Throughout this spring semester I
am taking 7 credits, though I initially started with 12. I am taking Organismal
and Ecological Biology (LIFE 103), LIFE 103 Lab, and Science of Learning. My background prior to Science of Learning
and Memory includes: my associates degree, EMT certification, college in Iowa.
I currently am working on renewing my EMT certification, so that is another
academic like commitment I intend to use the techniques learned in our class
for. Prior to dropping to 7 credits, I was taking American Sign Language which
I intend to also maintain my current skills and potentially retake that class
in the future. My goals for this semester specifically are to finish my
semester with 7 credits, join the honors program as track 2, and achieve a 3.5-4.0
gpa. As far as challenges outside of class, I have attempted to limit my
challenges for this semester but know that I will be facing an increase in
challenges this fall as I will have an RA position. I intend to apply my study
plan directly to this semester but also briefly discuss ideas for my future
courses and challenges. This spring my greatest form of adversity is my health.
I am transitioning to being a student at CSU, which is a change that can impact
health. There is potential for me to end up hospitalized or with ER visits if I
do not make wise choices (more so than the average student), and even if I make
wise choices I am at high risk. I will discuss how I combat these challenges as
well. First, I will describe my course structure. After describing a course I
will apply the best fit learning techniques we have discussed in class.
Finally, I will briefly summarize my plan with a schedule and further
elaboration on maintaining my plan.
My most challenging course is my LIFE
103 Lab, or organismal and ecological biology lab. Technically speaking this is
combined with my LIFE 103 Lecture grade, but I consider the lab a separate
course. I am sitting at an 83 as we go into spring break but would like to
improve my grade to an 88 by the end of the semester. The class is composed of:
four lab practicals, initial lab report part A, initial lab report part B,
final lab report turn in, nine quizzes
(administered every week that
there is not a practical). The quizzes are short and worth 10 points a piece;
however, the lab practicals are worth 25 points each and the points are broken
down into halves often. I find the lab practicals to be the most stressful as
it is identifying and memorizing content from labs but several weeks later. My
first practical I received a 20/25 and I am awaiting the score on my second
practical but am guessing I received between an 18 and 22 out of 25 total
points. I would like to get a 23-25 on my next two practicals. In order to
increase my score I need to adapt my studying. While I am putting in the time
appropriate for studying I believe I am not as effective as I could be. Though
I have spaced to the best of my ability in the past I think I have some new
ideas on how to better space my studying for the lab practical moving forward.
I also think I have some ideas on how to use techniques we discussed including
imagery and organization in ways that I have not used already.
Moving
forward with my biology lab I
Pictured is my hand drawn out version of the laboratory charts that
naturally allow me to interleave concepts over multiple sections and organize
the material as well.
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am going to
integrate the following techniques in study sessions: elaboration, connecting
to prior knowledge, imagery, organization, spacing, interleaving. While I will
space and interleave in my actual study sessions of biology lab, I will also
space and interleave with my other subjects being Biology Lecture, EMT
Recertification, and Science of Learning and Memory. I will space my content in
my study sessions by including old and new information to study so that way as
I review I am not just reviewing one concept constantly. I will interleave the
old and the new by comparing organisms we looked at previously with current
ones. For example I will use the charts we have in our lab at the end of each
section that look at different systems such as excretion and respiratory. I
will compare the types of excretory systems such as insects use Malpighian
tubules while sponges use filter feeding so they do not have an actual system
separate for excretion. Connecting with prior knowledge I will use throughout
the entirety of learning my subject as well. The second half of the semester
will be more difficult to connect with prior knowledge as it is going to be
more ecological based and my background is much more organismal and
physiological biology. I am hoping to have a more efficient way of approaching
class however by watching short videos prior to reading my text that apply to
the lab we’re doing each week. For example in past labs I could have looked at
dissection videos ahead of time to allow me to see one way of identifying
parts. I think this will help me have prior knowledge going in as watching
videos is a very visual process and laboratory is very visually based.
I will use a few
different methods of elaboration, though our class is also set up in a way such
that we already have elaboration incorporated as well. In the first half of the
semester I utilized personal reference frequently as a method of elaboration as
I was able to connect a lot of the material with EMT experience or compare
information to how my own body functions as well. Sea cucumbers utilize
diffusion for respiration which is significantly different than that of humans
who use a respiratory system and exchange gases in the circulatory system as
well. This comparison is also a way of interleaving as I am comparing two
different organisms. I use organization in this class as we have hierarchies to
help break down traits. For example, sponges are the most basal animal, closest
to the start of the hierarchy, but are organisms and share common traits with
even us, mammals. The hierarchies are called phylogenic trees. The images below
show different phylogenic trees taken from our laboratory manual. Though our
class naturally generates examples, I am going to try to do a better job of
using those examples for studying.
