Hello all, my name is Michael Harding and I am from Pittston, a small city near Scranton Pa. I am currently a senior public relations major who is minoring in psychology. Although I am taking this class to fulfill my last gen-ed science requirement I am looking forward to get everything that I can out of it. Even though my major is now communications, as a kid I was obsessed with the scientific world. I had dreams of being a paleontologist, a marine biologist, an astronomer, and even an architect(which I know is more technically math but I just loved to figure out how the world around me worked). All this came to a halt when I started taking honors science classes in my high school. Honors biology, chemistry, and physics were the downfall. In classes where you are not taught to learn the material, just simply spit out information you were previously given, its hard to maintain a passion. It soured my love and pushed me toward something that I was seemingly better at which lands me where I am today. I have fallen in love with the career path I have chosen but there is still some “what if” thoughts that emerge. 
click this link to view the page of the place where my dream of marine biology sparked due a family vacation, and an encounter with one of my favorite creatures, the sea turtle.
Michael,
I understand what you mean by “spit out information you were previously given”. It feels like in too many classes, you are required to learn a book and recite it word-by-word in order to supply a sufficient response. I believe SC 200 is the exception to this common problem plaguing science courses as the Andrew is focused on thinking as much as he is memorizing. Here’s a teaching article about understanding the material vs. memorize and forget: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/do-your-students-understand-the-material-or-just-memorize-and-forget/