HIS 276 Midterm Reflection

Science has changed so much over the years of human civilization. Prior to this course, I thought of science the same way most people think of it: measurements, experiments, data, theories, etc. With the exception of when I took my Economics in Context course as part of the Green Learning Community experience last semester, I never stopped to think about science prior to Sir Isaac Newton, or to question the terms in which we view science as twenty-first century American university students. However, after starting this course, I began to question what science itself means. Much like I’ve begun to discover in my Environmental Science courses, I’ve come to realize that there is much more to science beyond experiments and technological advancement, as science stretches back to the dawn of ancient civilizations such as Ancient Egypt’s papyri detailing medical treatments or Mesopotamia’s Venus tablet. Science is observation, science involves questioning the very nature of human existence, observing the world around us, and it is intertwined with faith and human connection, something that is so often ignored in the consideration of science today. This course has deepened my understanding of and appreciation of science and how so much has changed since the dawn of civilization.

My newfound understanding of the history of scientific development can aid my understanding of the natural world, as much of studying environmental science involves observation and drawing conclusions from that rather than formulating an experiment in a controlled environment. My cognizance of this transformation also has the potential to inform my personal opinions and belief regarding the significance of ancient civilizations and has broadened my understanding of societies beyond the United States, such as Islamic nations and Greece, as I did not know much of anything about any ancient civilizations prior to this semester. I have spent much of my time in history learning about recent events, which did not provide context for the world views of those eras, often leaving me wondering how such conflicts and relations ever came to be. Now, I have a better understanding of international relationships due to having more knowledge on the Ancient world of Eurasia. Overall, this course has helped me to develop an understanding of world history that I lacked prior to this course.