jpfeiffer's blog

I am elated to have the opportunity to work with fantastic faculty members and peers each day. When I began this fellowship I was a bit unclear as to what exactly we would be doing for ten weeks. I had browsed the Serendip website and read blogs from past years to try to obtain a little more of a sense of what exactly I would be doing, but they too only seemed like a conglomeration of ideas and thoughts which at first glance appeared to be un-related. Therefore although I was excited to begin working I honestly had the slightest clue of what I would be doing.

This page is my own random thought page dedicated to...you guessed it, random thoughts!

I realized that after starting this internship I have caught myself thinking in new perspectives about an array of subjects.

This blog is for all of my (and other's) random thoughts!

"... Disabilities are less the property of persons than they are moments in a cultural focus. Everyone in any culture is subject to being labeled and disabled... A disability may be a better display board for the weaknesses of a cultural system than it is an account of real persons... This paper is not about disabled persons. It is about the powers of culture to disable..."     /sci_cult/culturedisability.html

"Culture As Disability"

    Pigeons respond better when confronted with the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) than humans? Many would probably wonder how on earth this could be true. Are humans not supremely more intelligent than pigeons? I must admit that after watching television shows such as Deal or No Deal and witnessing the ridiculous measures contestants take (most notably rubbing the boxes as if that will bring them luck in the game) I can see how pigeons would have a leg up over humans in this experiment.

Monday, May 24th & Tuesday, May 25th Update

So. I've actually never played Sudoku before, but I am pretty excited to start. The game is incredibly addicting!

After three games (with the omission of one game) I'm averaging about 20-24 minutes per game.

Hopefully the phrase practice makes perfect is relevant to the game of Sudoku...

I look forward to posting some more (lower) times very soon!

Wednesday, May 26th Update

Two games today, 10:27 for the first, 10:32 for the second.  My concentration has seem to augmented, or maybe I simply had two lucky games...guess we'll see!

 Thursday, May 27th Update

Students (and visitors) should be aware that this is a "non-traditional" science course in several respects (see course information).  Its primary goal is not to convey a particular set of observations and understandings but rather to facilitate the sharing of observations and understandings so as to generate understandings as yet unconceived and further inquiries reflecting them.’- Introduction to the course s/exchange/courses/bio202/s10/syllabus.

One of the papers that struck me most was the second paper about Learning Languages and the ways in which one learns and reciprocates a language. For me, throughout my life the acquisition of new languages has always been very difficult. I struggled in middle school with Spanish and although I did well in Spanish in college overall and have completed my language requirement, I admit that for the amount of time I spent studying Spanish I probably should have been better. The same is true for Latin which, despite how many hours of studying I put fourth I was never quite successful in this discipline. This article also had me thinking about the ways in which I was instructed in these languages. Latin class was time spent only memorizing grammatical information.

I found these four papers in Neurobiology very different yet inextricably linked. Although the subjects inevitably varied- from making up the mind to learning languages, to the perception of different cultures to the idea of "I" functions, these papers all dealt with science in some aspect and the conscience and un-conscious part of the human brain. In the paper about making up the mind and not being able to trust one's brain anymore because it creates images of the world as we know it was both enlightening and a tad scary. It reminded me of humans losing th ability to control what they perceive since our brains automatically do this for us. Therefore we do not really have a say, so to speak, in what we see and how we perceive it since this is performed by our un-conscious mind.

Summer Work: 2010
 
Introduction for the Summer Science Institute: Personal Background & Goals for the Summer
Sudoku Journey...
Reactions to Neurobiology Papers
Personal Experience Relating to Neurobiology Papers
Course Commentary:Biology 202 
The Three Doors of Serendip: Comments

    My name is Jenna Pfeiffer and I am a rising junior at Bryn Mawr College. I am an anthropology major and a biology minor. Upon entering Bryn Mawr I was certain I was majoring in biology, yet as I studied anthropology it dawned on me that I could study both disciplines simultaneously as each focused on human life in unique ways. I am incredibly excited to start working with Dr. Grobstein and Mr. Wilfred Franklin as well as my peers at the K-12 Pre-College Science Education Fellowship at Bryn Mawr College because I think it is a valuable outlet to studying the ways in which students learn about science and mathematics as well as their responses to both disciplines.