This was suppose to be my schedule for Spring quarter. Ofcourse, due to COVID-19, many of my courses were asynchronous and I added an additional course (because not being on campus gave me a lot of extra time). I only ended up having CHEM 242 B meet in person, Honors 394, CHEM 239 B/BC, and maybe 4 times CHEM 242 BC. 

Overall, this class load was not bad because of the online format. (If in person, it would not have been doable). 

Honors 394: Feminism in the Borderland was my favorite Honors class to date. I didn't know before entering this class what Feminism in the Borderland meant. I learned through the first week that we would looking at Feminism of Chicana Women (Women from Mexico living in the US identify as Chicana). Professor Habell-Pallan brought in guest speakers from around the world (notably from Ecuador, a country I studied in my Fall Honors course) and engaged the class in creating an Altar. The readings and discussions lead to a half-day conference called Womxn Who Rock. This conference provided great conversations that rooted me in the conversation around identity and culture (it took place near the start of the Black Lives Matter protests). I found this class to be enlightening and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed the material. Above, my artifact, is the Altar that I made for the conference. Attached is the description. 

Biology 220 was particularly challenging for me. As the final class in the Introductory Biology series, this class is a large determiner in whether I will get into the Neuroscience Major (the major I have planned on since Freshmen year). The exams in the online format were open-note, open-colleague and lasted 24 hours. My first exam (of 4 exams) I felt prepared for and worked on for close to 10 hours. I ended up with a solid grade in a normal quarter and a very, very bad grade in the online format. This was really my first wake up call in all of college. I had to change my study style and test-taking strategy. I worked very hard throughout the quarter and was able to improve my GPA by an entire GPA point from the initial GPA projection. I am incredibly proud of the work that I put into this quarter and I think that the skills that I learned will serve me well going into Neuroscience. 

My artifact picture above is the note pages that I created to learn the material. 

Chemistry 239 is the cumulation of 2 years of first general chemistry and then organic chemistry. This quarter I had Professor Zalatan who was my favorite Chemistry professor that I have ever have. This, ofcourse, translated into my highest GPA in a chemistry course. What made his course the best is the way that material was presented: what was on the exam and nothing too extra. We were then given practice exams that mimicked the exam. I also had an incredible TA who went above and beyond her job to help us learn. With the online format, I was able to attend office hours regularly and she made sure that I understood all of the material. This quarter I used material that I have been learning the entire year and I am also very proud at the Organic Chemistry that I have learned and used in mechanisms. I thoroughly enjoyed this year. 

My artifact for this quarter is the final question on my first exam. This was by far one of the hardest questions I have ever seen on an exam (I may be bias) and much of the class couldn't solve it, but because of the effort that I put in preparing for the exam, I got it write. I feel accomplished. 

Genetics 361 is a really fascinating class. I think that this material is excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about genetics in detail. The problem with this class came down to the online format. The first professor just posted old lectures and this isn't my preference for learning the material. There also wasn't good availability of TAs or professors, so many of my questions couldn't get answered.  

My artifact for this course is a genetics worksheet that required in depth thinking to figure out the answers (pictured above). 

Chemistry 242 is a lab based course, so for good reason this wasn't my favorite course. I thoroughly enjoyed Chemistry 241 (it made my top 2 last quarter), however without being able to do the experiments and "blow things up" (just kidding ofcourse), this quarter was very easy and didn't require much time. I don't even have an artifact for this course.