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Venn Diagram Reflection
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About two weeks before we gave our final presentation our group sat down over lunch and we discussed ways that we could represent what we leaned this semester. All of us agreed that this class helped each of us to see the thin or overlapping boundary between science and literature. Our original intent was to go through our notebook and select a few key terms that we had repeatedly discussed throughout the semester. Thinking back to our lower school days (maybe for some of us middle school...or college) we decided to organize these terms into a venn diagram with the two main circles being science and biology. We expected that most of the terms would correspond to either biology or literature, but that some terms would find a home in the middle circle. However, the next week as we actually sat down to pick, examine, and place our terms in their respective circles we found that in one way or another each term belonged in the middle. Although the terms applied differently to the two fields, they were applicable to both. As we got to the last few terms it was kind of became a joke to argue that they belonged in either the biology or literature section, because placing it on one side was not going to fool anyone. I think that our exercise worked well in the class. While we did not have enough time to convince all of the critics out there that all of the terms can fit in the middle, like mgz24 said I think that if the class had had more time to think about each term then they would have been able to see where we were coming from. In the end I think that our venn diagram fully demonstrated what this class has shown me, and that is that there is a strong overlap between the sciences and the humanities. Coming into this class as a Chemistry major I had a very large thick sturdy boundary separating the two fields. While I can not say that these boundaries have been completely erased (see my upcoming essay), I will say that this class has helped me to drastically redefine my boundaries. I feel like I have a much better understanding of how literature and science fit together, and I am impressed by the degree of overlap between the two fields.
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