Hey everyone my name is Mike Szawaluk and I am a freshman from Glen Rock New Jersey, just about 25 minutes outside New York City. I chose to take this course because it was recommended to me by my academic advisor as being a very popular Gen Ed. Although I am not very good at science in general the course description of SC200 really caught my eye because I have always been interested in topics “bigger than science”. As I applied for PSU I wanted to go into Physical Therapy or something along those lines, but my sophomore and senior year in high school I took Chem and Bio and absolutely despised them. After Bio I knew I would not be able to keep up with college level sciences so I have chosen to go down the business path with the intent on being a finance major. I don’t necessarily have a hard time knowing what is going on but have always been more interested in the bigger picture stuff, the stuff that is interesting.

Another reason why I am not pursuing a science major is simply the amount of work. And yes, I know no matter what major I choose there will be an incredible amount of work and studying, but just something about memorizing a bunch of long names just never suited me. I have always been more of a statistics guy, or a sabermetrics guy for all you stoolies out there, and being in a book all the time was just not my thing.

And just like this course, I have always been drawn to obscure science related topics that can be found anywhere. I love playing poker and have gotten pretty good at it since my friends and I used to play all the time. Lets just say that things got heated. And just like some of the creative topics that have been discussed in this class already, the science of poker is a fascinating one. Many think it is a game of luck and that the “house” always wins but it is a game of high skill and intelligence. The science of pokerHERE is a one that goes overlooked.