OpenLab Assignment 1: General Education

This assignment is due Thursday, February 13, at the start of class.

The Syllabus for the course lists 8 different “Learning Outcomes” (they appear near the bottom of the Course Information page).  These are the things that we’d like you all to get out of the course.  They  are split into two groups – there are four Learning Outcomes that are directly related to Differential Equations, and then four General Education Learning Outcomes that are not specific to Differential Equations but nonetheless are important elements of this course.  In this assignment I’m going to ask you to focus on the Gen Ed Learning Outcomes.

Assignment.   Choose one of the four Gen Ed Learning Outcomes for the class (they are listed below).   Write a comment in reply to this post (click “Leave a Reply” below), responding to EACH of the following. Write 1-2 paragraphs total.  Begin by telling us which topic you chose.

  1. Copy the Learning Outcome word-for-word.
  2. Explain what you think it means in your own words.
  3. Describe a time that you have used this skill in your past.
  4. Do you think this skill will be important in your career? Why or why not?

LIST OF GEN ED LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR MAT 2680.

  1. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.

  2. Understand and employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems.

  3. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking.

  4. Communicate effectively.

Extra Credit.  For extra credit, write a response to one of your classmates’ comments.  Do you feel the same, or different?  Did you learn anything?

Why are we doing this, anyway?  Having progressed this far in your school career, you are familiar with many of the tools for learning math:  studying, practicing by doing problems, asking questions when you need help, and so on.  I’d like to talk about two activities that may NOT seem related to learning math — but research shows that engaging in these activities can dramatically increase the amount that you learn, and change the way you learn it.  The first is writing — something not typically associated with mathematics.  When you express your ideas in words, it forces you to think them through very carefully, detail by detail.  A great way to check and see if you really understand something is to try to explain it to someone else, either out loud or in writing.  Example: if you know how to add fractions, try teaching it someone who doesn’t know how.  The second is called metacognition, or “thinking about thinking.”  This happens when you think about what was going on in your head while you were working on a problem or trying to learn a new idea.  What train of thought did you follow?  Where did you get stuck, and what did you do next?  What were you feeling at the time? and so on.  Combining writing and metacognition can be a tremendously powerful tool in identifying the ways we learn best and the ways we make mistakes, and learning to improve.  However, like any skill, it takes practice.  That’s why we’re getting started by writing a little about our past experiences and our ideas about the future.

53 responses to “OpenLab Assignment 1: General Education

  1. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking.
    Employing scientific reasoning and logical thinking to me means you hypothesize something and begin testing the hypothesis. As you are carrying out your experiment different problems arise and logical thinking is needed to combat these problems and/or explain what factors caused the problem. In my opinion logical thinking means thinking about something clearly and unbiased and in-depth, taking into consideration all possible factors one can think of.
    I once did a chemistry project that required us to collect samples and analyze them. We had to hypothesize about the quality of the water before the actual analysis using scientific reasoning. The analysis provided a lot of information and it was our job to employ logical thinking in trying to explain the information that was presented.
    I think this is a very important life skill because the one constant in life is change and we need to employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking if we intend on keeping stride with or moving forward in life.

    • Hi Andrew,
      Thanks for providing our first post. I love your comment “the one constant in life is change” – partly because it is somewhat paradoxical, but mainly because it could be the slogan for this class. We study change!
      -Prof. Reitz

    • Hi Andrew,
      I am agree with you, Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking is an important thing in our school life and careers. We all have to use some kind of scientific reasoning and logical thinking in our life some days.

  2. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking:
    This outcome means that by the end of the course the student will be able to apply scientific reasoning and logical thinking to solve problems. In this case, I think this learning outcome is referring to the ability to think in different variables to solve problem by applying scientific knowledge in a logical way. Also, I think that to develop this learning outcome is very important for the students’ carrier because it will help the student to solve complex problems in a more efficient way. Therefore, it could help the student to be more successful professionally.
    A couple of semester ago, I went to an engineering expo for a project competition. For this project, with the help of a classmate, I designed a security system using micro-controllers. Those micro-controller where programmed using C language. When I was writing the code I need to implement logical thinking in order to the micro-controllers respond as needed. Also, I have to employ scientific reasoning in order to design the circuitry.

