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qtr 2 curricula

honors 221d / math 125 / chem 152 

honors 221d- the science of human values

i know that it's only my second quarter at UW, but i can confidently say that this will be one of my favorite courses of my undergrad experience. professor kc cole challenged me to think about the conjunction of science and human values, an intersection i'd never thought about before, in a way that introduced me to so many concepts, writers, and ideas that have piqued my interest in a million ways. my favorite part about this class was that it didn't restrain us from only thinking about one area of study. throughout the quarter, i constantly had to adapt to learning about AI one week and neuroscience the next, then economics, math, and biology. in addition, for our final project, we were encouraged to create anything we wanted in an area we were passionate about. it was eye-opening to hear from people about what they loved - i could hear their excitement in their voice and it made me that much more excited to immerse myself in their presentation. i left this class with a long list of books to read, a newfound interest in quantum computers, lichens, AI, math, and an appreciation for how science rules our lives and informs the values that we live with every day. by looking at the way that scientists view and study the world, we can learn that values such as empathy, altruism, compassion and cooperation are not separate from science, but rather ingrained into every aspect of our lives. for my final presentation, Virginia and i built a Minecraft server that showcased topics covered in the class: the brain, the origin of life, colony collapse disorder, and our inability to perceive numbers, with the aim to use this server to generate scientific literacy in youth. 
(also, ants are super cool superorganisms. also, read the lives of a cell!)

welcome to the server of honors 221d :)

math 125

after hearing about how terrible math 125 was for both of my roommates, i came into this class with a strict study regiment and a determination to understand. taking advantage of every resource available to me was definitely helpful, as i could learn the same concept through youtube videos, the textbook, and professor bube, and each method would advance my understanding a little bit more. i was really pleased with my grades in the first two midterms, and as im writing this, my final should come out any moment. i do think there's a fine balance, at least to me, between being social and making friends in math and achieving my best grades possible. i definitely sacrificed getting to know my TA and my quiz section for doing an extreme amount of practice exams and problems, and while im happy at the end of the day that i did them, it does leave me wondering what aspects of social life i was missing out on. i think the beginning of the quarter being online gave me no incentive to actually go to class once in-person sessions started, so i just became a hobbit for this class. i still don't know if that was more good or bad.

my final math note sheet... xP

a page from my study guide

chem 152

this quarter of chemistry stretched from concepts that id covered vaguely in high school to brand new material id never even heard of. im really happy that we got to cover thermodynamics in-depth, because although it was everyone's least favorite unit, it's one of my favorite areas of chemistry and i enjoyed pushing myself to understand every concept thoroughly instead of just memorizing the equations, even though both methods would have given me the same academic result. i feel like i was a little spoiled last quarter by li's tests because they were all computational, and keller's exams definitely felt like more 'college' exams in that they required me to build on existing knowledge and think in new ways to solve problems. it was a rude awakening at first, but it's definitely better to have exposure now than in a higher level class. 

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