Scientists and the Public

After listening to a scientist panel, I learned that working with the public is far more difficult than one would think. People tend to be skeptical, and data is easy to manipulate, so its very easy for people to be given false information. Scientists have to find good and reliable ways to publish their work and present it to the community, whether its through articles, journals, or in the case of one scientist, through the work of a photographer.
In many cases, such as the "research" that caused a massive panic about the safety of vaccines, data is manipulated and cut out to show a very biased and sometimes dangerous opinion. This has created an age of humanity where preventable diseases are making a comeback, due to the spread of misinformation. Scientists and doctors are publishing and performing experiments and tests that show that vaccines are in fact, safe, but people have been tainted by the media and diseases such as polio are coming back.
In all, scientists must communicate with the public as much as they can, even if it's through means of others. Misinformation is spread just as easily as real information, and can cause huge problems.

Good Graph, Bad Graph

When looking for information to explain a viewpoint, there are good graphs and bad graphs. For example, there are numerous graphs trying to prove that vaccines are bad and cause autism. These graphs are bad, such as this one.

This graph tries to correlate vaccines with aluminum in them to autism. Aluminum, which is a metal we use in our daily lives, does not cause autism. This graph doesn't label all of its lines, and shows no causation. 

On the other hand, a good graph shows how vaccines have been aiding in the eradication of diseases such as polio and measles, as shown here. 

Both graphs have consistent scales, showing accurate information. It shows where the vaccine first began, and how that affected the amount of people afflicted. 

Mountains to Mountains

Upon watching the films and listening to the panel for the Mountains to Mountains project, I could feel the amount of passion that the people had for the project. The effort and emotion that they all held for helping the people of Nepal filled the room as they talked, and it was almost tangible. They are the kind of people I wish to be, the ones that can help anyone around them.
Watching someone's dream to help people unfold in such a beautiful way feels empowering, and can make a person want to help people like that as well. Many people out in the world need help with whatever, and it makes me happy to see others working to aid them, through hard labor and advocating, designing projects and gathering funds.
People can do whatever they put their mind to, and Mountains to Mountains shows how determination can change so many lives. Watching them makes me feel proud of the world and what humanity can accomplish.

Science and I

As far back as I can remember, I have loved science. Of course it took a few years learning what is "good science" and what is "bad science." Science often plays into my daily thought process, whether it's reading articles and posts, or thinking about my personal nutrition.
I was raised to think on my own, so when I read articles, especially those not from an official news source (eg. Facebook), I always try to question the more outlandish stories. For news sources, I watched the local and national news on TV while I still lived at home, as well as reading Google News.
Science was often the topic of discussion at dinner, used as a way to gather the opinions of my family members while discussing news. A recent discussion we had that I can recall was about curving a test grade in an AP class I took last year. The talk started with me explaining that on the practice tests we took in the class, the teacher would add points to the person with the highest grade on each part to give them a 100. Those points would then be added to everyone else's scores. On one part of a test that I had been doing exceptionably well on, I had received a 100 without points, setting the curve at 0 points. This led to a discussion about whether or not I should have done poorly on purpose to set the curve higher for everyone else. The argument ended with me explaining that I didn't know I did that well, and the tests were for us to get better for the AP exam.
In my science classes in high school, I always had my favorite day. In Bio 1, that day was the day we dissected frogs. The freshmen hallway smelled like formaldehyde, but it was still a fun day. In Chem 1, it was the day we set hydrogen on fire, and in Chem 2 it was Mole Day. I brought in cupcakes!
Overall, I have always enjoyed science and all it has to offer. Becoming an elementary teacher would help me teach children to love science as well, something this world needs.