Pictured is a phylogenetic tree taken
from my lab manual (Weedman and Prins, 2016)
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Finally for imagery in bio lab I intend to take pictures throughout lab (this is encouraged and permitted) and than use those images to create a power point outline of class. I am going to label these power points for things that will be on the practical. While this imagery is helpful, we discussed in class that single images are not necessarily the most helpful. I am going to try to create interactive imagery cards that help interleave topics but also help me remember different words. For example a squid has a part on it called a siphon while a sea star or echinoderm has a part on it called the madreporite. I would draw a picture of a squid swimming away while squirting ink out of its ink sac (the siphon is how it swims away also the tentacles) and the sea star taking in that ink through the madreporite and that flowing through the ring canal all the way to the tubal feet. In this example I have multiple images interacting. I am tempted to also try to use the house of lochi to help me prepare for each practical. I may draw this on paper to save or write it out and add to it as I go along through class. I think this will just allow me to dual code and is just another way to organize the material and practice using it with making deeper meaning versus just rote memorization. I have described a lot of techniques for this class however I have broken this down into before, during, and after studying techniques in the appendixes. I also have mapped out studying times for each class. I typically like to set aside 5 minutes a day to check my calendar and schedule my next day so I will use this to help guide me as I go. I know I will need to be flexible with my study set times, but they are great starting goals. To keep tabs on how I am studying, I am going to try keeping a journal of what my goals are and what I actually accomplish for accountability.
On the note of
interleaving, I am going to bring in my non-CSU class academic commitment,
recertifying as an Emergency Medical Technician. In order to recertify this
month (March) I need to take an adaptive computer exam at a testing center by
the end of March as well as recertify my Basic Life Support accreditation. I
wanted to briefly bring this up since I included it in my actual study plan for
the month of March, and it also is just too perfect for so many of the
techniques we have described. I also needed to plan out my studying for it
anyways. I say I am interleaving topics here because as I write this study plan
I am imagining how my concepts all overlap and instead of jumping straight to
biology I wanted to go to a similar topic that’s also very different. I must
review cardiology, respiratory, pediatrics, obstetrics, trauma, physiology, and
a few other topics. The exam is heavily focused on pediatric and obstetric
versions of all topics. Because this is
my third time taking the exam as I have to take it every two years to
recertify, I am advantaged in my prior knowledge. My prior knowledge also comes
from my experience both personal and professionally. I am able to generate lots
of examples for different topics. To best prepare for this exam I will
generally review, but I will also complete lots of practice questions.
Throughout my
EMT recert review I will utilize spacing and interleaving within my actual
chunked out study sessions such that I will mix up the topics I am studying
instead of going in order. I will also space out the frequency of which I
review topics over time. I have set aside nine days that I would like to spend
1-3 hours every day studying. I suspect that I will space that studying time
out as well by studying at odd times such as on the bus, meal times, or when I
have a few minutes to do some reviewing. As I review I intend to create a house
of lochi to study the topics I am struggling with.
I also will use interactive imagery to
memorize words and concepts. One example of imagery is house of lochi could be
helping me organize the chambers of the heart. I could picture walking in
through the door of the Mayo clinic. As I walk in I see the atrium. This is the
left atrium because everyone from around the world is coming into the right
(because the patients are always right) atrium and starting out their visit.
Then I see a painting by Jennifer Bartlett on the wall. That painting has 3
houses so I think of the 3 different names for the valves (mitral, tricuspid, and
bicuspid valves). This will be helpful because than I can think about how left
sided heart failure causes pulmonary edema as I can picture patients getting
stuck in the subway (underground pathway) representing the lungs. The pulmonary
vein is what the blood leaves to go to the lungs after coming through the left
side of the heart. In order to memorize medication doses and other numbers I am
going to try the pegword technique. I will do this by assigning a letter for
each number and than come up for a word or image similar to the way the memory
athletes did for memorizing Pi. Pegword is also helpful because I think of the
word surplus when I think of the heart and that is SRPLS and is broken down to
System-Right-Pulmonary-LeftSystem. I will use other techniques to help me study
but would like to keep this shorter than a novel.
