User:ShuyuL

=Freshman Seminar=

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic

I have always wanted to go to scuba diving Research Component Scuba diving
 * week 1

Find out what training I will need to do to get a basic diving license.
 * week 2

Because I will be back in Taiwan during the summer vocation, I want to complete all my training and get my license in Taiwan. Thus I will search the available scuba diving school in Taiwan. Possible sources: Ask my high school’s biology teacher who has had a lot of diving experience.
 * week 3

Collecting all the information I might need to make a plan on how I will spend my time to get my license during the summer vocation.
 * week 4

Make a detailed plan on how I will spend my time to get my license. Including which training school I will go, how much time do I need to spend on practicing, where am I going to practice, where am I going to get the license, how much money I might need..etc.
 * week 5

Convince my parent with the plan I had to let me go get the scuba diving license. (I know my father pretty well; I think he will ask me to reach a goal to get his permission. If he do so, complete the goal as well.)
 * week 6

Do research on the scuba diving history.
 * week 7

Collect the research information, and make a slide show of it.
 * week 8

Prepare for the presentation.

Midterm Assignment 1: Taste & Aesthetics
The first time I saw the sculpture that I don’t like was when I was in the car to somewhere. Although I only had a glimpse of it, I decided “I don’t like that sculpture.” And then forgot about it after I made that decision, left it with those things I don’t like behind my mind. Because of this assignment, I went to the sculpture park at Tuesday November 10; it was a bit rain when I got there. I saw the sculpture that I decided I don’t like from far away. The shape of the line of those blue strips is still staying the way that I couldn’t agree with. Because of the rain, the water on the silver part of the sculpture reflected tiny light to my eyes created a glowing illusion to my eyes. Typewrite Eraser, Scale X is the name of that art piece. Basically the red with the silver bottom didn’t bother me. It was all about those blues strip flying in the air. I thought it was because the strange angles and the way those strip were placed causing dislike of that piece. I looked up some information and learned about this sculpture and the artist, Claes Oldenburg who created it. I found out that most of Clase Oldenburg’s art are sculptures of something from our real life but in huge sizes. I found that I actually like some of his art work like Dropped Cone (in Cologne, Germany) and Spoonbridge and Cherry (in Minneapolis, MN) and others. I tried to manipulate myself into changing my mind, but I failed. I’m not depressing with that I couldn’t change my mind about those annoying blue strips, because if I force myself to change my mind, that person might won’t be me anymore, might be some other person who are effect by the assignment’s explanation that her instructor gave. (Although on the other hand, I might still be the same person because I myself am the one who decided to change my mind.) I still have problems with those weird angles of that blue strips.

Final Presentation

 * Topic (10%)

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 * Research (20%)

<> -Bellis, Mary. "History of Scuba Diving." About.com. The New York Times Company, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. .

-Epp, Karl H., comp. "SSI free online open water course." SSI. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. .
 * Your accomplishment (20%)

<<98%>>


 * Project Review (50%)
 * 1)What went well
 * 2)What went poorly
 * 3)Future strategies

Self-Assessment
In this class, I learned to see and to think of one thing from different perspectives. Learning from different people’s experience, I noticed that many things I thought as a common sense or some natural results of certain things is unreasonable in others’ mind. When we were talking about the “dark side” of the critical thinking, it was the first time that I realized that I had been doing or I think I had been doing this critical thinking without knowing exactly how to give this term a clear definition. Because critical thinking is what school keeps telling us to do, I keep doing it without second thoughts; maybe that’s the reason why it was so hard when facing more complicated situation. I think what I did well in this class is that I tried my best to understand what my teacher was telling us by giving different examples in his or his friend’s life. Because of my cultural background, I am not used to express my opinion during class period. What I could have done better is to participate more in the class. I was expecting a boring class when I saw this class on the schedule and now I am glad that I was wrong. I like this class and the way our instructor allows us to think in our way and not just point out what the fact should be.