The Physics of Time
This freshman seminar was probably my favorite class of the quarter. It also surprisingly connected very well with the rest of my classes. Even though the different classes I took were chosen for different reasons and are not necessarily meant to relate to one another, I couldn't help but continually notice the intertwining topics and overall connections of the separate classes. For instance, this class inspired the story I wrote for HONORS 205 about quantum entanglement.
I would highly recommend incoming freshman take a freshman seminar. It's graded credit/no credit, so there is little pressure to "score well", its sole purpose is to educate, out sole purpose is to learn. I was very fortunate to have the incredible Dr. Chris Laws as the professor for this class. He's funny, approachable, honest, and caring. It was nice to hear someone say, "my door is always open" when I had other classes of over a hundred students. The first office hours I ever went to were his. On the first day of class he asked us each to share what we really wanted to do in our lives. He said he could help us achieve it.
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I went to his office hours to ask him about a strange dilemma I had--What should I do for my birthday? It may seem like a trivial matter, but it meant a lot to me and I was having lots of internal struggles. I was brand new to a new environment, where I didn't know anybody, and nobody knew who I was. What was I supposed to do for my birthday? He told me it's time to transition from having parties planned for me to planning my own parties. I took his adive. It was a little uncomfortable, I felt like I was in people's faces, telling them it was my birthday and that they should come do things with me. But he was right, people were more than happy to have a reason to celebrate. I had his class on the day of my actual birthday, and he ordered pizza and let my mom sit in our class. That was another great thing about his class--he brought us snacks every week.