It’s December and the semester in Neurochemistry has come to an end, and it has been a class that has taught me so much not only about different topics such as Autism, Parkinson’s, Obesity and others, but how to critically evaluate scientific articles and apply them to my daily life. I really was not sure what to think about the class once I signed up. I knew it would be fun since I’ve always enjoyed neuroscience, but I was scared about how difficult it was going to be since I heard that all the class did was read scientific articles. I’ve never been the best at interpreting at articles, especially when it’s about detailed pathways involving multiple mechanisms and proteins. And honestly, at the beginning I struggled a lot keeping up with the readings. But as the class went on, I began to really feel comfortable dissecting each article our professor gave us. Surprisingly, by the end of the class, I was actually enjoying reading them! They were like giant puzzles that I had to piece together.
How the class was structured was a great way to learn about each topic. On Mondays we would talk about the article and what we did not understand. On Wednesdays we would “speed date” and talk about the topic that we chose to learn more in depth from Monday. Lastly, on Friday we would break into two groups and talk about the paper as a whole and what we learned, still had questions about, and most often, applied our knowledge to how the paper related to our society. It was an awesome way to only help myself learn through my own research, but combine my knowledge with others for a better understanding of the topic of that week.
My Capstone experience was everything and more than I asked for. However, our professor told us at the beginning of the semester that what we put into the class is what we will get out of it, and I do wish I recognized this earlier. For the first couple of articles we read for class I often stopped at just reading the information, whether I understood it or not. I hoped that I would hopefully just learn the things I did not understand in class, but when I should have asked questions, I did not. It wasn’t until a little later in the semester that I began to delve deeper into the article and the internet to help answer some of my questions, and also ask more questions in class. As I did this, I began to learn more and get more out of each article each week. I’ve better learned that one should not stop with the question, but find the answer! Often the answer can be found, even if it has the word modulation in it.
My Capstone experience has taught me to think critically about all kinds of issues, and that there is not always a definitive answer. Sometimes the solution consists of many solutions, or that the right thing to do is much simpler than a complex series of medications targeting all kinds of different pathways. I’ve learned how I can help prevent Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and more. And probably the most important thing I’ve learned is that nearly EVERYTHING is best in moderation.
Laying the Capstone to My College Experience
