Self-Assessment Survey

I really like hands-on learning. I know most people probably say this and then complain about going out to the Garden or doing Honors projects, but I sincerely love immersing myself and seeing the applicable, tangible side of what I'm learning. I definitely understand your passion for things like botany and the many facets of environmental science, but I can see that most of the class is not as enthused about the science as you are. In reality, their sentiments are unjust and from my conversations with the rest of the class I think the main complaint is that the workload is more than was previously expected. Unfortunately, expectations are powerful things when it comes to most aspects of life and when my fellow classmates and I realized we would have to work harder than we'd thought, well...it didn't go over too well. Nonetheless, as I've said before, I think that the pedagogy is good, the workload informative, and am personally grateful for the opportunities you've given me.

Contrary to the capabilities of the most competent teacher, it takes the interest and token effort of each and every student to achieve classroom goals like cleaning up and maintaining the garden, working on different projects, and creating an amazing exhibition. Luckily, at High Tech High Media Arts, despite the occasional grumblings and murmurs about certain homework assignments and classes, in the end I am confident that all of my classmates are giving a token effort and trying despite their distaste for some aspects of different classes (the specifics of which I'm not sure of).

My experience in Environmental Science has been awesome so far. Although I have not been able to go out to the Garden as much as I'd hoped and though sometimes it's hard to juggle class projects with being gone at my internship, I still have enjoyed what we've learned and the observational aspect of our work. In my lab, I'm performing experiments with bioluminescent organisms that have already been well documented and observed in their natural habitats. This means that although the results can be very intriguing, there isn't any field work involved. The Life in a Cubic Foot project makes up a little for the field work that isn't part of my internship. Of course, it doesn't involve documenting anything novel, just identifying and documenting what has already been discovered--nonetheless, it certainly is better than nothing and I've definitely had a fun time doing it.

Lastly, I would just like to say that the ability to go into my internship twice a week in the afternoons is an amazing opportunity that I would only be able to do in Lia's class at High Tech. Continuing my experiments and learning from the other research that's conducted is one of the best learning experiences I've ever had, and I'm grateful to continue my internship throughout the school year, or at least this semester.