Anything I say about this class won't do it justice. Essentially teaching the philosophy of knowledge through interdisciplinary writing, this course was my favorite from my first fall quarter. Professor Frances McCue was excellent at engaging the class and giving us assignments that, while often long, were interesting and excited the class. We had a number of guest speakers from a number of disciplines speak to the class, including a philosopher, an artist, and a scientist. This was an excellent class that taught me to stretch my mind, and will definitely impact how I think about and solve problems in future courses.
What We Know and How We Know It was my first major look into how fasinating and crazy collegiate courswork—and the honors material in particular—can be. Everything I was asked to do was unexpected, but each assignment also unexpectedly taught me things I would never have learned in a more traditional, straightforward classroom. The assignments listed above saw me practice intense introspection, try to convey molecular biology to elementary school students, and attempt to write poetry with the style of master poet. These would coincidentally be motifs that showed up later in my undergraduate career, and the associated out-of-the-box thinking kickstarted my interest into expanding my learning beyond the singular biology degree I was planning to get when I entered college.
Next, another honors class, but one that returns to science a little more definitively: