Student Bloggers
First Week and First Impressions
Date
February 2, 2018
I can now successfully say that I have survived my first week of classes in Scotland. I have to say how different their education system is here when compared to Arcadia back home.
At Arcadia or just in America, we have our set schedule with classes on either Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday. All at the same location and consist time.
However, at Stirling figuring and remembering my classes was a wee bit more difficult. I have an Introduction to Physiology lecture on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Monday it is at nine at Logie Lecture Theatre, Tuesday at noon at Logie Lecture Theatre, and Wednesday at ten at LectureTheatre A3. As you can see very different from back home and still confuses me sometimes.
As well as some classes have practicals or seminars that are a requirement. One lecture I have is Practical Science Skills where I only have one lecture on Monday at eleven. I also though have a practical for this lecture that occurs on Tuesday from two to five in the afternoon. My practical is like the lab component to the class and unlike the lectures are mandatory.
I have found that my practical/lab is much more hands on than that at Arcadia. At Arcadia last semester, my lab consisted of me sitting in an actually lab performing various tests that were set out in front of me.
However, at Stirling my practical involves going out into the field to do work. My first practical focused on mapping and using a compass which I thought would be a walk in the park. I already knew how to use a compass and I have looked at a paper map before. However, I found out that there is a lot more to mapping then I realized there was.
Even though the schooling is very different here such as my lectures are actually lectures with hundreds of students listening to the professor, I am enjoying the different approach. So my first week went great and my impression of the University of Stirling is that it is awesome here.