The Harmony of Science and Religion in the Classroom

 Imagine being in a classroom where the wonders of the world explored through science coexist harmoniously with the mysteries pondered by religion. Instead of diminishing one for the other, we should embrace a holistic approach to understanding our existence and evolution. Is it possible that these two perspectives could lead to a deeper, more enriching education experience?  My experience with a teacher’s response to a question about evolution highlighted the divide between these two. I asked the teacher if there might be a divine explanation alongside scientific theories about evolution, but the teacher dismissed religions as “something people make up” which left me pondering the role of both perspectives.

Science is an invaluable tool that enables us to explore, measure, and understand the natural world. It provides evidence and fosters critical thinking. However, dismissing religion entirely in scientific discussions can be reductive. Religion offers profound insights into existence, purpose, and morality. It addresses questions that science alone may not be able to explain ( Cristine, 2011).  

The classroom should be a place where diverse viewpoints are explored respectfully. From time to time, I get upset when my teachers keep mentioning that we derive from a monkey and fish and sharks and whatever other animals we supposedly derive from. Of course, there is evidence that there are similarities in our bone and DNA structure but God also made us all as a unified ecosystem. In the book of Genesis of the bible, the Old Testament talks about how God created the world in seven days. The first day he separated light from darkness. On the second day, God made the sky and ocean. On the third day, God made vegetation on the dry land and made the sea alongside the land. On the fourth day, God made the sun and the galaxies.  On the fifth day, God made birds and fish for the sea. On the 6th day, God made land creatures and mankind. Could this whole sequence of creation explain the supernatural parts of our world? Some people just might find religion to make sense of how we came about. Imagine if my teacher had responded with, “Religion is complex and I won't say that one religion is right over the other, but there could be some sort of explanation that things exist due to a divine being.” 

Now some scientists will say, “Well look there is evidence here on fossils how we derive from every animal.” There are ancestors out there that show evolution but there is something about religion that can tie into their thinking: free will. Before sin, everything was in harmony according to the Bible, but ever since our first-ever parents decided to sin, free will exixsted, causing animals to become wild and unfriendly. Animals connected with each other as kind beings, but ever since sin, they became wild. From then on, animals would do their own thing exploring, hunting, and exploring that free will. In my opinion, this would lead to the brith and extinction of different species. Wouldn’t it be nice if a class would sit down with a priest and a scientist? Sometimes we have to think in a way that explains the supernatural and we have to let ourselves believe and allow for religion to come into play. 

However, there are some people who are still adamant that religion and science cannot coexist because of their different values, morals, and behaviors. Religion asserts a powerful god, while science is concerned with the facts and just dismisses the supernatural ( Ferguson). Evolution is a well supported scientific theory that explains the diversity of life on earth. However, exploring philosophical  or religious questions about the origins of life alongside scientific explanation can enrich students' understanding and appreciation of both realms. 

Advocating for a nuanced inclusion of both religion and science in education, it is not about suggesting one religion over the other or presenting religious beliefs as scientific facts. Rather, it's a bit recognizing that many students come from different backgrounds where religion plays a significant role in their lives. In this case, it plays a significant role in my life. Schools need to foster a more inclusive and respectful learning environment. 

In conclusion, the classroom should be a place where both science and religion can be discussed with respect and openness. You create a  educational environment that honors the diversity of beliefs. Both science and religion have their own unique contribution to our knowledge and existence. Students should feel comfortable talking about these issues and see that both science and religion can coexist (Ferguson). Would you like religion to taken into consideration?

Work Cited 

Cristine H. Legare, Aku Visala; Between Religion and Science: Integrating Psychological and Philosophical Accounts of Explanatory Coexistence. Human Development 1 July 2011; 54 (3): 169–184. https://doi.org/10.1159/000329135

Ferguson, J. P. "Is there a place for religion in the science classroom?" (2017).

Loving, Cathleen C., and Andrea Foster. "The religion‐in‐the‐science‐classroom issue: Seeking graduate student conceptual change." Science Education 84.4 (2000): 445-468.