    • Hi Fernando,
      I agree, learning a programming language is one of the best ways to force yourself to think logically. Computers, the saying goes, do only what you tell them to do, not what you want them to do. How frustrating is that?
      -Prof. Reitz

    • hi Fernando Hernandez,
      I strongly agree with you and logical thinking is very important for this course and future courses too.

    • I agree with what your’e saying especially with the computer language. Creating a program and writing code takes a lot of logical thinking.

  3. “Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.”

    Before you can do anything in life you first need to have the necessary equipment to proceed to learn anything new. Once you have all that is needed, you can start learning hands on or by reading and try to figure out how things work. Then when you think you have everything down pack it time to show what you have learned and to practice until you have become strong and confident. It is always a good thing to look at different vantage point because it can always help one improve their techniques in whatever the area it maybe.
    I feel like I have used this last semester, where I tried to learn everything I had to. Bought all types of sources that I thought would have helped me to get better in certain subjects. But in order to get better at something it takes time and patience. Yes, I do believe that this would be and important skill in life. When you start your career they are many things that you need to learn because you won’t have those skills. So you start off by exploring your new instruments then go about learning how they work then work your way to how others may use it. As humans we will never stop learning new things as we continue to evolve.

    • I agree with you 100%. if we want to accomplish anything in life we need to master this skill. if we were not able to learn and adapt our evolution would have halted a longtime ago.

  4. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources. These techniques are used by scientist, socialists, studies and other people that are trying to prove or disapprove something. Gathering, interpreting and evaluating information is very important and the more resources and gathering information from different places, the more precise the study is and it is more general. In philosophy, they use these techniques to study a society.
    In high school in my philosophy class, I remember we were required to make a study about a group of people and see who was smarter boys or the girls so we had to gather information about that group and the more information we have and the more people involved the more the study becomes stronger. Then we have to interpret it and evaluate it. Summing all that girls showed more intelligence than boys. But the group was small so we can’t take it as a general rule. Yes, I think these techniques are very important for me and for the future I might use them not only in my career but also in my life.

  5. Communicate effectively.
    Communicating effectively to me means, to express ones ideas in a clear and easily understood manner. Listening and understanding to what is being asked of us is also a part of communicating effectively. All of us are going into either engineering or computer science, in which communication is key! Our ideas are more or less completely useless if we can’t communicate our ideas to others to help make it a reality.
    Last semester I had to do a project with two other students, where we had to design, animate and dimension a working cannon. We decided to break the assembly into 3 parts, where each person had a job to do and parts to design and assemble. Which if we were communicating effectively would all come together seamlessly in the end. Long story short, coming the last week of school our parts weren’t assembling properly, and we had a lot of reverse engineering and re-analyzing, and just a lot of back work to do to get everything working together properly. Had we been communicating (both conveying our ideas and listening to others) effectively we would have been done at least a week earlier, and had a much better presentation.

  6. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.
    I think this means that to really get a correct answer for a certain situation, one needs to be able to know how to gather information and apply it to the right scenarios. This would probably be the most important part about mathematics in general because you can’t solve a problem without being able to gather the right information. Even with the right information, you are not guaranteed to solve the problem if you don’t to solve the problem. I use this skill in everyday life and so does everyone else that you don’t need to think about. I’ve used it to know the classes to sign up for or which job to apply for and recently I’ve used it to solve the integrating factors homework. I think this skill will be very important in my career because I am majoring in mechanical engineering and this would be basically the layout to solve most of the problems in engineering.

