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Archive for category Academia

Electronic Music Final Project

Dec 15

Posted by Aaron in Academia, Geekery, music | 3 Comments

DownloadA while back, I had posted a project I did for my Electronic Music course. With the close of Fall semester, I have my final project completed. (FINALLY.)

This particular song is a full-length track, mixed, mastered (as best as I know how) that involves actual vocals recorded.

It’s worth knowing a few details first:

The song was composed and written by Melissa. I took her original chord progression and elaborated from it. The reason it’s called the “Epic Fail Mix” is because every time I would play her what I had made so far, she would just shake her head. Not that it’s bad, per se, just that it’s very different from her original folksy acoustic version.

Give it a listen — it’s about 5 minutes long; get ready for a bit of music whiplash about 3 minutes in. :) Details about the production are below the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Contextual Learning

May 29

Posted by Aaron in Academia, Musings | 4 Comments

One of my profs and I occasionally chat about his curriculum. This was his first year teaching at IU East and he’s still fine-tuning his style. The main roadblock he runs into, and I can totally understand, is that a lot of his students have a very nonchalant, sometimes completely ambivalent, attitude towards the course material.

One thing I suggested, for when he teaches Organic Chemistry next year, is to draw in real-world examples to help illustrate and provide context for the material. I call this “contextual learning” (there may be a more official title for it, but I wasn’t an education major, so I’m just going to call it that). Read the rest of this entry »

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The Ten-Year Growth

May 7

Posted by Aaron in Academia, Musings | 5 Comments

In a week and a half, I am graduating.

I started my undergrad, back in Pennsylvania, when I was 18 and I am now 28.  I am what admissions refers to as a “non-traditional student.”

I’ve been to five institutions, across three states, changed majors six times, and this will be my second and third college degrees: first was an A.S. in Accounting, the second and third are A.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Natural Science & Math.

This is really exciting for me, as I’m sure you can imagine.  Not only because it’s my undergrad, or because it’s been ten years in the making, or even just because commencement will probably be really exciting — it’s just the whole idea of finishing something. Read the rest of this entry »

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My last undergraduate term paper EVAR.

May 5

Posted by Aaron in Academia, Geekery, Science, bitches!, Writing Pieces | 2 Comments

Below is a copy of my term paper written for my Cell Biology course. I wrote it in a slightly less-formal style of scientific journalism, but didn’t spare on the technical details. Feedback, good or bad, is appreciated.

The Effects of the Consumption of Methylxanthines on the Adenosine Receptor System

Every year, humans around the world consume an estimated 10 to 20 billion pounds of coffee. (Gale) While some may drink it for the flavor, one can imagine it is probably the psychoactive stimulant, caffeine, that is the puppetmaster, beguiling we Americans to consume 200 mg (approx. 2 cups of coffee), and our northern European counterparts, up to 400 mg, every day. (ibid) For most people, it provides a useful mental edge: sharpening their focus and providing a subtle kick-in-the-pants of chemical motivation. Caffeinating over that sharpened-edge, however, can lead to disorders of sleep, anxiety, and even a jittery anxious quasi-hallucinatory state known as “caffeine intoxication”, all noted by the DSM-IV. (ibid) The other dark side is the silent escalation of tolerance to caffeine’s beneficial effects. Prolonged, regular exposure of caffeine can set up the consumer for an uncomfortable withdrawal period, ripe with headaches, myalgia, fatigue, and anxiety. (Ramkumar et al.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Overcoming Math Anxiety

Feb 18

Posted by Aaron in Academia, Musings | No Comments

I’ve taken Calculus three times (and registered for it four!). I had it in High School, at ESU in 1998, (registered again in 1999 spring), and again last semester. While I technically passed it in High School, I didn’t understand everything. It wasn’t until last semester that everything finally made sense.

I’ve always had this respect for math — I have always appreciated its importance but always felt envious of people for whom it comes so naturally (or so it seems). But it just always seemed to be beyond my reach.

A few months back, I heard this program on NPR where they talked about this book by Malcom Gladwell called Outliers. [Video: Katie Couric interviews the author] The subject was raised: Why are asian kids so darn good at math? The author believes that it relates to rice paddies. Rice paddies? Read the rest of this entry »

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