EXPERIENCE 2

During the summer semester of 2016, I attended the Intermediate Composition Honors Seminar along with primarily medical, engineering, and design students. I expected it to be a typical English and writing class, but was instead pleased to find that the subject matter of my deliverables would be within my major of Industrial Design. I wrote papers that proved my academic literacy in topics that are highly regarded in my field, such as 3D CAD modeling and human factors. I finished up the course with a presentation to my classmates about a semester-long Industrial Design project that had involved 3D modeling with Autodesk’s Fusion 360 software. I was able to explain the difference between parametric and t-spline modeling strategies through an illustrative demonstration involving clay, Legos, and accompanying images of my work.

 

This seminar taught me how to seek out credible academic sources for my learning and research. By reflecting on a past learning experience for the literacy narrative paper, I was able to pinpoint the way in which I acquire skills best and how I can apply this knowledge and environmental literacy from one field of study to another. I also learned a great deal about mobile app programming, rodent dissections, ballet performances, and transportation design from listening to the presentations given by my classmates and reading their papers during peer critiques.

 

I am more prepared to engage in academic discourse related to Industrial Design because of the activities of this course. I studied specialized terms used in my major that I can now speak knowledgeably about during interviews and critiques. In the future, I can increase my knowledge retention by seeking out activities to supplement my learning since I am a hands-on learner.