For my third
subject, I am going to go back to the topic of biology. This class is
structured to help students be successful and I find its “easy” in that I have
experience in studying biology, but difficult because I want to push myself to
be the best. Going into spring break I have completed 2/3 exams, have 3/6
homework quizzes completed, and 50/100 iclicker points. Beyond the unit exams
we have our final exam as well. The class is lecture based Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. Laboratory helps naturally use study tools such as generating
examples, prior knowledge, and imagery; however, laboratory does not always
directly overlap with class and can be behind or ahead. So far I started out
strong this semester by asking my professor how to be successful in class and
his approach was looking out three different areas before, during and after
class. I have used this approach to break down methods as I prepared for this
study plan and have included those as appendixes. My biggest struggle with
biology is probably making sure I have the appropriate prior knowledge because
I find myself struggling to read the text “easily.” I am going to try a new
approach to this and space my reading out much more. I am also going to
generate questions as I read the text, even if I’m not able to perfectly answer
the question I know that it will help me further understand the material.
Finally for
psychology I intend to use all of the methods except pegword as I just don’t
see that fitting very well for me. I will only describe a few that I find
specifically important and helpful. After taking the most recent exam I find
myself using house of lochi and interactive imagery more so. I remember
studying with our professor before hand and struggling to recall easily the
types of prior knowledge. I came up with an image of a student playing chess in
an FBI hat (I used to have an FBI hat from camp) while waiting for their
laundry. This helped me remember 3 different studies we looked at for why prior
knowledge is so important. I think I am going to create images as best I can as
we cover studies and do my best to have them interacting.
As I create more images I will try to keep
track of them and also have them as locations at CSU.
So far I am picturing a student
studying outside with their laundry going on in the basement of Durward. I
could than talk about the elevator for elaboration techniques. I could picture
an elevator with 1 student, 0 students, and one with 3 to remember the study
that discussed how the more examples you have the more likely you are to
remember the topic. I could than talk about personal reference because I think
of getting stuck in elevators, and my most relevant way to personally reference
all of my current classes is through my EMT experience academically and
professionally. I also think using personal reference as a form of elaboration
is particularly helpful for me as well because I tend to come up with personal
examples and get excited about them. At the beginning of the semester we were
talking about study types and specifically manipulation subjected between and
within subjects. One technique that I think is well structured into my studying
and class naturally, is elaborative interrogation as well as generating
questions. Through our discussion topics I find myself asking questions a lot
about the material which helps me understand the concepts further. I also
naturally ask questions as I go throughout the text, but now I try to ask questions
at the end of paragraphs as well just asking if examples are generally true. I
do naturally relate this to myself personally as I have medical issues that we
briefly cover such as allergies. My favorite topic is mast cells because I
understand them so personally and most recently we had an exam question asking
what mast cells release in response to inflammation. As I study I find myself
using imagery generally as well, though I may try to create more images as I am
hoping to take the GRE and MCAT. Long term I find the more deep processing I
can do whether through imagery, or examples I am more likely to be able to come
back to long term.
Overall, I find
this study plan is helping me be confident in how I will finish this semester
as well as thinking about future semesters. I think my biggest challenges are
over studying in some capacities such that I don’t always give myself spacing,
but this can also be a consequence of being hospitalized. When I missed a week
most recently I had also missed the prior week of biology class due to my lung
infection. Luckily my professor records lectures, but I was having to mass my
lectures more than I would like, such that I didn’t have as much space as
optimal in between watching the sessions, studying, and attending more
sessions. In the end I actually got a 174/200 which is an 88 on my midterm unit
exam. This was only 3 questions off of my first exam, and I looked back and
found errors that were more test-taking errors than knowledge errors. So I
managed to do okay but it was much more stressful. I am proud that I decided to
drop my sign language class because that allowed me to not lose my semester and
have time for my other classes. I am going to continue to communicate with
professors, asking them what I can do to improve in class and utilizing office
hours to help me better understand material. I find office hours are a great
way to force myself to come up with questions but also interact with the
material on a deeper level. I am able to do deeper processing because sometimes
we just briefly touch on something that when I go to office hours we can go
further in depth on and develop more examples. Most recently I can think of an
example where we talked about types of immunity and cells responsible in class
and in office hours my professor went over how HIV impacts those cells. I know
this is beyond even how we discussed in class thinking about whether or not a
word has a certain letter in it to the actual category but I think my example
applies. To best describe my plan I have color coded my study sessions and what
my focus will be, quiz, unit exam, or final exam. I have not completed my April
calendar but tried to go through at least the next coming exam. I do not have
my regular schedule on my calendar as that
I have memorized. Every day I
have one class either biology or psychology, and on Tuesday nights I have
biology lab.
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