Getting Started & Introducing The Class

As all UCSB student embark on their Spring 2024 quarter, I find myself enrolled in the UC Online course, writing 60. This class will introduce the topics of animal science and science communications, that I’m unfamiliar with but is why I chose this course to be able to expand my knowledge on it. The three major assignments for this class include part 1 which is the Scicomm Article and Literature Review, part 2 which is the Advocacy Project, lastly there is the Final Portfolio. The late policy for this class is our instructor may choose to lower the grade on an assignment by 1/3 of a letter grade for each day it is late. The reasons we have a grading contract for this class is to cultivate our writing skills and creativity by practicing! To be able to fully cultivate our ideas not looking directly for a grade that will please the teacher and to expand our own skills and knowledge. To be able to calculate our grades at any time we can simply look at our assignments on canvas and start counting from 84 and give +1 for any grades of 11/10 and -1 for 9/10, this adds or subtracts from it.

Moving on to the information learned this week from New York Times articles, my favorite one to read was the friendships of animals. It was eye opening to see how animals can forge relationships that are so similar to long term human friendships. The way that animals are able to sustain strong, non-familial relationships for the purpose of friendship or enjoyment was really surprising.

I’m excited to continue this research on animals and expand my knowledge through this class!