It is now mid-semester break and a lot has happened.
SCI1501Although one of the purposes of this journal is to help people (especially prospective students) understand what being a Global Challenger is about, I am going to intentionally keep information from you - we weren't told everything at the start so I'm not going to tell you everything before you start.
I now have knowledge of all my assessments this semester and I'm going to share with you information about my first assessed SCI1501 task and the main assessed task. The assessments do change each year - the course is very malleable and each year level so far has had a slightly different experience.
The first one - the flash talk
This was about being able to present information about science in a clear, engaging and content-rich manner within a short time-frame.
Science communication is really one of the key focuses of this unit
On a related note, learning how to effectively give and receive feedback is also a key focus. It's a skill that sounds simple but has hidden complexities and will be useful to you no matter where you go
Main assessment: The Leadership Quest
Easily the most intimidating assessment I will face this year. Some of the work which has evolved from GC assessments includes
https://www.sistersinscience.net/ which aims to increase female engagement through the use of role-models and
https://sockos.com.au/ which allows people to contribute to a UN sustainable development goal by purchasing a pair of socks.
Basically you see a challenge (scale doesn't matter too much) and use the skills you have learnt to address it.
Some of you may know the frustration I felt at not having specialist maths offered at my high school, or you may be aware that my physics class was nearly cancelled. Not my school's fault - it can be hard to dedicate the resources to have that subject taught given the low levels of interest for it. This isn't just a personal issue; it's systemic. Student Family Occupation and Education (SFOE) and SES have disturbingly strong impacts on students choosing math and science subjects. eg. in a 2000 report they found these things:
"the strongest association (between parents' education and subject enrollment) can be seen in the physical sciences,where students whose parents had undertaken higher education were more than twice as likely to be enrolled than those students whose parents had reached middle secondary level" and
"55 per cent of the students in specialist mathematics had parents from the highest educational level." (read more :
https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=lsay_research)
And of course if there aren't enough students to run a class the few students who are interested will miss out, and science will miss out from the continued reduction in diversity and perspectives.
As you may have guessed, I plan to target this issue in my leadership quest.
My other subjects:
Bio is a bit strange because it isn't streamed. So you have people to whom the concepts are mostly revision and others who are seeing everything for the first time. Additionally, in the first few weeks VCE chem was very useful so people who had studied neither chem nor bio were really struggling.
Regardless of studying subjects before hand, there is a lot of content - so if you have done bio before don't get complacent. There are marked post-lectorial quizzes every week and optional follow up quizzes. Many people choose to Google the answers these quizzes. I think this is a good example of how uni is different:this isn't highschool and no-one is going to say "do the optional follow up daily to get a good mark"[I don't actually do that] or anything, so it's really up to you to prioritise your time and workload to ensure you retain concepts. On the other hand, the support and resources are available if you want them - you just need to actively make the choice.
Chem Adv is pretty similar to standard chem except that we have longer labs and bits and pieces of additional conceptual grounding. In the first week it was a very significant advantage to have done VCE physics. This is my most conceptually difficult subject and the one for which (imo) prereadings are most vital. My first lab was the most daunting despite being the most simplistic (titrations) simply because it was solo work and our first experience in the labs (though the person across from me being rushed to hospital partway through didn't help either). It's important to prepare for the labs in advance not just for your grades (there is a prelab quiz) but also so that a) you understand what you're doing and b) you can work efficiently, neatly and save time. We tend to finish and leave before the full four hours are up but I certainly wouldn't rely on that being the case.
Math 1020 was quickly identified as a subject I like and was the clear winner in the first few weeks out of everything expect SCI1501 (which is just a whole different league to anything). The lectures are split into two streams each with a different lecturer. I cannot recommend enough that you find which one suits your learning style and make all 3 of your lectures be with that lecturer. It is very disorientating to switch from one style to another and I personally don't find the other stream anywhere near as engaging. My stream is really about developing intuitive understanding and working with others to debate question answers during the lecture. The other stream takes a slower pace, goes step by step through the formulas and instead has its questions at the end. There's no prereading but I like to work through the lecture notes before lectures.
Other news:- I was elected as the first year GC rep for MASS^3 which is the society for advanced science students. We have a trivia night coming up shortly which should be great
- Time management is being quite difficult especially with the travel time that I have, but I'm learning to make more effective use of that time. I wouldn't consider changing unis to be closer to home for even an instant but it can be draining
- Biology gives you assessments due during the mid-semester break even though you don't attend uni then which kinda sucks
Timeline:- I'll complete the last of my Access Monash Mentor training this month and get to meet my mentees
- SCI1501 students also have events that occur outside normal contact hours. We have had 2 so far (3 if you count the great race - if anyone saw the picture of Star Wars people running round campus that was part of it) and there's another this week