Old testament, Genesis

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Dr. Schuman speech summary

 Machine learning is a very complicated field as it has the  potential to be biased. It brings a lot of data and research to the computer program so that it does its job to learn what it needs to do. For exampe. automative vehicles. They need data to collect from how other people drive and learn to be more careful. However, there are times in which these machines don't have the capicty to think ahead or react like humans do. Machine learning can be a very complicated concept. If its not given the right data or enough then it's at risk of being bias. Knowing that machines aren't all that smart then we should be aware of the consequences relting on these things from chat gpt to automated vehicles. 

Chat bot

 What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer program that communicates with a human as if it were a human. It tries its best to talk like a human and gives us answers to our questions. I see Meta AI having chatbots in places like Facebook and Instagram. Snapchat even has a chatbot.  Even Chat GPT is considered one.

For June 24th, we coded a chatbot using Python. I got to see backstage the amount of detail and conditional statements required to make a chatbot. To code every possibility is just crazy how much work it is. Below Is the code that I used to make the chatbot. It just greets the user and based on their response it will respond like a human would. Now I definitely can see where bias in computing can come in. 👀

Below I added pictures of my Facebook profile and pictures of my own chatbot that I designed. Now the screenshots don't look pretty well here but you should check out my page to be taken to Chat Fuel and see my flow charts more easily. The flow charts in my chatbot all depend on the user's response. If the user wants to learn about activities to do in Tennesse ( My chatbot is centered around my parents to play with and explore.  They speak Spanish so I tailored it for them) then it will output a list of activities to do. The flowchart, a visualization image, shows how things flow. However, I do see the pitfall in using a lot of flows and ChatBot. Clutter and the risk of not having the right responses for each situation. Have you ever seen an AI model say, "Sorry I can't provide you with the answer to that." Yeah, Siri does that a lot. This was cool to play with and gave me an idea to make a business out of Chat Bots. 😜

Natural Observation

 June 20th/21st  

For today's blog, I will be importing pictures and notes of our field trip to the Ijams Nature Center. 

               

For this last part, I did rush my answer so I will write it out. 

If I were to look at spider webs through the view of a paleontologist, I would look at the ancestry of the oldest known spider and how much variety exists from then. 

Pictures from our adventure:

An Albino turtle!!

Jinny is a part of the beautiful scenery

 

A spider web connecting and bending the leaves from the top to bottom

The squad!

Visualization and AI Overview.

 

I learned how to do a very creative Excel sheet for Stem Skills. I have had some experience with Excel but not to the extent that I make so many hyperlinks and make things so neat. The amount of work I put into this sheet alone was fulfilling and amazing. A dashboard that looks neat and easy to follow has hidden information when you click on icons. That was very cool to learn. It's like coding for code.org but in Excel. No wonder my computer science teacher loved using Excel.  This will help me impress my teachers and make my business/ presentations look clean. The reason why we need a data visualization sheet is to make things simple to look at and not so complicated. If we have the information represented as a chart, then trends can be seen better rather than just looking at a bunch of numbers without seeing the correlation. 

Titanic Simulation-

June 17th we programmed a code to predict the survival rate of women and men based on many factors like age, class, and sex. 

Survival rate for women: 74%
Survival rate for men: 18%

This is a table of the information likely taken into account. 

AI, Artificial Intelligence, is a program that collects data from various platforms to generate an automated message in a matter of seconds. We used AI for the Titanic simulation in which it would calculate the survivability of certain passengers. However, before making AI do the predictions, my group predicted that women were most likely to survive based on movie clips from the Titanic. In the movie, the workers prioritized women and children; therefore, women and children are most liekly to survive. When we used a code to see who would survive, the result came fairly close or favorable to the outcome that we predicted. It was more than 50% of the survival rate for women, meaning there could be a comfortable M.O.E (Margin of error). Knowing that AI made this code made me surprised at how fast it was able to make a decision. I believe that if we had the data then we would take more time to decide a result. If I knew how to change the code to make the percentage more stronger then I would definitely do it. 

