Check That Off My Bucket List

While I was sitting on the patient table giving blood this week, I was thinking about the bucket list  I wrote when I was in 8th grade. I recently was able to cross a few things off and I was brainstorming ways that I could check a few more off the list before I turn 20. As I was squeezing that little red ball to get my blood flowing, it occurred to me that one of the items on my list was "save a life." When I put this down on my list, I envisioned myself pushing a kid out of the way of a moving car or pulling someone out of a burning building. Although this might be a far stretch for "problem solving," I determined that by donating blood and potentially saving 3 lives, that I could in fact cross another item off my bucket list!! I realize this isn't the most profound use of creativity and problem solving, but it made my day to know that I saved a life (maybe) and that I'm making progress on my bucket list!

Side note... I highly recommend starting a bucket list and seeing where it takes you! Here's mine, which I continually add to, but it might give you some starting ideas!

Personal Reflection 28/03/2014

Today in my Psych 312 class today we talked about color blindness and it got me thinking about taking different perspectives on things. What might be red for one person could be yellow to another person. It's all about perspective! This got me thinking that I don't really look at things from other people's perspectives even though I probably should! Anyway goodbye until next week!

Personal Reflection #2

My reflection for this week has to do with working on my ComS 227 lab. Our task was to create a program that drew 5 random cards from a deck. The basic algorithm to do so was given to us, however, I found it semi-confusing and overly complex, so I decided to come up with another way to do it that was much simpler.  One of my favorite things about programming is that there are so many ways to accomplish one thing, and with a little creativity, you can come up with a new way of doing something.

Now that I know how to randomly select cards from a deck, I am thinking about working on a solitaire game!

Class Reflection #2

This week's activity, Tangoes, revealed one of my weaknesses that I need to work on: I do not work well under pressure, especially when I'm under a time constraint (in this case, other people finishing before me). I am usually pretty good at Tangoes, at least, I solved most of the puzzles on an old iPod app that I had. I think it is good for me to get experience working under pressure because those types of situations will definitely come up in my career.

I really thought that the NASA activity was interesting. I can see why NASA picked the items in the order that they did, but I really liked discussing some different ideas with my group. One idea we had was too make a sort of "land" hot air balloon. In other words, we would blow up our raft, tie the parachute to the front of our raft using the rope, and use the space heater to shoot hot air into the parachute to make us go. However, now that I've more time to think about it, our idea wouldn't even work on the moon, because of course there is no air. The only way it might work is if we used the oxygen instead, and hope that we make it to safety before we run out. Either way, I think it was a creative idea :)

Class Reflection 24/03/2014: This is why I'm not an Aerospace Engineer

So today we had some fun playing Tangoes (not a team strength) and trying to create a contraption that would go the furthest. What I found interesting about today was that we were having trouble coming up with a design for something that would fly. We had a paper airplane as a backup we tampered with it and lo and behold we made something that flew pretty well. Although the trial runs went great and were promising, we had some flukes in the beginning but we managed to pull through (3rd places is pretty good!). Until next week, enjoy this action shot with Courtney!

Tangoes Isn't Our Thing

The first thing I learned from today's class is that we will have to get earn group points from something other than Tangoes. Although I did like the competition, the pressure definitely got to me! I feel like I struggled with today's challenges a little, which is suppose is good since they are meant to challenge us! Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to find the most creative and unique ways to approach the problem that I miss out on a simple and logical solution. I guess I will have to learn how to find a balance between the two as the semester goes on. I really enjoyed putting our heads together to physically make something today and try a bunch of different methods, even if our plane didn't exactly work out the way we planned! 

Launch one...wah, wah, wah!

If you're ever looking for a fun/fast/creative way to TP a house, Steve Spangler's got you covered!

Personal Reflection #1

Right now I am putting off studying for my O Chem test tonight. You may not think it, but organic chemistry requires a lot of creativity to be successful in. The main chunk of the class is memorizing a bunch of different reactions. We then have to apply this knowledge by synthesizing different compounds. It's a lot like cooking. You start out with a variety of ingredients and combine them to get a target product. Reaching this target requires a lot of creativity. You have to know how to put all of these ingredients together in the proper way.

Well, back to studying... Wish me luck!

Class Reflection #1

When I signed up for this class, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Now, I think I have a better idea of what will be covering, and I can see that there are many applications related to this seminar. Creativity and problem solving is something that is important in engineering and is something I use often in academics. However, I am excited to see how else I can incorporate these ideas into my life.

For my review, I am going to be reading a book called Think Like a Programmer. I am minoring in computer science and programming is also one of my hobbies. I want to keep this in mind as I go through this class to see how I can improve my logical thinking skills and in turn improve the code that I write.

Time to Shed some Light, Not Pounds!

I'm not really sure about how this whole "personal reflection" thing works, but here goes!
My daily inspiration came form my Psych 314 Motivation class today. We were discussing the biological motivations to eat and how they can be overshadowed by social and psychological reasons for eating. This led to a discussion on body image, which I think is an extremely interesting topic. Anyways, although I've covered this topic in other classes, today's class really made me think of all the crazy and silly things I've tried just to have the "right" body. I've never stopped to appreciate my body for everything it does for me, regardless of what sizes pants it wears. There are a million different ways to view body image, and my new goal is to stop worrying about how society wants me to view it. I think it's time to come up with my own view of body image that reflects how great it feels to be able to get up and move about every morning and live my life to the fullest. This might not be a word puzzle or numbers problem to solve, but it's about a new point if views that's worth exploring!
Well, that's all for now :)

"Carpe Diem" Class Reflection

I like to talk, and I would generally consider myself a pretty outgoing person. However, when it comes to classes where I don't see any familiar faces, I'm likely to sit by myself and just mind my own business. As soon as I looked around the room when class started, I figured this honors seminar would be a "keep to myself" sort of class. Luckily for me, we all had to jump right in and get to know each other in order to find our professor, who's name I probably won't be able to pronounce correctly, but he does give a great first impression. I've never had a professor get a class working together so quickly or one who's wiling to listen to our point of view about how the class should be structured. I'm definitely excited to see what this last half of the semester holds.

I'm also pretty new to this "blogging" thing, so hopefully I don't play around with it too much and mess something up! But what the heck, carpe diem right?

(blog inspiration!)

Personal Reflection 11/03/2014

Today while in my developmental psychology class, we talked about theories of cognitive development and it really started to click with me how interactions and problem-solving is easier when you do it with others. One of the examples that we talked about in class was grouping younger children with varying abilities so that they would be able to help each other, and this kind of reminded me of how we were put into our groups for class.

Weekly Class Reflection for 10/03/2014

The introductory activities this week were pretty fun and I had a good time meeting with my group members! During the class, for the 3 problem solving activities that we did, a different way of thinking was required to solve all of them which kept me on my toes. I'm usually a pretty independent person when it comes to solving problems, but it seems like this class is going to require me to branch out a bit! I really look forward to doing more problem solving in the class because I enjoy being challenged (hence the math major)!

Team Expectations:

1. Show up to class every week
2. Participation
3. Put forth your best effort
4. Don't be afraid to ask for help
5. Come to class prepared
6. Have fun!