroscopy etc. Then we confirmed the presence of functional groups using wet tests (mixing w/ chemicals, heating, pH testing etc.). This week we then synthesised that compound.  I've been working with a good group of people and enjoyed this activity the most out of our labs; hopefully we do ok in the write-up.

Yeah, I'm happy with this.

I thought I wouldn't like inorganic chemistry as much, but it has actually been pretty good/interesting so far - and I can also see this knowledge being useful in the future. I think that's part of my problem with maths - I know I'm not doing anymore units after 1030 and can't really see the future applications yet.

Enviro bio has been it's dependable self. It's sad to see the unit drawing to a close, but also great that we have (very briefly) looked at stats in bio. I want to get to the point in my uni life where I'm expected to know, for example,  what a t-test is and how to calculate p-values. After all, isn't quantifying uncertainty a key component of science?    Especially in a field such as conservation where variable control is very difficult.

Impact through science has been hectic but good. Global leaders week was challenging (three leadership dialogues in one week!), which is part of why I was stressed during my last entry, but also very valuable. I feel like I'm starting to get a grip on this whole "networking" thing. We had our last student led seminar (homework for the team running it, in class for everyone) and critical thinking task (homework) last week, so it'll be interesting to see what happens next. I am very aware of how close week 12 - and therefore leadership quest submission - is, and a bit apprehensive about that. We'll see how it goes.


In other news, I ran for a position on next year's mass^3 committee and got it (so we have no 1st year rep anymore because I can't hold two positions at once, but I get to stick around for a while longer). We've got two 1st year GC students on the committee now, and we'll get another 1st year co-ordinator next year, which means we'll have pretty good GC representation.
There are also a couple of 1st year GC students presenting at the mass^2 event on Monday, and hopefully that also increases the inter-course connections between GC and research

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #27 on: October 29, 2018, 03:32:33 pm »
+11

Unit planning
I've decided that I won't take the marine biology unit (and a prereq for it) so that I have space to do more maths.  I still like biology and want to be a marine biologist but the thought of dropping maths given how much I've been learning was sitting very uncomfortably with me.  I'm also of the view that to be a good scientist I should better at maths than I currently am. 

    I've also realised that a unit I want to take next year - Biological Chrmistry - has BIO1022 (standard bio, which I left for enviro bio) as a prerequisite. I'm confident that I have the necessary level of biology understanding (last week I was helping a friend understand their BIO1022 content and before I left the content was prior knowledge).  I'm just going to put the unit in the enrolment system & hope it works. If it doesn't,  I'll talk to the coordinator and try to convince them.

Access Monash Mentoring
I've finished all of my mentoring and said goodbye to the students and staff.  I was really lucky to get a school with good students and a great teacher.
Spoiler
They bought boxes of cchocolate for us and I didn't have the heart to tell them I was vegan so I passed them onto the Global Challenges unit co-ordinator since her role to us students is similar in some ways to my role for the year 9s/10s
It seems strange to think that that's all done,  and that next year I'll most likely be doing VCE mentoring.

SCI1502 - Impact Through Science
Even more strange to think that I've had my last GC class for the year. We bought gifts for Djuke (GC co-ordinator) and had our presentations on our leadership quests.  I'm incredibly proud of my course-mates and what they've achieved.  Not only in the real world,  but in terms of personal development.
things people have been working on
- sustainable fashion (environment)
- Starting their own ethical clothes business (environment/human rights)
- Starting their own biochar buisiness (environment)
- Starting their own bike servicing business  (environment/health)
- facilitating effective altruism (empowerment)
- permaculture (environment)
- foreign aid (human rights)
- art therapy (mental health)
- menstrual taboo (environment/empowering)
- marine conservation research (environment)
- marine conservation outreach (environment)
- life skills/communication (empowering)
- breaking the impossible (empowering)
- mental health (empowering)
- student sleep deficit (empowering)
- sustainability at Monash (environment)
- composting at Monash (environment)
- STEM SES gap (social justice) <- me
- science in primary schools (empowering)
- attention economy (empowering)
- plastic pollution (environment)
- combating perfectionism (empowering)
- affordable sign language classes @ monash (empowering/social justice)
- influencing identity to enact change (environment/social justice/human rights)
Next year we'll all be running our own buisinesses which, to me,  is a bit intimidating.  I'll definitely be working on that during the holidays (would love to get it running in December but that's a bit optimistic). Crazy to think where I was a year ago and where I'll be next year in terms of this stuff.

The STEM camp I'm planning is on the agenda for school council tomorrow so fingers crossed for that.  I've started collecting details of undergraduate STEM students who want to volunteer for it & an email has gone out to teachers.  Really glad that we've settled on the dates - so much easier to plan now.