  7. Communicate Effectively:
    I believe communicating effectively in this world is essential to every task we do. We communicate at home, at school, at our job , anywhere.If we don’t communicate well no one is going to understand what we say and they wont understand our ideas. To me communicating effectively means when someone expresses their ideas in a away that anybody that is listening to that person understands clearly what his idea is. When we communicate effectively we take what we have in our mind an idea, a thought , etc and we make the people hearing us understand our point of view.
    One example in were i’ve used or tried to use communicating effectively is at school. Last semester i had to give a final presentation on a topic i and i tried to make everyone in the class understand what my project was about in order for me to transmit my idea to the class i had to give them explanations and give every little detail about how i got that certain idea.Communicating effectively helps us in a long run because when we go to a job we will need to talk to our boss and we will need to understand what they ask of us in order to do our job good.

    • I completely agree, the Hardest part for people to understand about communicating effectively is the fact that what your truly trying to express is yourself. If you don’t understand yourself its impossible to speak and express your true self and this tend to make people hide behind something that only makes a job that needs to be done harder. If you understand yourself other will understand you, as you will make sure people see your point of view clearly.

  8. “Communicate effectively.”
    Communicating effectively allows people to express their ideas in a clear and precise way so that the student or whoever understands what the speaker is trying to convey. Even if the most knowledgeable professor or mathematician or whoever can not convey what they’re trying to say to show new ideas or show understanding, it would be as if they did not know. It also makes it easier for two parties to continue discussions such as this one, and allow new ideas to be show. In many classes, from high school and to college I have communicated with people whether to tell stories or to help people. There has been difficulties where the other person did not fully understand what I said and has lead me to repeat and explain in a different way, so communicating effectively is still something I have to learn. This will be helpful in not only my career but throughout my life, communicating effectively will allow people to understand the meaning or message I’m trying to convey whether it is I’m helping someone learn or asking questions so the listener can understand my problem and assist me towards the solution.

    • I agree with communicating effectively because that is the most basic thing you need to do in math. It is very important because unless you phrase what you are trying to convert correctly, you could end up with a completely different answer.

      • i agree communicating effectively in a society where there are different cultures , different languages and different levels of comprehension make the process more difficult that it seems. Without a common tool such as education and language, it would be very difficult for an british general to command UN troop in AFRICA

  9. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.

    To gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources means being able to collect all the necessary information, to be able to understand this information and to apply it to a certain task based on how you perceived that particular information. By collecting this information from a variety of sources, gives you a better chance of performing the specific task at hand much better based on the information you’ve collected, than if you had only used one source. I have used this skill in literally every single class I have ever taken so far in college. Whether it be essays, math problems, research papers or exams, using this skill ensures that I understand what is being asked of me and keep performing well throughout the semester. The reason why this skill is extremely important in a career, is because when you’re working, there is going to be a lot of times when you will have to get something important done on your own. Since there is noone around you to help, it is going to be up to you to gather the necessary information, understand it logically and apply it to solve a certain problem. I will definitely keep using this skill every time I’m faced with a problem or have to accomplish a certain task.

  10. Communicate effectively
    Communicating effectively is essentially being able to be a good listener. Also to convey your idea in a comprehensive manner so that there is little to no confusion in communication.
    This skill is certainly not something I was born with but had to work on over many years. Working on mechanical engineering design projects, in many cases you have to work with other students on a single project. In one of these cases while brainstorming I had to sit, listen, comprehend, and reply as well as explain my own thoughts on ideas for the project. While being considerate of other ideas.
    Communicating effectively is crucial to almost every task you can think of that involves another party.
    Whether it be your car mechanic to your significant other.

    • I agree with you Angelo communicating effectively is a skill that must be worked on for years. As individuals we are so inclined to see things our way that we refuse to see the way others think. Often we neglect to acknowledge that some things cannot be solved alone which is why we must communicate effectively in the work place as well as with each other.

    • Hi, Angjelo

      I agree with the fact that communication is an extremely important skill. Through better communication we can reduce the time it takes to complete projects as well as make sure they are done right.

