My friend was on Instagram and saw a picture of a celebrity, which then prompted her to start complaining and obsessing over how perfect she was. As she kept complaining, I thought about how she is not the only one to have done that. It seems everyone envies what they see on social media and become less confident with themselves. This causes negative insecurity throughout the social media’s population, as it suggests an unrealistic model of everything someone should be. This report gives information on a study conducted:

Participants: This present study consisted of participants from a university in Rocky Mountain. These 323(ranged from 18-55 years old) participants were not randomly selected, as they had to be enrolled in a psychology course at the university. The subjects were engaged in an online survey that asked questions on how they ate and their exercise habits. Their data had a good spread, with 294 completing the whole survey, and 172 as female and 122 being male. The results could end with direct causality(Social media–> low self esteem), reverse causation (low self-esteem–>social media), a third confounding variable that somehow affects both variables, or change (which is always an option).

Method: The objective was to measure self-esteem, as well as media influence. To start with self-esteem, the subjects were measured under The Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI). The study worked with the subjects replying about their comfort level in social settings. The way that the TSBI scale works is a 5 point scale with 1 being the least like the person and 5 identifying the most like the person. Based on that, the higher the score, the better the self-esteem; when the scores were summed up, they got a range of 0-80. In order to determine the influence from social media, the subjects were engaged in the SATAQ3 (Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance Scale Questionnaire 3). To explain how it works, it measures athletic pictures, overall media beliefs/stereotypes, social encounters/issues, and unrealistic goals media has placed upon society (being model-thin). It works as a 5-point scale like the TSBI did, only a scoring of 1 represented that the participants completely disagreed (contrary to that, 5 was definitely agree). However, the higher the score, the less happy and more insecure the participant was with their body.

Results: The variable of gender was considered and was taken into account; with that being said, the article report claims that they tested separate regression for male and female for self-esteem. The data indicated that females had greater results in wanting to be thin, as there was a significant correlation of their self-esteem and media influence levels. Self-esteem had significant impact in the overall women’s desire to become thinner. However, the report states that the influence of self-esteem did not stay significant when the social media came into play; it only became fully significant for males and their body-type desire.

From this study, we can see that social media has made an impact on the population of males and females, in the sense that it causes lower self-esteem and anxiety amongst its audience.

An additional source offers more data on the subject matter. A study was conducted to determine the relationship between low self-esteem and people with more exposure to higher social interactions.

Participants: College kids were the source of the subjects

Experiment: The report explained that the participants went through questions that asked about their habits on Facebook, their positive vs negative comparisons on Facebook, as well as their reflection on self-esteem. To measure self-esteem, the experimenters engaged in the Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale. To explain that, it looks at someone’s self-reflection. In order to determine the subject social comparison, they were asked about their limits on if they pay more attention to people on Facebook who seem to be doing better, or worse. The data was collected on a 5 point scale with 1 answering no to the question of if people looked more at people who were doing worse (5 was that they did a lot).

Results: The results indicate the Facebook usage was negatively impacted with self-esteem, as the p value came to .02. As the source gave a variance table with more statistical values, we can see that social media has negatively shown the participants with worse self-esteem.

This goes to show that social media is not just for likes, but underlying it sadly effects its population. Males and females are losing self-esteem, as they feel like they need to look like that model on the cover of the magazine; otherwise they will not be seen as what a woman/man should be seen as. The sad truth is that everyone gets impacted by social media, because we set unrealistic expectations that everyone should look a certain way since society says so. I am glad that I researched this topic because I was curious as to how much social media affected people.

Here is another article I found insightful on the topic of social media and its negative factors:

Photo Sources:

http://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/buildingselfesteem/2015/07/how-social-media-messes-with-your-confidence/

http://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/speakingoutaboutselfinjury/2013/07/22/struggling-with-self-harm-and-low-self-esteem/

A couple days ago, I left my dorm room stressed, in a rush to catch a bus to work because I would have been late if I walked, as I live in East Halls and my work is on West campus. That and the many assignments I had coming up were in my mind, further stressing me out. As I’m impatiently waiting for a Red Link or White Loop, I notice a group of students doing yoga in the East quad. It made me wishing I was doing aerial yoga with my friends, as I needed that relaxation. They were breathing in and out, getting the relaxation that made me wonder: Does yoga actually de-stress people? I always wondered if people who did yoga regularly actually feel less stressed when they do yoga, or if they do it because they think it’s taking the stress off. I decided to search for any insight on this subject.

