In my opinion, I feel that the field trips for the program were my favorite experiences in the Earth, Life & Time program. In semester one, Fall 2005, I attended a field trip where myself and other students explored the different geology and fossils of various sites in Virginia and West Virginia. I enjoyed this field trip very much because the sites we visited were not in national parks or other areas none for containing fossils. We stopped alongside highways, which were bordered by different types of rock including shale, mudstone, and sandstone. Contained within these rocks we found many different types of fossils including trilobites, coral polyps, and remains of ammonoids. This field trip was very interesting because I realized that fossils can be found everywhere, and illustrates how widely dispersed these organisms were. In semester two, Spring 2006, I attended the field trip to the National Museum of Natural History. At the museum, we looked through different exhibits that reinforced the issues we had been discussing in lectures especially the one's about dinosaurs. This field trip was very educational, but very fun at the same time. Walking through the museum with Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck, who are both very knowledgeable about the exhibits in the museum, was a fantastic experience because they were able to describe the exhibits in better detail than the museum had offered. In semester three, Fall 2006, I attended the field trip to the Marian Koshland Museum of the National Academy of the Sciences. This field trip was probably the one I enjoyed the most because it had many topics that we discussed in lecture, including diseases and climate change, but also contained information that I had learned about during my biology class. I enjoyed the exhibits the museum offered especially because as I am hoping to be a physician I have a great interest in areas like disease and gene expression. In addition to the many interesting exhibits the Koshland Museum offered, it also had many different interactive displays, which made it fun and easy to experience what the exhibit was about. The field trips I attended were very fun and interesting, and greatly reinforced information I had learned in both colloquium and my other classes.
Though we did many small out-of-class projects for Earth, Life & Time, the one I enjoyed the most was during the second semester, Spring 2006. For this project, we traced our family history back from present day to the time of the Roman Empire, and beyond. I enjoyed this project because it was interesting to see where my ancestors were from when they were alive. Normally, when I refer to my family heritage I rarely think back further than my great-grandparents. This project allowed me to trace my family history, and learn much more about my heritage than I would have ever imagined. It was interesting as well to see that many of my fellow students shared very similar and also very different family heritages' than my own.
We discussed many interesting things about different topics in colloquium, but the subject material I found most interesting was the lecture discussing the origins of disease. I enjoyed this lecture the most because it was very health-oriented, which greatly interests me. Another point that was made during this lecture is how important the origin and evolution of diseases is, because we will never understand how to develop vaccines and antibiotics without understanding how diseases evolve. There were many salient points made during this lecture, but it was this last one that affected me the most.
I enjoyed many of the supporting courses I took for Earth, Life & Time especially History 110, and English 101. I enjoyed History 110 because I have always had an interest in the history of the great ancient civilizations including Egypt, Greece, and Rome. This class discussed the history of the ancient Mediterranean, which I really enjoyed both because of the material and my TA. My TA made the discussions very interesting by not only reviewing the material learned in class, but also by offering his own opinion on the subjects. I especially enjoyed the section about Rome, because many of the aspects of ancient Rome can still be seen today in our lives and government. I enjoyed English 101 because being able to write well is an integral part of college life. For many classes in college, students are required to write scholarly essays. English 101 developed and improved my writing skills, which has been a major part of my college years.
Freshman year I lived in Centreville Hall with most of the other Earth, Life & Time scholars. This was an amazing experience for me, because I met many people with the same occupational and academic interests of mine. When studying, I did not have to travel far if I needed help, or wanted to form a group study. Currently I am living in Elkton Hall, and it is a much different experience. Other than my roommate, there are no other students with my major on my floor. I now realize how good it is that Earth, Life & Time is a living/learning experience. I made some very good friends who will help me grow in many ways, both as a student and as a person, through my Earth, Life, & Time experience.
Earth, Life & Time has supplied a great deal of information to me that either reinforced material I have learned in my other courses, or laid the groundwork for information I will be learning in my future classes. Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck did a great job of developing the lectures so they were relevant to all areas of science, which allows me to use this information for a wide variety of classes. I feel this experience will help me in my post-graduate career because I will have this firm foundation upon which to build a better understanding of many different areas of science.