  11. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.
    I think this is what we do and is part of our everyday life. We go through this everyday, for example at work, school, at your house. When you do not know how to do something we research ask for help, gather information from all over the place and apply it to the situation. The number one thing we do when we do not know something is ask for help or research it on google. One time I forgot how to do u-substitution so I went on google, had to do more research so I went on Paul’s notes and ask classmates and finally figured it out. I also did the same thing for integration by parts. In our careers especially starting off we are going to have to apply this. We are going to be newcomers and have to research and gather information to get the job done precisely.

    • I agree with you, I do this every time I cant figure something out or I made a mistake. It doesn’t matter how much you know. You will always have to learning something new even if you think you know it already.

    • I agree with you, I do this every time I cant figure something out or I made a mistake. It doesn’t matter how much you know. You will always have to learning something new even if you think you know it already.

  12. Communicate effectively.
    In life communication is key. Whether its job related or as personal as a relationship. A person must be able to understand and express their ideas or feelings in a clear way. Communicate effectively to me also means being able to reach out when you need help. For example, In my freshmen year of college, I tried looking for help for a class i had. Even if i didn’t understand what was going on in class i held back from speaking. This is because every time i tried speaking or asking a question, my thought came out completely different then what i had in mind. Having a computer engineering degree without this skill will be very difficult because this major involves people to communicate and share their ideas.

  13. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking.

    In my opinion, this topic means always looking for the truth and solving the problem encountered with deliberate and logical thinking. So far, the equations and formulas are like my study partners that accompany me through my college life. What I have learned from them is not just memorizing the methods and solving the problems but also realize how to evaluate and visualize before starting getting hands on the problem. Since these problems we try to solve in the class always require careful observation and analysis, it can also be compared as a very good training for us in the real world. The training give us motivations to find out the answers with inspecting what the tools we have in our hand; which is just like choosing the right method combined with various skills and techniques to use to solve a math problem. I cannot give a example of using this skill, but, now, every time when I run into troubles or real questions, I can always seek to acquire the solution by reasoning and logical thinking that I learned from school. I think it is a very important part in my life. The realistic challenges I will meet after leaving the college will not always have a perfect answer or complete solution; what I can do is to stay calm and use our logic and deductive ability to conquer the challenges, and give people and also myself the best anwsers.

  14. Communicate effectively.
    One of the important parts of life or anything in general is communication. Not only is it great for socializing, but most importantly, accurate information or inaccurate information can really effect things. It can get important points across and may even lead to a discussion on what’s logically right or wrong. It can clean up mistakes before they get worse. For example, I used to work for a grocery store where I control prices based on how much the store paid for them. There are times when vendors would come in and add more things to the order than what was asked for. This causes the grocery store to send things back which causes an angry vendor.

    It may have been caused by a miscommunication between the vendor and the buyer, or it may have been the vendor that wrote the number incorrectly. Possibilities are endless. However, what’s important is that things are said clearly and if a mistake was made, then correct it immediately. I’m in the Computer Engineering Technology major which requires teammates, and a heavy amount of communication as far as programming or physical parts needed for an assignment. If it requires it there, then I’m more than sure it’ll be required in the working field. If the person that I’m communicating with doesn’t understand my information, then until everything is clear, the job cannot continue. Nobody wants a mistake on the end product just because there was miscommunication.

  15. Yeraldina Estrella

    “Understand and employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems”. Understanding and employing quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems, means to me learning to solve problems by developing mathematical models accordingly to the qualities of the problems.
    Last semester, I was working on an Arduino based robotic car. After assembling and programing the robotic car, I figured out that the car did not run at the same speed on different surface due to friction and not enough power delivered by the motors. In order to upgrade the motors, I made mathematical calculations to select appropriate motors that Arduino could support (Quantitative analysis). To solve this problem, I had to buy more powerful motors since I could not change the texture of the gears (Qualitative analysis). Understanding and employing quantitative and qualitative analysis is one of the most important skills for my career. Developing mathematical models and understanding the quality of the problem allows solving the problem effectively.