Run time: 14.4 seconds
Best score: 77%

Overall, AI can be very impressive when it needs to calculate data and it predicted the same idea we did. 

CAFOS

 Today we talked about whether America should leave up CAFOS and our group was assigned to favor these factories. Here is what we took note of:

• cheaper and efficient

• everyone would have to change otherwise to eat organic food

• makes for fast-food production

•  mass production

•  yummy food

•  has a very big consumer base already

•  less cost 

• less manual labor

• antibiotics are good for you

• takes less land than organic/free-range farms

• Time is money so breeding animals at a mass would be much more easier than alternating to plants. 

• Fast food is accessible to low-income people if they can’t afford organic food

• We admit that the practices of animal meat production are unethical but of course, making new policies will make cafos more trustworthy. We rely too much on meat, so why not just change the practices?

Are Animals People?

If you do not meet all the criteria for personhood, does that mean you are not a person?

    When we think about the case of Happy the Elephant, she was illegally incarcerated just because she was deemed more intelligent than her other elephant counterparts. Animals like Happy should be recognized as persons because of their emotional intelligence, sentience, moral reasoning, and communication skills. We tend to underestimate animals, thinking they aren't smart, can't understand us, and don't know what they're doing. They know how to care for their young, navigate their environments, and interact with other animals in situations of threat or peace.  They know what to do with their babies, their niche, and how to interact with other animals in case of threats or peace. Even though we humans can't understand them, they have their other language and should be deemed as people too. Their just in a different physical form. Think about humans that speak a different language, or even a native language that many of us don't understand. They're still human, right?! We treat them as humans and as beings that think. So why not animals as well. Any living thing that meets at least one or two criteria of personhood should be seen as a person. Of course, we draw a line for abiotic beings since they don't have feelings, like plants, rocks, fossils, bodies of water, etc. Yet, situations in which animals are deemed as not a person is just wrong because we are giving way to mistreating them. Stop animal cruelty because they are people too with feelings!

Objectivity and Perspective

June 11th, 2024

Pitbull and bunny

In this video, a Pitbull is licking a baby Bunny and the baby Bunny is also cleaning itself. All of this is occurring in a bathroom. 

 You can interpret the pit bull's behavior in various ways in this video. I interpreted it by thinking the pit bull was cleaning the baby bunny. I saw that the dog was being gentle and not aggressive with his licks. In addition, he only moves his head to get close to the bunny showing no body movement which could also mean that he means no harm. When it does go to the clip of his paws being in front of him, the dog is calm and is not licking the bunny. However, I do make my interpretations based on bias and a whole-hearted point of view. I think the dog is showing their maternal side/ affection. When dogs usually interact with baby animals they tend to take care of them. Of course, there were other interpretations I found within this video like, maybe it is fighting the urge to eat the bunny, or the dog likes how the bunny tastes. Yet, I kind of defend the pit bull's actions by saying that it is friendly, loving, and caring. Sometimes pit bulls have a bad reputation for being aggressive animals. My grandparents have a pitbull and he is the sweetest dog I've ever met. That is why I think my opinions, emotions, and background with pit bulls favor the positives rather than the negatives. 

When we are trying to make an interpretation of animals' behavior, value judgments, and perspectives heavily come into play because we try to make sense of behaviors. Instead, to improve objectivity in these types of observations, there should be an environment free of interfering objects or people. For example, having a normal situation in which the pit bull would encounter a bunny at any time throughout the day and let the interaction happen naturally without any cameras in their faces. This would help us derive better observations and not much judgment. 

Even after watching the video multiple times, I stay firm with my perspective that the pit bull is licking the bunny in a motherly way. 

