Teamwork
Unexpectedly, the most rewarding part of SSP has been the teamwork element. Teamwork at SSP highly contrasts with many of the teamwork experiences I have felt at school. Group projects at school are seldom fun, usually inconsequential (except for the group grade), and consist of highly unequal contributions. Many flaws in school project design makes it detrimental because it leads to quick burnout of students that always contribute the most to group work, while the ones who don’t miss out on the potential learning experiences the project is supposed to bring. These two types of student attitudes make the projects insignificant except for the final grade, with both parties hoping that the project will just end soon. This endless cycle can make projects that are theoretically fun and meaningful into tasks that are painstakingly dreadful.
So, how is SSP different and why do I appreciate group work at SSP so much?
I am glad you asked! (Or even if you didn’t…just read on). For one, everyone takes part! Woot! Participation and communication between all members are what sets SSP group work apart from most of my past experiences. My teammates Akul and Sena are passionate to learn about biochemistry and give their maximum effort for every single daily task. My teammates and I also work hard to improve, constantly trading questions and answers to utilize our strengths in helping each other get through tough material (although sometimes even with all of our strengths combined, we still need additional help, thank you TAs and directors for always answering our breakout room pleas for help). And lastly, my teammates and I have developed real relationships and value in each other’s work. We have become friends over the week, learning about each other personally (e.g., comparing the pros and cons of where we live). Creating friendships that bloom across thousands of miles and strengthening friendships that will develop memories (I don’t know why, but I already feel a little sad that SSP has an end). When a task is hard, we don’t give up, we push through and encourage each other. These are all reasons for why teamwork is truly more efficient than working alone and SSP provided me with one of the best teamwork opportunities that I have ever experienced. Bonus: I would like to show you guys the amazing artwork Akul drew for us that Sena is using as her MOE background. I know the awe you guys are all feeling right now, Akul is the actually the next Picasso:
QODs
Thoughtful, provoking, and witty are three words I would use to describe QODs. Some I can easily get in less than an hour, others stump me forever (until the answer is revealed, then I wonder about how I didn’t get it earlier…). My favorite one so far was QOD #7 (although I didn’t do very well), where we got a set of numbers and letters to think about what phrase they’d represent. For example, 7 D W would mean 7 days in a week. I look forward to doing all of them even though they are optional. And the optionality of QODs is another aspect of SSP I enjoy. All tasks at SSP lack grades and some tasks are optional. This means grades can’t be a motivator to complete tasks anymore and the stress of checking on grades also goes away. The primary motive of learning shifts away from receiving a dopamine hit upon seeing the first letter of the alphabet to enjoying the pursuant of knowledge. The satisfaction of finally finding the solution to a hard problem, working with a group to complete a long project, bonding with my campus through friendly competitions are all factors that build the light and rewarding learning experience that SSP offers (surprising because the work that SSP dishes out is both intense and difficult).
Guest Speaker
The highlight of Week 1 has to be Dr. Bevil Conway’s guest speaker lecture. Who knew colors can be so complex and influential? Although Noelle did give an exposition of Dr. Conway’s presentation in her blog post (which I encourage you all to read as well), I would like to share my views as well. Quoting from her, I would first like to say Dr. Conway’s lecture was “an EYE-opening experience” in many ways (totally stole Noelle’s pun, but please don’t sue me, I credited you). These include his thoughts on the cultural factors that pressure scientific thinking, debunking myths around the origin of colored vision, and an in-depth explanation on how color vision even works. I’ll give an example of each. Dr. Conway explained how human egocentrism is a factor that affects our scientific thinking, sometimes holding us back, and leading us to make huge mistakes. One example is how humans thought for a long time in the past that the universe rotated around the Earth. Scientific study of color is falling into a similar pitfall right now, how color is always linked with physics, even though color is more than just physical property. Humans even gave a special name on the EM spectrum called “visible light” to categorize our range of color vision. I thought that was interesting since really there is no reason that section should be called “visible light” other than the fact that it is centered around humans since other organisms can see different parts of the EM spectrum. This made me ponder about the objectivity of science as a whole and what other parts of scientific knowledge are being influenced by subjective beliefs (quite philosophical). Secondly, I always thought that we developed colored vision to better spot food because red berries would certainly pop out from green foliage giving us an easier time gathering food. Apparently, Dr. Conway hypothesized that that is not the main reason. His hypothesis connected the evolution of body hair loss and color vision together. Eliciting the idea that because we lost our body hair, primarily facial hair, color vision allows us to better detect the blushing of cheeks. This means that the primary use of color vision for humans is communication. Myth debunked. Lastly Dr. Conway gave us an extremely in-depth explanation on how color vision works in humans. Did you know that there are some people that can see, categorize, and identify color, but they just can’t think of what color a pumpkin can be?! Color vision has way more steps than I imagined, which are: detection, discrimination, linkage to shapes, and linkage to words.
Campus Block and Social Saturday
Campus block and social Saturday is when I get to spend time with my entire campus. It is also the only time of the day where I get to see Dr. Park. I am still wondering up till now about how she can tell that my shoelaces are untied and that my garage door is open 🤷, I think she just tells me that because my team won Codenames. Anyways, I really appreciate the effort Dr. Park puts into making the campus block activity recreative daily. It’s a time when we can learn more about each other’s hobbies and interests and play fun new games (Codenames, A word creating game with a bomb timer which I can’t remember the name of, and Fishbowl). Today we each had to wear or bring in our favorite T-shirt, and then we played a jeopardy game led by Team 8 (Kate, Alex, and Amari). Other than the fact that my team ended the game strong with -600 points (like the questions were so easy 🙄 please increase the difficulty next time, my team could have easily gotten all of the questions if only Kai’s reaction speed was nerfed), I did learn a few new facts across various categories (and Colin…we could’ve gotten that stuff animal question right!). This closes my blog post this week, and I look forward to the next 4 weeks of SSP. A statement that resonated with me during arrival day was one about how the days are long, but the weeks are short. I wholeheartedly agree with it. Week 1 flew by in a blink of an eye…which means I better stop blinking then.