  16. “Understand and employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems”. Understanding and employing quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems, means to me learning to solve problems by developing mathematical models accordingly to the qualities of the problems.
    Last semester, I was working on an Arduino based robotic car. After assembling and programing the robotic car, I figured out that the car did not run at the same speed on different surface due to friction and not enough power delivered by the motors. In order to upgrade the motors, I made mathematical calculations to select appropriate motors that Arduino could support (Quantitative analysis). To solve this problem, I had to buy more powerful motors since I could not change the texture of the gears (Qualitative analysis). Understanding and employing quantitative and qualitative analysis is one of the most important skills for my career. Developing mathematical models and understanding the quality of the problem allows solving the problem effectively.

    • I agree with your input Yeraldina, I myself had some minor set backs with the Arduino Robotic Platform I built last semester, and with the math we previously learned, the trouble shooting, the physics, they were all integrated to help solve the problem ! Basically everything we learned from EMT had to be implented to solve problems, especially mechanical problems.So, I do understand your point and I agree with your problem solving analysis.

      • I agree with both your ideas, and I can fully see how you would implement the idea of #2. But when I built my arduino I used my past experience to help me solve my current problems. Even when I was reviewing my program code, the months of redoing the code made it easier for me to solve it quickly. So I would say, I used my past input in mathematics, physics, and basic trail and error to solve my current situation. But I still agree on your idea, both ideas can be used equally in my opinion.

    • As Engineering majors I think we have all experienced these “troubleshooting” and this is where the “Understand and employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems” becomes crucial. I myself have had many of these experiences.

  17. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking
    I think “Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking” has the most consequence in reality. Because any matter in the world happens, we look for an answer, so without distinguish the matter that would be impossible to end up a conclusion. In order to identify the matter, I would say logical thinking comes in our mind, then, to conclude clearly and for better understanding we employ scientific reasoning.
    In a society so much prejudice going on, where has no benefit of it, but still people follow and believe those prejudices. And many times prejudice thought becomes a radical. I believe if we employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking in our daily activity, then the society would be more friendly.

  18. “Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking”

    I believe that being able to employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking is one of the most major components of intelligence. In my opinion intelligence is broken up into specific parts. Logic is essentially an ability to separate your emotions and bias from your thinking process, which leads to making decisions which can be considered intelligent. Scientific reasoning is the steady step by step approach to the thinking process and together hand in hand with common sense people have been able to utilize these skills to make intelligent decisions and solve complex problems.

    Describe a time that you have used this skill in your past.

    Past??? I personally use these skills all the time, even now; hopefully everyone else does too. I believe sitting here and writing a response to these questions is a use of these skills in of it self. Having to logically figure out what to write and how to write it, as well as considering the fact that this is a public message that all of the classmates including the professor will be able to view definitely requires a logical and somewhat scientific approach.

    Do you think this skill will be important in your career? Why or why not?

    Computer Engineering field with an emphasis on hands on, I’d say so.
    Here is a scenario:
    An computer engineer is working with sensitive and expensive equipment that can burn out simply from a static charge from walking on a carpet [eg.RAM], he or she really needs to employ logic and reasoning to make sure to remember and discharge via some sort of grounded conductor such as (eg, PC case, Water pipe etc..]

    • correction – “A” computer engineer not “An” …… =/

    • Eugene,
      I completely agree with your comment, Scientific reasoning is an extremely important skill and should be used everyday; even for the most menial tasks. Thinking logically makes the difference between a successful project and an unfinished failure. If everyone used their scientific reasoning and logical thinking skills, i believe this world would be a better and more comprehensive place.

  19. “Communicate effectively.”

    For one to coexist with one another there has to be an establishment of a system of communication. To communicate effectively we must express ourselves to each other in our truest form. Communication is a very important factor in problem solving, it establishes the differences in views, opinions or opens new to doors to thinking differently or out of the box. Communicating by itself is somewhat easy, however communicating effectively is the combination of listening, learning and questioning. In order to communicate effectively we must try to understand each others views as well as understand our own.

    Last semester my colleagues and I were asked to create a programmable, remote controlled robotic vehicle. As you can imagine the task seemed relatively easy, however as we discussed options for the design we began to see where our views differed and how our ideas cemented our mindset. From what I can remember I believe we had at least 4 or 5 concepts of the robot, however by communicating effectively we were able to design and construct a fully operational robot that met the demands of the class and met the critical ideas of each team member. By communicating effectively we were able to differentiate our conceptual ideas into productive results that considered all views. Also by communicating effectively we were able to agree on ideas that could work and the more we communicated the more we realized that the unique ideas presented by each member created an idea that none of us could have imagined by ourselves.

    I believe by communicating effectively we can not only reach our goals, but we can surpass them, because the thoughts of many are far greater than the thoughts of our own.

  20. Communicate Effectively.

    Effective communication is a key asset to understanding, knowledge itself and even success. I believe that communication is underestimated quite to often, however it is much needed in the real world – especially in a work place, educational institution etc. Being able to understand fellow classmates, leaders, mentors, bosses even family builds and strengthens relationship therefore making learning much more essential and easier. A strong foundation starts with a solid communication bond.
    For example, my boss is a Professional Engineer, and in the office are also many other Engineers – and Architects. Anyways, it is protocol for communication between all employees since we need to know what is being done, what progress is being made on work, how should we go about a certain process, how things should be done and all of these important things. Without communication there will be a lot of errors, mix-ups, and frustration for everyone. It is KEY to communicate effectively, now it doesn’t have to be verbally, it can be via e-mail, text and so on. So long as everyone is on the same page, things can get done with one general understanding.
    It is definitely more than a skill, it’s a way of life, we need to communicate with each other to help each other, build relationships for a better future and to get things done in unity, decency and in order. It’s funny, my boss was giving me a lecture about “how rewarding effective communication can be” today !

  21. “Communicate Effectively”

    Communicate effectively means to pass the message in the form of verbal or nov-verbal from speaker to listener with feedback involved.
    Communicate effectively plays a huge role in any kind of field as we are going global. Communication plays an important role specially if you are doing class project or in work environment. Last summer, I was doing internship with a company building a home automated system. As I was assigned to do the design whereas other two interns were assigned to work on wiring and programming. At first, I designed on my own accord but later I had to adjust my design because we were unable to find the correct size of chips and controller which we agreed upon initially. As we used to brief each other of work we did for that day, we were able to sentence and fix the problem. If it was at latter stage of the project then it would have been really hard to adjust the design and some of the days would have been wasted. So I believe just saying that effective communication is important in anyone’s career is a huge understatement. In fact I can say that it is hard to kick start one’s career without effective communication. It starts from one’s interview to get into some kind of career and to pass the barrier of interview, one need to communicate effectively. It does not end at interview, you need it in communicating with clients, working on projects, presentation and lot of everyday things.

    • That is true Yamba communication does save time and effort. Sometimes when I am working in a group I feel like a lot of time is wasted because of our lack of communication.
      I also like how you included non-verbal acts as part of communications, I sometimes tend to forget that.

  22. 1.Communicate effectively
    2.To communicate effectively would be to properly , or effectively, convey or exchange a message in order to obtain desirable outcomes.In terms of differential equations, effective communication would be the ability to express the ideas which are represented in the mathemtical language, for both purposes of understanding as well as application. In other words, one must be able to take a situation, effectively model that situation using the tool that is mathematics, and effectively be able to explain this situation, so that another may understand and manipulate the model to obtain their desired results. Communication is the method of sharing our knowledge with others, which is the only way that advancements can be made, when the ideas are spread and others work on them.
    3. Effective communication is a skill which is required in not only in academic fields, but in every day life as well. For example during my participation in a robotics competition, my fellow programmer and I had to program the robot without it being operable, and this required us to talk to the build team, who had to convey what electro mechanical parts were going to be attached. I had to make sure that what I was doing and what the other programmer was doing would match up, so the code would not contain syntax errors, or have ports mixed up. Without effective communication, it would have been impossible to compile a correct code.
    4. Effective communication is the first stepping stone into a career. One can be an exemplary scientist or mathematician, but if one can not effectively tell a potential employer the reasons as to why this is so, one will never get a a good job. And of course, it is also necessary to communicate on an engineering team, the team will not get very far if its members do not talk about what they are doing, for obvious reasons.

