I see the value that you found in your INQ classes. I had something my senior year of high school where in Governor’s School at the local community college, where we had to do a project that incorporated all of our classes and present it to a panel of outside scientists, including one astronaut. The project was the simple prompt of “What is the next critical advancement in Space?” My team designed a space elevator, but more importantly it allowed us to develop team skills and integrate multiple disciplines into one project.
Author: Britton Hipple
Comment on A+ by Britton Hipple
I felt the same way in my secondary education where I strivers to be “the best” at everything. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college where I realized that I had been trying way too hard to force myself to do something that I was not enjoying. At this point in my life, I rebelled for the first time, stopped throwing for the track and field team, and joined a national fraternity. I couldn’t remember any other time that I felt so happy up to that point. Not to say I coasted through college, but I redesigned my priorities. I still graduated with above a 3.0, but that was on my own terms and through my own skill. I stopped trying to be the teacher’s favorite, and allowed myself to relax. I credit that to my desire to torture myself with five extra years of education to obtain my PhD, because I found for the first time that I had enjoyed my education.
Comment on Authentic Assessment by Britton Hipple
While reading your post, I had a similar line of thought to Chris, who commented. In my program, it is emphasized that classes are only 1/3 of the degree and the research component is where we should be creative and excel. My program is also getting us to start to be more creative and each semester offers the chance to write a proposal using theme from the class as the final exam, which is still graded l,but allows us the autonomy to develop a project we can be passionate about. I agree that authentic assessments do allow for better assessments of growth, but the scale up for undergraduates leaves a lot of work do due on the back end for professors.
Comment on Concerns for New Researchers by Britton Hipple
One piece of advice about blogging that I got from a new investigator in my department is that blogging can be so much more than just presenting your current research work. He suggested that a blog can be used as a way to find your voice in writing about science, or it can be used to review new and exciting works in your field. Once the blog is going and you feel more confident on what you can share, then you can start talking about your own research and even data if you use a preprint server to store manuscripts before they are published by a journal.