An article goes into detail on how there is not a specific and official mechanism on what from yoga relieves anxiety, but it insists that studies on yoga have positively made impact on people. It goes into describing that it could reduce high blood pressure, help with heart failure, and other benefits. What I thought was the most interesting was where it tells us that yoga has the ability to help with cognitive duties and relieve stress. I kept researching, and here are some studies that bettered my curiosity:

According to NCBI US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, an article on the effect of yoga goes into depth for this matter. They explain how yoga is to have beneficial impacts on stress through its usage of meditation mechanisms. Yoga was believed to have positive effects on coordination, concentration, and relaxation. The article explained that a study had found that meditation and yoga decreased belligerent behavior in students, while another study found improvement in emotion health. The present study was then explained, which offered great intel. An experimental study was conducted to determine what impact yoga had with stressful subjects, specific to academics.

Participants: The study consisted of 800 students with an even spread of 400 males and 400 females of 14-15 years of age. The experimenters had 13 types of stress to measure, and chose to measure 1) academic stress and 2) achievement stress, with a total 132 items. The students were taken into their test for an hour, then their scores would be measured.

Experiment Method: Split into an experimental and control group, selected students were subjected to take a pre-test in 3 academic subjects: Social Studies, Math, and Science. The experimental group went through a series of yoga exercises(in the morning for an hour), ranging from pranayama and meditation, to a value program that lasted for seven weeks. In addition, both the experimental and control groups took post tests for the academic subjects afterwards.

Results: The top 30% of the participants were students with a low amount for stress, while the bottom 30% of participants were high-stressed out students ( ½ of them were control and ½ were experimental). It also indicates both groups’ academic scores differed, meaning that one group performed better. Looking at the ANOVA (analysis of variance) table from the source, it tells us that the mean of the experimental (32.63) was bigger than control (22.44). This means that the students who did yoga for the 7 weeks did a better job.

A report talks about PubMed giving us more information on the relationship between yoga and stress. Before it talks about the experiment conducted, it gives a little history and background info which deeply fascinated me. Yoga has been practiced for more than 5000 years, and has been a promising fix to relieving anxiety. The objective of the experiment done was to assess the role of yoga in determining its effectiveness in relieving stress/anxiety.

Experiment: This was an interesting approach, as PubMed conducted literature searches from 1974-2010. They looked up articles under stress-related relationships with yoga(56 articles), and anxiety-related relationships with yoga(42 articles)—there were studies with participants, clinical trials, as well as randomized control trials. PubMed used 35 of the articles for their report, which actually offered data that showed decrease in anxiety; but the data spread of these results were inconsistent. Even though a majority of the experiments showed significant results of lessening anxiety after yoga, the results were too weak to claim official significance. This was interesting to me because even though yoga is normally affiliated with fixing stress, this study was unable to claim that.

The same source notes an additional study conducted with women to give a more specific take on yoga’s effects. 8 females with dementia participated in a 6 week yoga trial, as the objective was to seek any improvement in their stress and anxiety levels. They found that the yoga had reduced their STAI scores (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). However, another study regarding the same procedure found results that tells us different results.

I’m glad I researched this, because yoga has been practiced with full intention on relieving stress and ensuring relaxation. While most studies I looked at were able to support this, one study was unable to commit to that conclusion. So there is no official mechanism of yoga as a stress reliever, but there are multiple studies that show a correlation between yoga and stress. So next time you feel like your head is running a million miles and you just need to relax, maybe yoga instead of Netflix, and you might feel more relieved!

For more studies on yoga, here’s an interesting report from Harvard Medical School that talks about another correlation with yoga: yoga and depression.

photo sources: 

Pinterest.com 

Home

Today in my hospitality management class, we were beginning to go over the next concept; Travel & Tourism. The slideshow showed photographs of different destinations that are often visited by tourists, and I remember seeing a picture of Switzerland on there. The kid a couple seats down whispered to her friend how pretty the picture of Switzerland was and how badly she wanted to visit. The friend responded by agreeing about how beautiful it was, then proceeded to say when she visited before, she noticed how everyone and everything there seemed so happy and stress-free. Then that got me thinking: What makes a country happy? Which countries are the happiest? My first assumption was Canada because they get free health-care, but I decided to expand that assumption. Here are my findings:

According to the 2016 World Happiness Report, Denmark takes number one as the happiest country. Following Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Canada are at the top of the list. The distribution of happiness report was written by John Helliwell from Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, Haifang Huang of University of Alberta Dept. of Economics, and Shun Wang, of KDI School of Public Policy & Management, Korea. The main purpose to decide the happiness was decided upon individual evaluation. To tie into that, additional variables were taken into consideration: social support, GDP per capita, freedom, kindness, life expectancy, as well as issues being present or not.

