One to sum it all up

The past semester has gone crazy fast, and I ended up taking away a lot more from this class than I thought I would. Although there were a few topics in this course that were less exciting than others, I found myself drawn to a few key ideas. One topic I found very interesting, and relevant to many topics discussed, was our diet. I knew it was important to watch what I ate, but I was unaware of just how much my diet dictated my mental health. The physical outcomes of eating healthy are obvious, but the not so obvious benefit is our neurological health. I was unaware of how important our diet is in determining how our brain functions, and its ability to retain information. It made me reflect on what I was doing to my short and long term health; not only on being visibly healthy, but being healthy within too. Many of our discussions incorporated some sort of imbalance within the body, and came to the conclusion that if we have everything in moderation we should be able to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy.
There were a lot of terms and pathways I was not familiar with, but after my classmates helped me through some of the ideas I was struggling with, I was able to take away a lot more from what we were reading. At first it was difficult to take away information that was presented, but after we found a technique that worked, it worked well. Not only was I learning information pertinent to neurochemistry, but I was able to take what others had told me and use them in conversations in other classes or with my peers. After reading many of these articles, I was able to discuss some aspects of them with my friend who is majored in dietetics. Granted we have oddly intense conversations occasionally, but it was fun to use something that I learned in a class in a casual conversation.
One great part of this class is that we were able to have these mini-learning sessions that classes that are large would not be able to do. It took a little while to warm up to each other, but eventually we were able to create an atmosphere where people could ask questions that would never be asked in a large lecture setting. On Fridays we were able to discuss ideas relevant to our week’s topic, but take those concepts and run with them. We often ended up going on tangents, and for me, lots of it came back to what we were putting into our bodies that dictated our mental health among many other things.
Another aspect of this class I greatly appreciated was our “exams.” They were more like puzzles we had to figure out using information given to us. I was forced to think critically and put together a collection of tidbits from a paper, which would (hopefully) represent the hypothesis from the research article. Along with this, we were given an out-of-class portion where we were given the research article. We had to evaluate what we had put together in-class, and discuss how we were either right or wrong. From this, I learned how to effectively read a research article and pull out important information.
The class setting was much more relaxed than other chemistry classes, but I found myself just as involved. It allowed me to see my science peers in a different light, and I enjoyed being able to do so. This class challenged me to think in a different way because I had to teach concepts instead of being taught them. This class incorporated many of central aspects of a liberal art learning, and I believe that by taking this capstone I can be more responsibly engaged in the world, especially with being more aware of how to try to prevent many of these diseases we studied and trying to inform others of what I learned. Over Thanksgiving, I tried to start with my family, and just as we assumed in class, you can give someone information, but it may take a while for them to actually believe you and take their health into more preventative measures. However, it is now my responsibility to tell those I love the information I know, and what they do with it is up to them (but my constant nagging may influence their response a little).
This class was both informational and fun. I learned a lot about the pathways within our brain, and how these pathways can be affected by what we do, or don’t do, by what we eat, and by what mothers do/eat while pregnant. Not only did I learn, but I had fun being able to see a completely different side of my classmates, and being able to use what I learned in conversations outside of class.  This experience incorporated the goals of Concordia, and I believe that it allows me to be even more responsibly engaged in the world.