Critical thinking & library information

(picture from internet: about.com from Marisa Benjamin UCSB photo tour)

 

Critical thinking, critical thinking, critical thinking... this kept lingering inside my brain after the lecture given by Dr. Lubach. I am always obsessed by the idea of critical thinking. It's so close to me yet it's so intangible: every teacher tells me to think critically like it's something you can easily come by as long as you try, but it's not. It's a way of thinking form by long term practice. Dr. Lubach's lecture gave me a systematic introduction on this topic which I didn't realize that I actually knew so little about until then.

I like his lecture because he connected critical thinking with real world experience that we can actually understand and he simply gave an introduction of critical thinking and left us the space to explore on our own (partly because there couldn’t be enough time to discuss this topic in depth). This presentation is short but it’s inspiring. For critical thinkers, reading a book is not about mere agreeing it nor about believing in what yourself believe; it’s about looking it at multiple angles, doubting everything (I believe). Through this way, you can discover a lot of amazing things hidden in plain sight and how exciting is that when you can see the world as a new born child?

 

Any kind of critical thinking must base on solid materials, which can best be found in library. Our short trip to library today indeed expand my knowledge for what I can do in library. I didn’t realize that we actually have such a powerful database which we can easily have access to. Simply by opening the library website and search the “catalog”, you can find what you can never find in the almighty google. For true scholars, our library system is indeed a treasure vault.

The most useful knowledge that I didn’t know is that I can get academic materials from EBSCO, a powerful database which can provide citation and many other useful functions. I now know where to get materials for my research paper.

About plagiarism

Plagiarism is a crime which can be very easily committed without even realizing it, that’s why every college student need to know about the detail of it to prevent actually fall into the pit. I didn’t know that there are that many forms of plagiarism before I read the two articles about it and it was until then that I realized that I might have unwittingly committed plagiarism before and for many times. There are examples of those most easily committed plagiarism, for example, I used to use some good expressions on a certain subject that was written by someone else in my own article without citing it because I didn’t know I was already committing plagiarism by doing so. These two articles are extremely alarming, especially now when we are about to officially cross the line between high school and college, to face more and more research and academic writing, to be censored by more stringent rules on our writings. Thanks to the two articles, we now have a better idea about what we can and cannot do.

The most significant idea of preventing plagiarism is, cite everything that is not 100% yours. That include other authors own expression, their examples, their sentences, and even your friends help, words from your teacher, etc. This is a huge range of list that a college student need to remember. Whenever you need to write something, just ask yourself, what don’t I need to cite?

Once you have the general idea of copyright in your mind and form a habit of respecting other people’s work, you will be careful enough not to step in the swamp.

Thoughts on lecture & career center

Library is one of the most significant part of campus life for it’s the place where all students and teachers come to look for resources to do research on their projects. It’s a wonderful place to study, to enjoy yourself, and to explore. It’s a sacred ground where knowledge is highly valued and open to all who truly craves to dive in the ocean of books. Even it’s just been 3 weeks, I have already spent most of my time in library, either to finish my homework or simply to have some peace. The lecture on Tuesday gave me an impression that our library is powerful and available as long as I know how to use it. It gave me much knowledge I didn’t acquire about how to utilize our library efficiently, together with many other surprising information of activities in our library. I didn’t realize that there are so many other functions of our library that I didn’t know and the lecture definitely offered me new ways to explore our library.

I’m really surprised that we have such a useful place on campus that I didn’t know of. There are so many information about how I can get an internship opportunity on campus which I am truly interested in, and other information about career suggestions of certain majors. I found a lot flyers that I thought are useful to me. Even more convenient for us, we can apply for an intern opportunity online, simple and effective. However I’m still not very clear about what my career should be and I’m still lingering between choosing occupations of my own interest and choosing the more promising work.

SRB & Career Fair

Student Resource Building:

Since I’m an international student and OISS is located on the third floor of the building, I need to visit SRB once in a while. It’s really a nice place, spacious, and have a lot of departments that aim to solve students’ problems. There are:

Campus Learning Assistance Services

Disabled Students Program

Educational Opportunity Program

Graduate Division - Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention

Office of Student Life

Office of International Students and Scholars

Office of Judicial Affairs

Orientation Programs

Student Affairs Grants and Development

Women's Center

This is the place where we should go when we have any related trouble.

 

Career Fair:

I certainly learned a lot from it today and I grabbed a lot flyers.

The first table I went is the econ major information table and from it I acquired useful information regarding my fall course and what I need to do for my major. I’m econ & math major, and I’m taking econ 1 this fall. However, when I asked if there will be a lot work to do if I take econ1 as well as other 3 courses, the advisor said yes and that I should put my focus on econ given the circumstance that it’s my major.

Then I went to US army table (don’t remember the name of it), and got some information about the advantages of enlisting into army during college or just simply take the class. If one get through 4 year of college participating their program, one might immediately get a title in the army as soon as one finish his college life. I’m quite interested in army because I once dreamt about being a soldier.

The next table I went was the Education Abroad Program. I’m really interested in Germany and their advanced industry. Moreover, they offer English teaching, which requires no German speaking skills. However the advisor said that most people who actually participated the program would actually feel the need to learn the language.

I found Asian American Study table thereafter. I’m taking Asian American Study 2 this coming fall so I went to ask some questions about it. I came to know that I can actually take Asian American study 1 which is more about Chinese, where I come from, and is taught by a Chinese, later during the next pass time. But what stressed me was, the advisor said that it might involve some heavy class works, which I might find difficult to balance with econ. They provide Asian American study as a minor too, which gave me some thoughts on what to choose for my minor.

Then I found another minor option in Spanish information table. Since Spanish is so widely used in California and it is said not to be a difficult language to learn, and I would really want to learn a third language, I asked a lot questions about it.

 

SELFINTRODUCTION

Hi everyone!
I believe you all know that I'm Johnson(John), but it's not my real legal name, which is Chen Zhong and in Chinese, 钟臣. Since my Chinese name's pronunciation if very much like Johnson, I take it as my English name. That's complex, isn't it.
I'm a Chinese boy who just flied all the way from China to LAX two weeks ago. So yes, I'm international. It's a real big challenge for me to adapt to this whole new environment. I need to change basically every habit I ever had, eating, learning, socializing.... However it's been a few days and I think I'm doing pretty great.
So why UCSB? I applied to quite a few other universities and four of them gave me their admissions( UM actually offered me a 1,6000 scholarship!)  but as a final decision I choose UCSB, because it's just so cool(not only for the beach, but more so for its students).
So far I believe I have make quite a lot of friends and I YEARN FOR MORE. So just say hi and make me a friend (it'd be cool to have a Chinese friend who can do so many weird stuffs including nunchakus and play ancient Chinese musical instrument).
Yes, you heard me right, nunchakus.
Other than nunchakus and musical instrument, I can also carve seal out of a stone ( you will know).
Favorite: Pride and prejudice, Lincoln Park, HBO(True Blood, Game Of Thrones), Supernatural, The Avengers( Iron Man, Hulk)...

My major is currently undeclared, but I'm working towards physics.

I'm now unveiling a whole new paragraph of life, and I have the faith to make it shine.

PS: I WANT TO BE FRIEND OF EVERYONE!