The results came from data of surveys conducted between 2012 and 2015. The data was retrieved from 157 countries, with a sample size of 3,000. Elements that were measured were life evaluation and a series of questions asked based on life purpose. After conducting the surveys, the data was spread from all countries and showed the impacts on each variable taken into account. The regression table showed that variables Freedom to make life choices (p=.039) and Generosity (p=.032) made the most influence on positive effects of the individual’s happiness.

In terms of measuring the ranking of countries, the data regression table also had a column that measured average ladder score (the average reply to the questions asked from the survey) for every country. Then each country’s data was divided by bars on the table which represented each of the 6 variables measured, as well as a 7^th bar to represent the sum of life evaluation & the life evaluation prediction error. Based on these measurements, European countries ended up with the highest results of happiness. Life expectancy, generosity, GDP per capita, and the other variables measured the highest for Denmark (score of 7.526 out of 10). Naturally, this makes sense as Denmark and the following countries are all European. These results are fascinating to me because the same top countries have been the happiest for years now, but it’s a matter of the countries swapping places within the top of the list as each year goes by.

After learning what goes into ranking the happiest countries and which ones were the happiest, I also began to wonder some additional factors. For example, the results show that for years, European countries have been at the top of the list, and those top countries switch rankings each year varies-but what makes the switches occur? A source from LiveScience infers that researchers found that the yearly changes happen from averaging sample size. So, the main variables measured (GDP per capita, generosity, life expectancy, etc) remain the same, but it is a matter of how many people are measured for each country to determine which country gets the number 1 spot. Another remark from the article caught my eye, which stated how researchers found that the population tends to be happier if they live somewhere where there is an even spread of happy people. An article from The Telegraph explains how Denmark’s taking #1 comes from the same variables stated from the 2016 World Happiness Report, but it also includes some more interesting information. It describes how other crucial factors add to the decision, such as the welfare and healthcare systems-which has led to Denmark’s wealth gap very small compared to other countries. An additional source claims results from another article that gives more factors that are believed to have been part of the formula why Denmark was #1, such as their culture, their level of volunteering population, and the fact that a large portion of their population bikes (which leads to a longer life expectancy as they are more fit). These are all elements that I had not thought about, but it all makes sense when it all adds up. Thinking about it, The United States has an obesity issue, and adding other factors measured, I’m not surprised that Denmark is #1 and America isn’t.

Next time I think about traveling somewhere outside the country, I’ll highly consider thinking of somewhere in Europe from the top of the list to not only get an amazing experience being in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, etc, but to experience what a genuinely happy country looks like.

I took a glance at the World Happiness Report for 2015 to see any differences or similarities, if you also wanted to check it out!

Photo Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://borgenproject.org/

I listen to music when I do homework, as do many other students. I like to have something always playing, no matter what I am doing. For example, if I work out, I play upbeat music, whether it’s pop or rap; and I tend to play acoustic music when I study or do work. Realizing how many people follow this trend, it got me wondering if playing music actually improves my academic performance and ability to focus. Here’s what I found:

An experiment from Georgia State University went into depth into this subject, more specifically the music type and its emotional effect for an added bonus of my original question. The report is written by Marjorie Freggens of GSU, and was directed under David Washburn, Ph.D. of GSU’s Department of Psychology.

Participants: 38 Georgia State undergraduate students

Experiment: To test their performance, the participants were put through a series of training tests on Dell laptops. The tests had the letter X on the screen that were colored as blue, red, yellow, or green. The participants were to press (as fast and accurately to the best of their ability) the right arrow key if the letters were yellow or red, as the left arrow key was used to indicate confirmation for green or blue letters. During the tests, four different kinds of music (happy, sad, tender, fear) played to check if that had any affect.