Exams
I had my advanced chemistry exam today & it didn't feel very advanced - the practice exams were significantly more difficult. I'm still glad for the revision I did,  because I have a much better unattractive and knowledge of some of the concepts than I did a week ago. Me being me, I'll have foolish errors scattered throughout it but hopefully my score is alright.
    I'm glad that I've conditioned myself to feel energetic and positive on exam mornings - probably one of the better decisions I made in VCE. I'm not sure yet how I'll adjust that for my math exam being at 6pm,  but I'm sure I'll manage.
   I've got no more exams this week so I'll be doing lots of preperation for maths (and a little bit of bio prep). I've also signed up to help with a highschool tour of Monash & I plan on attending some of the GC honours presentations. 

That's all from me for the moment.  I've had some ups and downs in my mental space but seeing the year 12s stressing reminds me to have perspective.  I was so stressed about my scores, then I achieved the ATAR I wanted and it didn't feel significant anyway.  I've tried to take more of a "learning, not achieving" approach to uni & I think I'm getting better at that.

Best of luck

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #28 on: November 06, 2018, 09:53:23 pm »
+9
I think it's fair to say I've spent a more time on VCE exams than my uni exams this week, but I'm pretty confident that I'll get alright scores and am happy to have made that decision. That does, however, leave a bit of a conundrum on what this entry should be about.

I guess some basic updates:
Last Friday I left my laptop charger behind at an event after loaning it to someone and not remembering to request it back. I got it back today, which was great but also I spent more than 3 hours travelling to have less than 5 minutes at uni.
On Monday I attended a math revision session & I didn't ask any questions because my practice exam attempt was on my laptop (so I didn't know what questions I had strugggled with) but it was good to go anyway. I studied with a friend afterwards & I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with the exam now.
In the end I didn't attend any of the honours presentations :( but if I really want to find out more I could always contact some of them and ask about it - the higher year levels of GC have always been very supportive of us first years.

As for the rest of this entry, this is going to be less course-focused and more personal so feel free to skip :)
I wasn't quite sure what to focus this section on, but in the end I picked my maths journey since it's somewhat relevant to VCE students now
probably more backstory than really warranted in this
Like many kids I suppose, I liked being around my mum. So when she was studying (accounting) at home, I would often be sitting next to her & in my boredom I would play with the scientific calculator on the table - trying to make sentences from  "sin" "cos" "tan" "log" etc. Sometimes I'd ask what particular things meant, and depending on the difficulty mum might explain it to me.

I guess this is why when I was doing maths in primary school it never seemed threatening or scary. I associated only positive memories with it with it (except for that time I only got 39/40 on a maths test and broke down crying in front of my classmates (I was that student) ) and it wasn't very difficult. Overtime I got used to making more mistakes, and English was my strongest subject, but rarely if ever did I have difficulty understanding maths concepts. Teachers said they'd deliver extended work but well, teachers have multiple classes and a range of students in each class. They never got around to it. I was frequently frustrated by the slow pace of school mathematics & felt that many years had been wasted not learning anything. So when the advanced maths class for year 10 maths clashed with units 1&2 of biology, I talked the school into letting me take biology and attend a standard math class, but I'd learn and be assessed on the advanced content through teaching myself & getting the other class' tests.

That worked out ok, but then when I started units 1&2 of methods next year I didn't know how to ask for help. Afterall, wouldn't it be hypocritical of me to not easily understand all of the concepts when I'd been complaining about school maths being easy? I'd been learning without a teacher in the previous year, so why couldn't I just do that this year? In the final exam we had, I didn't use a summary book and I borrowed someone else's CAS 10 minutes before the exam started yet scored 100%. That settled it then, I didn't actually need help or ask questions when it came to maths - I could do it all on my own.

At the start of next year I talked to a friend who also had aptitude for maths. We agreed that it didn't matter which one of us got dux (since we assumed it'd most likely be one of us) because we'd both do well on the exam anyway. Throughout the year I encouraged them to study and prepare for SACs, we worked through problems together, worked out short cuts and coded programs to use on our CASs. They still didn't do nearly as much practice as me, but this was someone who had learnt some VCE math content in year 8 for fun.

