Hello everyone. My name is Casey Schaum and I am from West Chester, Pennsylvania. I am currently a senior studying Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management (RPTM) and have really enjoyed my time at Penn State over the past few years. I am taking SC200 because I need to fulfill a science general education requirement in order to graduate. My advisor said some of her prior students told her this was an interesting class. After hearing that, I decided to enroll and have found the course very interesting so far.

I have always found science interesting but did not have the drive to become a science major. Throughout high school I didn’t mind taking classes like chemistry or physics, but they did require a lot of time and work.  I wanted to choose a major that I am interested in and also one that leaves me with some free time. After exploring a few majors I came across RPTM and really liked its focus. Since third grade I have devoted most of my time to skateboarding, which happens to be a form of recreation. I am fortunate enough to ride for my local skate shop, Fairman’s, so I needed some free time to focus on that. Throughout the many years of skateboarding, I have become familiar with physics and especially gravity. Falling is a huge part of skateboarding, and gravity has sent me slamming into the ground many times. Physics also plays a huge part when it comes to figuring out the speed and timing to get over or onto an obstacle.

I have always been intrigued by science, and have always loved asking questions. After seeing the course schedule on the first day, I got excited to learn more about the many different topics that Andrew plans to go over. Topics like “Why can’t you live forever?” and “Do aliens visit earth?” have always been on my mind and I am excited to learn more about them. Even though I am not a science major, I feel like this course will end up being one of my favorite classes that I have taken during my college career. I am excited to learn more about the topics we plan to go over, and hope to gain a better understanding of science by the end of this course.