Interestingly enough, the results indicate significant relationships between music and performance. The ANOVA (analysis of variance) table showed a p-value of .043 for the difference between kind of music, meaning that it was statistically significant (p < .05 or 5%). More specifically, the results show the most efficient and accurate response time for happy music, as other types of music failed to find a statistical relationship (Tender music had a p-value of .059). While most studies focus on whether or not music improves performance abilities, this study was particularly striking to me because the type of music was considered to see if that had an impact as well. Happy music appeared to be the kind of music to enhance the participants’ performance on the color X test.

More research found more insightful results on the matter. According to this report of an experiment, we can see the affects of music on adults and kids. This report was written by professors University of Toronto, Canada and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University in Japan. The study measured mood/arousal and performance with music. The experiment consisted of 48 Canadian undergraduates that were tested in a sound booth. They listened to music (Mozart and Albinoni) for 10 minutes, then proceeded to do a 2-minute test, where they answered yes or no based on looking at a monitor and determining specifics of what was shown on the monitor. An additional test done was a letter/number sequence, which got more difficult to answer accurately as it went on. They were to recall the sequence in a certain order after seeing the sequence (one second/letter or number).

Results from the first set indicated statistically significant results, as listening to the music made an impact of mood with a p-value of .033. The second set of test results showed mood (p=.043) and arousal (p=.004). The next analysis showed the actual performance of participants, which indicates a statistical relationship between the test scores and listening to music (p=.012). Overall, these tests tell us that listening to music significantly helped with cognitive performance, but mood and arousal had different effects.

The next experiment conducted by the same team from the previous study was done with young Japanese children to test creativity and performance in kids.

Participants: 39 5-year old Japanese kindergarten students

Experiment:  The baseline session consisted of the students drawing a picture, then drawing an additional picture after listening to music. Out of four groups of the kids, 2 listened to Mozart and Ailbinoni, while another heard similar child-friendly tunes and the last group sang child-friendly tunes before drawing. After the musical experiences, the children were randomly assigned to draw a second picture, and the pictures (both baseline and after musical experience) were rated by randomly selected adults that were to rate creativity and proficiency.

The results offer an significant findings, as they found the creativity and proficiency difference from the baseline to listening to music was statistically significant (p=.004) and singing familiar songs gave a p-value of .001. However, there was no clear link between the classical music (Mozart, etc) in terms of the cognitive improvement. Overall, the addition of listening to music improved the quality of the children’s pictures.

At first I just wondered if listening to music actually beneficially impacted how someone works or studies or not, but these studies also showed certain types of music and their impacts. Looking at these studies have shown that upbeat, positive music tends to enhance the cognitive functionality in people. I believe it, because if I can get a certain type of music like that, I get in the groove and get a lot of concentration and work done efficiently. So, next time you want to study or get some homework in, try putting some upbeat music in the background that won’t distract you. Maybe that will get you generating more insightful work.

If you want some helpful study music, this is my favorite to play. It starts off slow, but progresses to upbeat and is positive that really gets me in study-mode.

photo sources: 

https://gradeslam.org/blog/does-listening-to-music-help-with-studying

https://www.goconqr.com

My roommate was on FaceTime with her family last night, which would include her four shiatzus. It was obvious how much she missed her pets; and after the phone call, she looked at me and expressed how much better she felt after seeing her dogs. It got me realizing how often I hear someone say how good it feels when they get to see their pets, and how happy they get when they are around their pets. I then recall times when I’ll be holding my cousin’s kittens or my friends’ dogs, and how much better I felt during that. So I decided to do some research and see if it was actually proven and known that pets are therapeutic for anyone. Here’s the insight I found:According to an article from American Journal of Critical Care, a randomized control trial was done to determine the effectiveness of lowering anxiety and additional factors with patients of advanced heart failure with a dog visit. This article was written by a combination of professors and statisticians of the School of Nursing and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, as well as the Director of evidence-based practice and a cardiac nurse. The study consisted of 76 patients randomly assigned to 3 groups, with each group being watched over a period of time (longitudinal study). The first group received a 12-minute visit with a volunteer and the therapy dog, the second group was given just the volunteer, and the third and final group(control) had the standard treatment. The experiment was repeated several times, as this longitudinal study followed these patients to get effective results.

