Week 12: Evaluating Information & Academic Research

Good day to all that read this blog! If you read this blog weekly, I do the 'usual' and will go through the course of my week quickly and then lead into the discussions and topics addressed in the FYE classes from Monday and Wednesday of last week. There is not much to go over from the last week but there are some highlights. On Monday, I had to get up early in the morning in order to sign up for classes for the spring semester. Getting up early to do that made the rest of the day pretty long and tiring as I typically don't wake up prior to 7 on a weekday. Besides that, the beginning of the week was bland like normal but the week got interesting one I got to Thursday. On Thursday, I got to play in a kickball playoff tournament since the team I was on won a game earlier in the season. We won the first game of the tournament off the other team forfeiting. Winning that game we made it to the final four. Our competitors did decide to show up, and we ended up playing a good game but ended up losing in the end 11-9. On Friday, I had to attend a 'round table' discussion for my ENGL 1102 class over establishing a topic for our up and coming paper for the class. I enjoyed listening to other people's ideas for topics that related to their research and fields of study. In the midst of a bouncy up and down week, FYE classes tackled quite an interesting set of topics that will extend further into my college career.

On Monday, we spent the majority of class talking about evaluating sources that news come from. To get straight to the point, the gist of the class period was to identify what sources, sites, newspapers, magazines, etc are reliable and can provide trustworthy information. Our professor presented a powerpoint presentation which provided screenshots of articles from various different various, and all the students were given the task to identify what sources are reliable and which ones are not. After this fun and interactive presentation, we were given another task to complete out of class. Out of class before Wednesday, we as students were required to come up with a powerful research-type question that we could provide sources towards our 'research'. We had to get one source from a news type article and another source from the Galileo which is an online library source that allows us as students to look up detailed research and topics. With our professor not in class on Wednesday, we spent the whole class analyzing and depicting how reliable and credible our two sources were with the 'CRAAP' standard which identified currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose of the writing. My two sources went over the topic of alternative fuels and countries trying to switch their cars over to electric in a set amount of time. Both of my sources followed the guidelines pretty well. The only standard that was iffy for the news type source was the accuracy because particular data was not repeated in a different source.

Personal Reflection

Doing research on several different topics and ideas this week proved to be very crucial as I am doing research in my ENGL 1102 class for a big assignment. The topics and assignments I am doing in my FYE class line up pretty well with what I am doing in the Composition class which is very helpful as it gives me time to do more research and look into my topic a bit more as I am essentially doing mirror assignments in two classes. Thank you for reading my blog once again this week, and my sources for this blog are listed below.

Sources:
https://www.aiip.org/resources/Pictures/AIIP%20Website%20Icons/AIIP%20Research%20Icon.png

Week 11: Preparing for Registration & Meaningful Inquiry

Good evening, morning, or whatever time of day it is that you may read this. This last week and a half has been clumped with many academic assignments and tasks to complete including preparing for my spring semester classes and doing a bunch of laundry. As usual, before I get to the big topics from my FYE classes after I go over a brief analysis of my week.

Starting off the week was a terrible, no good Monday. On Monday, I spent several hours wrapping up a huge project for my Engineering Graphics class. Finishing that project was a grueling task and covered up a hot amount of my time on Monday. After that task was completed, the rest of the week went a bit better and according to plan. On Tuesday, I went to a FYE Success Series about succeeding through struggle and persevering through college and life to pursue the goals in front of you. The kickball playoff games I was supposed to play during the week got postponed. Besides having a slow and busy start to the week, Wednesday and up through the weekend were less stressful and allowed me to focus on my goals and tasks moving forward. Now onto the FYE topics from the last week which are relevant to the upcoming tasks in front of me in my college career.

On Monday, our class was visited by the Honors Advisor of Erin Martin who helped go over some important things regarding the upcoming date for early registration for spring semester classes. Martin went over some of the essentials steps and tips in order to get the classes we want as fast as we can on the day of registration. We also went over all the possible problems and error messages that could arise when we are signing up for classes. We are required to look over if we have any holds or preexisting conditions on our account before we sign up for classes because that will affect whether we can sign up for classes or not the day of registration. In the midst of registration, there will be many Honors students fighting for limited spots in particular Honors classes which means that I will have to set those classes as I priority to get to first day of registration. Before class on Wednesday, we had to read an article over the 'Art of Powerful Questions' to prepare for discussions in Wednesday's class. Starting off Wednesday's class, we answered a few questions on a sheet of paper regarding the article that we read. One of the questions on the sheet asked that if we could ask a powerful question regarding any of the discussions over the semester what would it be. My question asked about how the FYE class would impact us here on out throughout our college careers. While some people could give a simplistic answer to this and depict a given circumstance or situation, anyone could give a different perspective on how the FYE class from this semester could or could not have an impact on ourselves throughout our college career. Referring back to the article, the art and complexion of a powerful question can impact how a person responds to a question and how they access the situation at hand.

Personal Reflection

Going over class registration and powerful questions this week was very impactful and important. Registering for classes is very crucial as it sets me up for my next semester at Georgia Southern as I continue to work towards my goals in college and to become a mechanical engineer. Being able to make sure everything goes right in the registration process is very important as well. Asking powerful questions and questions in general is heavily important because I need to be able to step and ask the right questions that will benefit me and allow me to complete the tasks at hand. I thank everyone that read my blog this week. Sorry it was not filled a ton of information and shorter than usual. Listed below are the sources to articles and pictures used in this blog.

Sources:

http://tiny.cc/ycs2qy

https://www.adolescent-psychiatry.org/2019-registration

https://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/honors/student-resources/curriculum/