For the first hour, Dr. Johnston (Dr. J) lectured the class about how to make an experiment. His procedure was:
1. start with an observation
2. decide what you want to manipulate
3. choose your subjects
4. decide what you are going to measure
5. design a standardized procedure
I felt this was definitely a helpful lecture since it is necessary to fully understand what is needed to make a successful experiment. I learned there are so many factors to consider when making an experiment that it is often impossible to prove a certain hypothesis.
We then split into our discussion groups where we talked about our reading of Lori Schiller's The Quiet Room. Although the book took me a couple hours to read, I actually enjoyed it. It's about the changes in the lives of Schiller and of her friends and family after she began hearing the Voices, which constantly tormented her. It was great to hear the comments of my peers about how they felt about the reaction of Schiller's family (especially her mother and father) to her schizophrenia.
After discussing the memoir, we split into our smaller group (mine is the Crazy Lions) to pick our influential study topic. With this topic, we must create a Power Point presentation for the class. My group picked The Power of Conformity because it's about social pressures and we felt most people in class could relate to this topic since we are all in high school and probably feeling the same pressures. I'll be meeting with my group on Friday and I will definitely tell you how our presentation next Wednesday goes.
Once we finished picking our topics, we read an article of the effect of texting on teenagers and were asked to create an experiment using what we learned from lecture. My group decided to see if there was a connection between texting parents and independence. Our hypothesis was that students who don't text their parents (as they would text friends) are likely to be more independent than those who do.
Besides the academic part, I just wanted to touch on my living situation at Brown. This was the first time I've ever had to live with a roommate and I'm actually loving it! I admit I was scared about what my roommate would be like and all these questions would come up like Will we get along? Will she like me? Will we hate each other? Thankfully, I have a wonderful roommate, Kim, from LA. I think we get along and it's nice to hear what it's like at home and compare.
Well, I have to get going since I want to get a head start on the reading tomorrow. Until next time!
1 comment:
Courtney,
Roommates can be interesting. You either get along famously or you're the lead story on Page 1 of tomorrow's newspaper: DERANGED STUDENT CHOPS UP ROOMMATE.
When I attended Cal I had a roommate while living in a dorm. Since I arrived after he was already set in he had seniority. If a change had to be made, it would have to be that would have to move out.
It's not that he was all that bad but he could have been the poster child for goofiness. We were able to co-exist okay for about five months but we had some fundamental differences of opinions about the Vietnam War that became something of a problem.
We pretty much settled our problems one evening, though, when I held him by his ankles out the window of our 7th floor dorm room. Things were a little tense for a few days afterwards but we never had any arguments about that issue after that and he found other places to spend his time.
Yeah, roommates can be interesting.
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