The results show that the volunteer and dog group had lowered artery pressure, with the P-value decreasing from .03 to .001. Comparing from the baseline risk, the results tell us that the group with the volunteer and the dog decreased anxiety and improved the health of the patients. We can agree that statistical significance has been found, and the rejection of the null hypothesis as well. From this study, the authors of the article concluded that animal assisted therapy helps patients facing heart failure.

Naturally, another source gives us more evidence that pets are therapeutic.  Therapy Dog International (TDI) Inc. gives an interesting take on the subject, as the results from one of their numerous surveys conducted on their patients report back immense data that patients positively changed. The patients were observed as in a better mood, more social, and more alert than they had been prior to the study. The TDI report also provides more examples of experimental and observational studies done to get the same results.

Of course, this also goes for healthier people. An additional source infers on a psychological perspective that pets are therapeutic to humans. According to an article written by the Veterinary Clinics of North America on sciencedirect, having a pet and/or being around one can healthily influence one’s mental condition. It explains how the presence of pets tend to create an atmosphere of gentleness, peace, friendliness, and relaxation.  In addition, the source gives numerous study examples that support the hypothesis that pets are therapeutic and beneficial to health. Examples of this would include:

• An observational study involving a participant, and noticing his social interaction level was higher when the researcher had a dog, compared to the researcher without the dog.
• A telephone survey conducted a random sample of 399 people (200 as pet-owners) that showed results saying that the pet-owners were not lonely and felt more social compared to non-pet owners.
• A cross-sectional survey of 127 senior citizens indicating pet owners walked more and were more engaged in physical activity than the senior citizens who did not have pets. 44 of the 127 were pet owners.

It appears that the presence of pets have seemed to help with people and have made a positive impact, based on the study results. Another study supports this, as well as supporting how pet therapy, in particular dogs are the pet of therapeutic source. Every study mentioned above included dogs in the experiments, which got me to dig a little more and see how beneficial dogs are.  A case report on a ten year old girl with an unfortunate history gives interesting insight on this. Annie, a young girl who had an abusive father, was chosen to see if a dog would help her cope with her acting out, lying, aggressive behavior, and other side effects her abusive father placed upon her. She was observed before and after a session with Kotter, the dog. After her first session with the dog, there were signs of improvement, as her bad behavior declined, relaxation appeared present, and she was able to share her feelings. This study concludes the idea that pets and dogs are a reliably therapeutic source for any kind of person.

The list goes on and on. I’m not at all surprised by these results, as I have personally have genuinely felt happier when in the presence of pets. I myself do not have any pets, but whenever I get to see pets of people I know, I instantly feel better and am put in a happier mindset. So next time you’re feeling down and need a pick-me-up, go see your friend’s pet, or maybe invest in owning a pet someday. They aren’t lying when they said a dog is a man’s best friend! I’m already thinking of getting a Cavapoo puppy one day(puppy photo below), because who wouldn’t want to see this when they come home and is in need of peace, happiness, and relaxation?

photo sources:

www.breedersonline.co.uk

www.pinterest.com

I am alone in a plain, white room. The room contains multiple doors aligned on each wall of the room. There is nobody, and nothing in this white room except a clock. The timer counts down from 30 seconds, and I need to pick the right door. For 20 seconds I yank at every door except one left that must be the right door; except that it’s across the room from where I am standing. With 10 seconds to spare, I attempt to sprint towards the door, but suddenly I am moving in slow motion and don’t seem to be getting anywhere. I know that one door is an escape, but I can’t seem to get there because I am unable to move anymore. I continue to struggle in slow motion until one second is left, then I wake up to the real world. I always wake up confused as to how and why I had a dream with that exact scenario multiple times before. I looked up the ideas behind recurring dreams to investigate.

Psychology Today claims that the idealistic theory behind recurring dreams is that the dreamer must have some unfinished business, whether it be current (or past) conflicts or perhaps loads of stress. This is of course related to recurring nightmares. An article from The Huffington Post provides an example of how a past conflict could impact recurring dreams: a PTSD suffering veteran could have nightmares from war in the past. Recurring dreams are rather interesting as they can show impact from the past and present. The feeling of being stressed is not a crazy theory behind this, as I can recall having the recurring dream (more like nightmare) before when I was under a fairly stressful time. However, when the dreamer is not feeling stressed or does not have a current issue to solve, the dream/nightmare could not come again until the dreamer starts to re-experience stress or conflict.

