Moderation Papers

Nowell Stoddard Moderation Paper #1 As I stated in my first set of moderation papers, I believe that my Waldorf education in middle and high school has been incredibly influential on how I approach physics and all of my academic classes. I think that at this juncture whoever it is best to focus on what has changed over the last semester. So for this paper I will focus on my college work in the last two semesters. This semester I am certainly still struggling to keep up with my workload in my physics class. In the beginning of the semester I was so overwhelmed that I decided to drop math methods so I could devote more time to mechanics and give my other classes (like vector calc) the time they deserve. That being said, I do think the material is coming easier to me. I’ve started making much fuller use of the textbook and office hours and trying to spend more time on the class per week. Taking vector calc and even sitting in on math methods really helps and I can feel myself becoming more mathematically fluent. So I really feel that I have been progressing but the question is whether this progression is both fast enough and in the right areas. It is hard to say where I think my strengths are. In terms

I really enjoyed linear algebra last semester and would go as far as to say that it was the most interesting math class I have ever taken. My results on the last exam and one of the quizzes were worse than I would have hoped but besides that I felt that I was able to keep up with the material and had a firm grasp on it. Similarly, in vector calculus I preformed very poorly on the exam, in part do to going blank on a single concept that was at the core of a couple of questions. Still I should have spent more time studying and spending more time on the material from the beginning of the course. I still feel that I have a more comfortable grasp on more of the vector calculus material than I do in