  23. 1.Communicate effectively
    2.To communicate effectively would be to properly , or effectively, convey or exchange a message in order to obtain desirable outcomes.In terms of differential equations, effective communication would be the ability to express the ideas which are represented in the mathemtical language, for both purposes of understanding as well as application. In other words, one must be able to take a situation, effectively model that situation using the tool that is mathematics, and effectively be able to explain this situation, so that another may understand and manipulate the model to obtain their desired results. Communication is the method of sharing our knowledge with others, which is the only way that advancements can be made, when the ideas are spread and others work on them.
    3. Effective communication is a skill which is required in not only in academic fields, but in every day life as well. For example during my participation in a robotics competition, my fellow programmer and I had to program the robot without it being operable, and this required us to talk to the build team, who had to convey what electro mechanical parts were going to be attached. I had to make sure that what I was doing and what the other programmer was doing would match up, so the code would not contain syntax errors, or have ports mixed up. Without effective communication, it would have been impossible to compile a correct code.
    4. Effective communication is the first stepping stone into a career. One can be an exemplary scientist or mathematician, but if one can not effectively tell a potential employer the reasons as to why this is so, one will never get a a good job. And of course, it is also necessary to communicate on an engineering team, the team will not get very far if its members do not talk about what they are doing, for obvious reasons.

  24. “Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.”
    What I believe this statement means to me is that when we come across a new experience in our life, we always, not intentionally apply our past experience to formulate an idea on what we are trying to understand. That’s how new ideas are created, they are based on smaller ideas. We may not notice that we are indeed gathering, interpreting, evaluating, and applying our past information when we come across a new experience. When we take all this past information, and gather it into a small reasoning, we are able to apply this small reasoning into different experiences. So even the smallest thought can be applied to many hardships, and interpretations.
    I can apply this idea to school work, in my past course I had to program an arduino robot. I had no basic information on how to program one, so what I did was start from the beginning. Simple programming, which without me realizing it helped me with my programming. Even as I was programming my robot, I took past information from my countless hours of updating my robot to apply it to my code. At the end of programming my robot, I was relief to know all my trail and error was rewarded. This idea is important in my career, in any career or life experience. In order to accomplish many task, you need the basic ideas of that task. In order to get the basic ideas, you need your past experience to help you.

    • I agree with you Karen that its about experiences. I also believe that gathering, interpreting, evaluating, and applying information discerningly from a variety of sources goes hand in hand with effective communication.

  25. “Communicate Effectively”

    To communicate effectively is to know what to say and when to say it. Language has an infinite number of words, to know when and witch ones to compile in to a sentence is a most important skill to have. It is possible to talk your way out of any situation or convince someone to see things form your perspective, whether you are right or wrong. My brother and I don’t always see eye to eye, so we tend to have long debates on one topic or another. Which ever one of us succeeds in accumulating those correct words will have the other convened. If I achieve this skill then I am confident that it would serve me well in a job interview or in a career as a project manager.

  26. I am agree with Anass Baroudi as he mentions “what to say and when to say it”. Because I think that is the important part of communication.

  27. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking.

    “Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking” means to me is to solve a real life problem in engineering field we have to think logically and have to have a scientific reason to prove our experiment. Most of the students in our class are engineering students. In our fields all of us have used or going to use logical thinking. In order to create a program in computer language such as C++, Java or any other programming languages we have to create the program base on the logic and have to come up with a scientific reasoning. I have used logical thinking in many of my classes and in the differential equation, we are going to use logical thinking and scientific reasoning to solve a system of equation. In my opinion this skill is one of the most important in our life, we have to use it in our career. I have taken some of the city wide test and most of the tests you have a part where you have to use logical thinking.