I now know that if I wake up with that nightmare again, I need to evaluate how I am feeling and make sure to take care of myself; because this recurring dream I have is a form of my unconscious mind telling me that I am stressed or need to fix whatever is unresolved in my life.

Photo Sources:

thenextweb.com

todayspeopleblog.wordpress.com

I woke up this morning feeling like I needed at least another hour to feel like I could fully take on the day ahead of me: Classes, then work shortly after, while making sure to do homework in gaps of my day. Then I realized I may have a normal amount of sleep that is recommended for young adults, but then I wondered if oversleeping exists. I know tons of people who love to sleep past noon on weekends, and I’ve always questioned whether their excessive amount of time spent sleeping was beneficial or not.

An article off of WebMD claims that oversleeping is definitely just as bad as not sleeping enough hours. There is supposedly a correlation with oversleeping and serious health problems, such as headaches and back pain to diabetes and heart disease. Researchers have a theory that there are two confounding variables which could potentially be the reasoning behind excessive sleeping: depression and poor socioeconomic status. The idea here is that people who are depressed tend to stay in bed longer than needed, which is where the oversleeping comes into play. In terms of the next factor, the article sees low socioeconomic status as a reason for people unable to get proper healthcare to be over -sleepers too.

The human brain is also considered in sleep, as the brain is crucial to sleep. This article states how sleep plays a role in mental health as cognitive damage is an effect from oversleeping. In addition, the brain does a poorer job in restoring memory with longer sleep in comparison to people sleeping with the golden amount for most adults (7-9 hours).

There is not an official mechanism yet to explain how oversleeping can cause these health issues, but researchers feel that sleeping too much exists and it is not beneficial for us.  It’s interesting because for the longest time, I felt like I have heard that I need to make sure I get enough sleep and that not getting enough sleep is seriously destructive. While that is still true, now the other end of the spectrum is also seen to have negative consequences.

Photo Sources:

Home

www.brainandbodysolutions.com

I can recall getting numerous migraines from time to time, and I go through my usual drill to make myself feel better every time I get one: get some rest and take a pain reliever. I had a headache a couple days ago, and as I was opening the Advil bottle, I began to wonder how that tiny pill would function in a body to relieve pain. I wanted to know what happens in the body once a pain reliever is sent down. How does it consistently do its job?  I took the liberty of researching, and here are the key points found:

According to an article from KidsHealth, there are hormones that arise when an injury occurs called prostaglandins. When these hormones release, pain messages go through to the nervous system that tell your brain you’re having pain. Once someone takes a pain reliever, the medicine prevents prostaglandins from being created from the injured cells. This means that the pain messages transmitted to the human brain do not come as fast, which is when we do not feel pain anymore. I was not expecting to find out that when my headache goes away, it is actually just pain messengers not getting through.

I am glad that I learned how commonly used pain relievers like Advil, Ibuprofen, etc actually work in the body because before, I just knew of taking a pill and feeling better. However, now I know that that pill works with my nervous system to make my pain disappear. Next time I get a headache, I will think differently as I send down one of those pain relievers. I now know the medicine does not go straight to the injured area in my body, when it really blocks how the brain recognizes pain.

Photos:

painkillersaddiction.wordpress.com

masterstrack.com

Hi SC 200! My name is Naseem and I’m from State College, so I’m a townie and love Penn State.

I for sure am not science major. I wished I found science interesting. I really do. Unfortunately, I have always sat in science classes regretting I had walked in because I grew bored easily.

I look at my older brother, a doctor, who had to a bunch of science courses in college to get to medical school. He was not eager to take them, but he learned everything he needed to become a doctor and now finds scientific concepts interesting.  It’s not like I want to be a science major because it is not what I want to study, but I want to become more interested at least; or learn about scientifically related subjects that interest me. For example, I have always been fascinated by the human brain and how it works. That is a reason why this course is different; because it is open to analyzing a plethora of scientific topics. Everyone needs a science class as a general education credit, but I am taking SC 200 because I want to get a new experience of science and see if this class can change my perception of it. I’m a hospitality management major, and I know for sure I am in the right field because I already love my HM classes and have wanted to be in the industry for years now. With that being said, I am glad to be taking SC 200 because college is a great time to get the best education on any given subject, and I intend on getting a unique science experience from this class in comparison to the ones I took in high school. There is great potential for my perception of science to change with SC 200.