Week of December 3 - 9 Discussion #3

I honestly don’t know what concept should have been further discussed throughout the semester. I thought that every concept that was given to us has been discussed thoroughly by everyone through our discussion. I felt that everyone knew what they were talking about when these concepts were assigned to us. Everyone knew what they were talking about during these concepts discussion and if they didn't  they would have understood from reading other’s discussions and learn from that. I thought that everyone’s responses were something we could learn from as well if we didn't understand a concept. And if that didn't help, the summarized concepts posts by the professor should have helped. Those posts by the Professor has clearly explained each concept from the book and helped me a lot as well when I wanted something to be cleared. Overall a lot of the concepts during the semester was thoroughly discussed through student responses and summarized posts and I believe that there shouldn't be any concept that needs further discussion.

Week of December 3 - 9 Discussion #2

My favorite thing about the class was the discussions that were assigned to us every week about the concepts we have learned about. I thought this was fun because I got to read other people’s thoughts about many topics that were presented in this class. I enjoyed reading other people’s thoughts about these topics and seeing how they viewed many things and it also helped me learn about the material(s) even more. Everyone’s responses was always different from one another making it a very diverse class and enjoyable to learn from. I would have to say that my least favorite part was the fact that there was only one due date for the group projects. I thought that there weren't enough due dates for the projects because it causes a lot of last minute project work. I think that there should be other due dates for the projects to help stop procrastination from other members. But in the end this was a critical thinking class, and this must have been one of the best ways of learning outside of the discussions and readings.

Week of December 3 - 9 Discussion #1

Over the course of the semester, I learned many things in this class. The most memorable thing I learned about in this class is about language. Language has many different forms other than just communicating. I learned that language can also cause very emotional responses depending on what kind of language is used, which is called emotive language. Language has many ways to sway people’s thoughts and feelings and I thought that was really interesting to learn about. Communication is a really strong tool for people and the use of language by others was really interesting about since there were so many types I learned during the semester. Emotive language was the most memorable because I learned that it was used a lot in media. I found that interesting because now that I actually look past on what the media is expressing, I can see that they use a lot of emotive language to capture a lot of attention from people.

Week of November 12-18 Discussion #3

I thought that the most important and also interesting in this section was the content about “Research Methodology and Scientific Experiments”. I thought this was important because I believed that these are the main basis to prove something whether right or wrong, the results could be anything. I believe this is the most important part because it helps determine something that one might find they are unsure about. I found it interesting that scientists have different kinds of variables to choose from when they want to run their experiment. These variables include: independent variable (controlled experiment that is being manipulated), dependent variable (controlled experiment that changes in response to the manipulation), controlled experiment ( all variables kept constant except for the independent variables), and confounding experiment (not accounted for or controlled by the experimental design. I found those really interesting because it showed different ways scientist can run tests, which then leads to the other concepts that were in the text called Field Experiments, Controlled Experiments, and Single-Group Experiments. Field Experiments are experiments where a scientist observes their intended subject in its natural state. Controlled is where scientist has full control over their subjects which can lead in much kind of results. Single-Group is a study of one subject and scientist base their results on only of that subject.

Week of November 12-18 Discussion #2

There was time I accidentally marked my white shirt with a ball pen during school and tried to wash it off with water and soap. At first it looked like it was going away because it started to look like the water was taking away the mark so then I decided to just let it air dry after. A few hours later I got home and looked at it, it just got worse. Now the mark became a spot of ink. This was an incorrect conclusion on my part because I thought that water and soap would just take away the ink stain I made earlier in the day when actually it would have made it worse. I thought that soap and water would take away the stain because those together would usually take away stains. But since it was ink, I realized that it would take much more than soap to take away this mark. Through experimentation of trying to take away the ink mark, my hypothesis about this observation clearly showed that this wasn't a good idea to do in the first place and I should have waited until I got home to care for this ink mark on my shirt.

Week of November 12-18 Discussion #1

“Today will be a day to remember -- full of romance, intrigue, secrets and even one or two dramatic revelations! You will be in the thick of things right away, first thing in the morning -- so make sure you get a great breakfast and are prepared for some roller coaster hours. You are a featured player in this daytime drama, and whether or not you are the hero of the story is completely up to you. If you want to stir up some trouble, go for it! You are ready to deal with the fallout. “

I think that this prediction could be true or not be true depending on what decision I make tonight. I was invited to go to a party this evening for my friend’s Birthday surprise and I believe this prediction could be true in some way. It can be “a day to remember” if I actually follow through this invitation. This prediction I find 50-50 accurate just because it can go either way because of the decision I will make. I wouldn’t say that this prediction is falsifiable or not, but I do believe that these events can or not happen depending on what I choose to do. I am not really a big fan or user of horoscopes because I believe they can sway you to the decisions you make. After reading one, you would feel obligated to actually make those things happen because it says so. I don’t think that horoscopes are something people should rely on just to make it through the day, sure it’s fun to read but I don’t think we should take it to the heart and actually believe that we should fulfill these events that are said in our horoscopes.

Week of November 5 - 11 Discussion #3

This whole section about media was interesting and useful. I learned a lot how media can manipulate people through words and what they present through their media products. The concept that I found most interesting was “Sensationalism and the News as Entertainment”. This section talked about how most news stories revolve around heartwarming, crimes, or disaster stories. I found this interesting because it’s true, most of the time new stations present these kinds of news to the public more often. They often headline less serious things to the public because that is something that we usually find more entertaining. They play on human emotions so that we can engage with them. They find stories that will keep us attached to their channel even if it means exaggerating upcoming stories they have in stored for that evening. I’ll be honest, I have done that before. Right before they go to commercial break, they usually tell the viewers to stay tune for more news stories and usually the title is headline exaggerated and that’s what keeps me from switching channels because I want to see what that story is about.