  28. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources.
    This means to me having to go outside the course, the textbook the course uses, and notes from within the class. Which means you will have to use variety of textbooks to gather more information on what you are particularly looking for. Then one you have gathered all of that information from variety of sources you take it in and then you sort of take it and then you see how you can apply it, which could mean applying it with the information you currently already have had.
    As an Electrical/Computer Engineering major we had to do this numeral times especially when it comes down to projects whether we have to program a specific object to do and building it. We often go to different resources as the professors can’t individually help when projects vary. So often we are left to do our own research and then we interpret it, evaluate it and then apply it into our project. It works same as if it was a group project we would all basically gather the information our own ways and then meet to sort of put it together, see what works best.
    I think it is a very important skill as in the real world you can’t base things on what you learned in a class room or from a certain professor. Often you are even presented with something you haven’t seen or done before so you are often left to do research it on your own and basically learn it on your own. This is where this skill becomes very useful and I see it being very important.

  29. Employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking.

    employ scientific reasoning and logical thinking mean to use you correct and enough information before making a decision to a certain situation that may impact or your life. i have personally used this skill in making decision about getting a college degree and about choosing the proper major in college.
    Before coming to college, i took time to do research about the percentage of getting a good pay job or career with and without a bachelor degree and by comparing throughout the Bureau of labor and statistic website. My research have shown me that those with a bachelor degree earned more than those without. i also learned that those with a degree in science , technology , engineering and mathematics field regularly earned more than those with a nonscientific major. This help me to complete my scientific reasoning about the choice to earned a bachelor degree.
    even though i chose to get a degree, i still did not what field to chose. i had to chose between learning something brand new in college or continuing something i know i am good at because i love the subject that the major focus on. After two year earning an Associate in electronic Engineering Technology, i finally decide to switch my major to Mathematics because that the major that seems logically more appealing to me. My logical conception about this life is that a person should do what he loves to do, what come very easily to him to be happy instead struggling hard for something you don’t like to do , the same principle come to choosing the proper decision in college too. I could tell you i more happier now after i switched my major to something i really love it.

  30. Gather, interpret, evaluate, and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources

    This sounds very similar to how the scientific method is used when attempting to understand the way something works in the world. A Theory must be made, and supported with information taken from many places. Although, having a lot of information isn’t enough; it needs to be interpreted clearly by others, and the results repeated. When this process is allowed to happen a clear understanding can be made of any problem and a solution determined.

    A clear example of this would actually be my current job as a Swim instructor. On the first day of class, for any level class, a quick evaluation is done for the entire class to make sure everyone is in the appropriate class. I must combine what mechanics I visually see in each child when they swim, and emotionally analysis the child to gauge how they did to understand what core issue each individual is dealing with tapping into my experience. Swimming can be taught in a varied of ways, and each person has a different style which can produce different results, that comes from experience and skill. I’ve learned to combine what I see, and feel, and using my past experience to interpret issues and find the best possible way to aid each swimmer.

  31. Communicating effectively involves listening understand and expressing oneself in a clear manner where others can also understand and relate to. Effective communication also builds trust and promotes successful learning and the desire to accomplish goals. Good listening skills and the ability to pay close attention is the key to communication. When difficult issues arise listening is more important than speaking impulsively or expressing oneself in a manner that is not just. It also allows all parties to feel as though they are heard, it saves time and it gives you the ability to think clearly. I think communicating effectively is an art which is learnt over a long period of time and is based on experiences.
    In my past semesters, I had a few group projects where it turned out to be disastrous because of the lack of communication. There was always that one person who figured they knew it all and could do it all and in the end they really could not produce any sort of outcome. Even though each group member had their assigned parts and agreed on the proposed outcome, the project presentation was horrible due to the fact that this one person failed to communicate with the other group members and produced their own contrary work expecting everyone else in the group to understand it and completely forget what they were working on before. This left the group members confused, angry and disappointed.
    In the engineering field or in the general world, I believe this skill of effective communication needs to be developed and constantly practiced in order to be successful and maintain a good environment.

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