Uni Stuff > The University Journey Journal
A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
Bri MT:
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.
biologyThe 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 scienceLast 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.
Bri MT:
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
--- End quote ---
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 specificI 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 IndependenceOne 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 lecturersThis 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:
miniturtle rn:
AngelWings:
--- Quote from: miniturtle on August 20, 2018, 01:10:50 pm ---I didn't study VCE / what if they assume I'm as smart as the other year 12s but I'm notThere 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.
--- End quote ---
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.
Bri MT:
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
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