ugh, you guys...

I went to an event at the First Congregational Church, hosted by the Racial Justice Alliance. It was about Slavery in VT, and the current laws that VT has vs other states, and what needs to happen moving forward. Also, my friend Ally went with me and that was really nice of her! I didn't learn very much, and I didn't enjoy it. Here's why: I didn't come in with enough background information. With previous events, I either had a basic knowledge, or the event was designed for people with minimal prior knowledge of the subject. For this event, they dove right in, and I was a little bit lost from the start. There was a lot of mentioning of laws and cases that I hadn't heard of, and this made it hard for me to follow. The information wasn't given in a way that was easy to understand. The presentation was VERY text heavy (a few paragraphs on some slides) with almost no images or other visuals. It was all black text on a white background. The first three slides to...

Last night I went to the hospital for a talk on "brainwaves, stress response, and trauma". I had really no clue what I was walking into, but it said it was open to the public and free with free parking, so I went. There was no more than 15 people there, and most seemed to know each other. The youngest was probably a college student. The talk was an hour and a half long and was lead by Bryn Perkins, a doctory woman. She was supposed to have another speaker there, but due to snow, she couldn't make it. Here is some of what I learned: Neurons form synapses in the brain, which creates connections to form memory. They are helpful when learning to do something, because the more you do it, the easier it'll be. However, they also reinforce bad habits. Brainwaves are created when neurons "fire", or send impulses to each other. Because of that, the faster and harder your neurons are working, the higher frequency the brainwave is. Brianwaves can have different fr...

I did something super out of my comfort zone! I went to a " VTeen 4-H Science Pathways Café" at UVM. The basic concept is that teens do cool sciencey workshops and there's food. The one I attended was called "Infection Diseases- How Do We Combat Them?" and was lead by UVM grad students that learn about diseases and other sciencey things. Here is a breakdown of the two hours I spent there. Upon arriving, I was told to make a nametag. They really needed sharpies instead of crayolas, because it was a very smudgey nametag. Then, I went to claim a spot at a table- the room was arranged in tables with chairs all around each one, so very much not lecture style, which made me happy. Once everyone arrived, it was "eat pizza" time, which I didn't participate in, and then the learning started. The workshop speaker/leader, who has a name I can no longer remember, but couldn't spell anyway, introduced himself and the basics of the topic. Then, he introd...