When it came time for the first SAC I had already completed all of the relevant questions in Checkpoints and felt quite confident. That changed. My teacher, it turned out, had a knack for creating problems more difficult than even MAV. Some of the questions were very reasonable, but my confidence shattered like glass and I couldn't think. I needed the answer from part a) to complete the rest of the question - but the solve function and my mind just weren't cutting it. Towards the end I finally figured it out, and rushed the rest of the questions; but not before breaking down in class when the teacher noticed me staring at the front page and asked if I was ok. At that point I wasn't even seeing the question, I was seeing my future rushing away from me. If I couldn't even do remotely well on this first SAC, then why should I do well in methods at all? I wouldn't. And I was confident so my other subjects I was confident in? Nope. I must be destined to perform poorly in those as well. My future seemed written in stone - I would be the great disapointment who showed a spark of potential and self-immolated in it. I got 53% on that SAC - my first SAC of year 12 (not the kind of thing you usually hear from people who got 98 ATARs but it's the type of thing you should probably hear more often).

After that SAC, I struggled to believe in my mathematical ability but was still too stubborn and self-concious to ask for help. I would answer questions well in class and when it came to the SACs I would be consumed by doubt and forgetfulness - which resulted in making a lot of "stupid errors". Over the course of the year it became clear that my aforementioned friend would get rank 1, despite me explaining concepts or questions to them more commonly than the reverse.


 In the revision lectures I went to I was the one answering questions, and a lecturer (not AN this was a school organised one) told me I'd probably get 45+. (That would've been nice.) Finally it was exam 1 day. I'd completed lots of practice exams and learnt from them, so I was getting around 100% on exam one and a bit lower on exam 2. I walked into the year 12 study room to wish people good luck and my friend/rank 1 told me I was going to be annoyed at them. I learnt that they had not done any preperation. That they had only written a sentence in their english exam, and were "screwed already so why bother trying". 

They were wrong - "annoyed" wasn't the most accurate description of my emotions at that point in time.

I worked my way through the exam, and attempted the last question early so I knew how to pace myself for the rest of the exam. My answer didn't work with VCAAs graph (it was actually the right answer, VCAAs graph was just weird) so I crossed it out and tried again. And again. And again. And in that moment, the graph was almost like the graph at the start of my first maths SAC.

This is not a story where I get a 45+ study score for methods. Because I didn't. I only got a B+ on that exam - and that alone would have been enough to make 45+ impossible.

This is a story about how I went home and cried, realising that my study score wouldn't amount to what maybe it could have been. Realising that my SAC scores would be low and probably my exam 1 score as well. It's a story about after hours of failing to do anything remotely productive I practiced math problems through my tears until they went away. I did better on exam 2 than exam 1.

When I got my ATAR my main reaction was disapointment at my methods score - I scored a C+ for my SACs.
It meant I would never tutor methods. It meant I wasn't a maths person. It meant I was less than I thought I was.
I'm not usually a vindicative person, but I was glad that rank 1 didn't dux methods

In my sem 1 maths subject, MTH1020, I cruised at the start and stopped putting in any reasonable effort in towards the end (I got bored because the content felt too easy and familiar). I still got a decent score, but it was certainly less than my potential. In my sem 2 maths subject MTH1030 I have not been cruising. I've been reminding myself that I'm here to learn - not to already know everything.

Now when I look at my maths scores, it means I'm learning. I'm trying. And so what if I don't full-mark the exam? That's just a reminder that I can keep learning and making progress.

It has taken a while, but my methods score doesn't mean all that much to me now. Maybe it was even a good thing - maybe without wanting to "prove myself" after methods I wouldn't have taken MTH1030 and wouldn't have the opportunity to do more maths next year.


The takeaways for year 12s reading this:
- it's ok if your  exam 1 desn't go as well as planned, there's always exam 2
- it's ok if your study score isn't what you wanted it to be
- it's ok if you feel a whole bunch of emotions about it anyway
- those emotions change overtime
- it's healthy to let go a bit of wanting to look smart / not wanting to look unintelligent


Best of luck to all of you :)

(questions are allowed if you ever have them)

AngelWings

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #29 on: November 06, 2018, 10:57:56 pm »
+4
On Monday I attended a math revision session & I didn't ask any questions because my practice exam attempt was on my laptop (so I didn't know what questions I had strugggled with) but it was good to go anyway. I studied with a friend afterwards & I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with the exam now.
In the end I didn't attend any of the honours presentations :( but if I really want to find out more I could always contact some of them and ask about it - the higher year levels of GC have always been very supportive of us first years.
I'm sure these Honours students would be more than happy to discuss their presentations; I know I would.

Also, with regards to MTH1030 (I assume by the tense you're finishing with it soon), it might be comforting to know that I've been down that rabbit hole before and struggled in that unit too. You're not alone in that mentality, but, as you said, it's definitely a humbling experience to really learn more than anything.

Good luck with the rest of your exams. :)
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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