Biotechnology Major in an Engineering Course:

My Experience in the Course

I first enrolled in this course because I wanted to major in biomedical engineering, but then I realized that engineering was not for me and decided to change my major to biotechnology. I thought it would be difficult to continue this course because I was no longer interested in engineering, After learning about the assignments we will complete during the semester, I realized that it wouldn’t be difficult to get through because most of the assignments were not engineering based and can work for other majors as well. The course helped to prepare for the world and the future and helped me to understand projects that I would possibly be doing in the job world.

The first major assignment I had done for this course was the resume and cover letter. I found it difficult at first, especially looking for templates that I can feel comfortable with. I had switched from Word to google docs and vice versa many times before ending up using a Word template. I had problems figuring out what to put on my resume considering I had no experience in engineering even though this was an engineering class, so I decided to create a resume for a job where I can apply the experience I had previously to the specific job. So, I decided to create a resume to be a forensic specialist for high school students because I had experience in forensic science in my senior year of high school. Originally, I wanted to do my resume for a case analyst position for the innocence project, but the position was no longer available at the end, making me restart my entire resume and cover letter. The class we had on how to create a resume and my classmates made this process a lot easier.

The Dice Probability Lab Report was probably the lengthiest project I had done on my own while being in CCNY. There was a long process where I had to roll a pair of dice for a multiple of 100 times. I would’ve preferred to roll it exactly one hundred times, but instead I did 200. It was very time consuming considering I had other assignments to do for other classes. I thought I wouldn’t complete it on time, but i did; which is surprising. The hardest part for me was finding a scholarly source for my analysis. Most of the sources in the CCNY online library did not support my analysis, but I ended up finding one. The options were very limited because I had to choose sources that were peer reviewed. I also learned how to use google sheets for the first time too. I had to make two graphs for the results using google sheets. I was never taught how to do it, so I had to watch some youtube videos which helped me a lot. The analysis part of the lab report was something I had trouble with because I was wondering how I was going to analyze my results and what sources to use. Analyzation is something that I always had trouble with in my writing, but I think I did a decent job on it.

The Proposal Project was very stressful for me considering it was during ramadan and my house is always busy during that time. I had to collaborate with three other classmates to complete this project. We divided the work equally between all four of us and even though I felt like I got the most simplest task, It was difficult to find sources on it. I had to find the cost per square footage and benefits of certain items for a new hypothetical student center and at first, I used the CCNY online library to find anything, but it didn’t have any sources I could possibly work with. I think I should’ve spent more time drafting my writing and spend more time adding or taking out some things, so the audience would know more about the purpose of the project.

For the Technical Description, I had to think carefully about who my audience were. Since this is an engineering based course and my major is biotechnology, I had to make sure that the information given was easy for the audience to understand what my purpose was; which was to educate my classmates about forensic DNA analysis. The sources I found in the CCNY online library were a bit too complex and did not have the right information I needed for my audience. I also had difficulty with the technology I had to use. I was wondering what program I could use to do my project on because there were limited options until one of my classmates had told me that google slides was a perfect option to use. I also learned more about the APA citation and how it’s supposed to be formatted; which is alphabetical order.

Overall, this experience was unique to me especially as a biotechnology major in an engineering course. The way the work was provided flowed very smoothly and there was enough time for me to do the major assignments. This course made me learn a lot about the real world and what to expect from it in the future especially when having a career.