Printing

June 10th, 2024

    Today we started to print and let me tell you, I did not know the complexities of printing. What I do know as background information is that it's plastic and a computer follows these patterns to make a 3d model. When we watched some videos of 3d printing jobs, I was surprised by the different kinds of materials 3d models can use. Like steel, food, plastic, and more! Food printing is crazy in my opinion.         Having to follow certain measurements so that the printing job would come out right and figuring out how to group things together was definitely new to me. For example, making objects twice as big as the nozzle, a text size of 0.5mm and above, and a maximum 45-degree angle for printing. I have had no experience with printing, so this was definitely a fun project. I used Tinkercad to do my printing since it was beginner-friendly software. I decided to do a key chain of my name, hopefully I can hang it on my backpack! 

Computational thinking part 2 June 7th

 

On June 6th, I learned how dumb Chat GPT can be. We all have relied on this AI too much for our work, but to what extent is it giving us valid information? When we read a few articles on these systems I learned that there can be a lot of bias. A computer showing bias? How? It all comes from how much data their programmers allow it to go through. What I found remarkable was that people of color especially women were not easy to detect in face scanners and this poses the question of why? If a computer can show bias, be sexist, or not give full facts should we even trust it? 

    When we went to chat gpt to summarize issues about people of color and sexism, it gave me a very generic answer and an unsure response. For example, it tells me, "It is likely that this article says..." When I do want Chatp GPT to summarize articles for me, it tells me that it does not have access to them. If I provide it with a summary of my own, I realize that it goes based off of what I said. I even told it to give me a response as if an elementary teacher were explaining it, but instead of giving me some real issues that the article was talking about, it was just sugarcoating it heavily. Overall, Chat GPT is dangerous and not as smart. We shouldn't rely heavily on it and should come up with our own responses but at the same time, it can be a tool to give us ideas. It's just how we use it. 

CODING

I've taken a regular computer science class and an AP CPS course, but this beginner activity definitely refreshed my brain and taught me something new that Java script didn't. Coding in my head is like building Legos, which I love! The lessons that I took on Code Academy were just building on to my skills and I have finished all of the modules that were required. For example, I did not know what the purpose of this equation was for, %s. I will definitely do these modules for fun now!

SETI- Pseudoscience or science?

 

When my groups think of the research for extraterrestrial beings, we wonder is it all a hoax? What will the scientists and government do with this information?

SETI, Search for Extraterrestiral Intelligence, looks to find proof of life of intelligent beings. This type of research uses the method of radio signals to detect if there is something out there. 

Mia, Megan, Dahe, Anjani, and me, all believed that SETI was pseudoscience because it is currently unfalsifiable. There is notenough evidence that there are technosignatures, the drake equation is simply unhelpful, and it simply feels far from achieving a great discovery. 

Technosignatures:

The way that technosignatures work are by trying to detect signals in the sky to find any presence of advanced civilizations. Analyzing millions of stars for any form of life sounds like you are trying to prove your own hypothesis. The hypothesis of these scientists is far reach of something that seems very impossible. Among galaxies and galaxies, how will we ever get close to finding another life without the right tools? Instead of making these theories, then shouldn't they be researching ways to go beyond mars?

SETIS radio detection strategy:

It was said that Nikola Tesla was convinced that strange signals were picked up BY HIS massive transmitter tower in Colorado. All of these claims of detecting radio signals can be true but the questions lie on, was there bias? If it was his own technology, how do we not know that it is faulty or baised to any sound wave? We as humans can get stubborn to find reasoning to our logic that we make believe situations in our head. It could just be a hoax that people make up to spend time, make money, or just their board. Their process is of course science, but there no good science.

The drake equation:

Now to all of us, we were completely confused on what the drake equation meant and its significance. It is not based on observation, it does not predict forms of life, and its simply not falsifiable. It was even said in an article that the drake equation was very sensitive to bais. Red flag number 3. This equation was made by Mr. Drake because he "thought" it was going to work. 

At this point, if we want to prove that extraterrestial beings exist, we have to completely change our way of thinking. The drake equation? Nope. Using radio signals/ technosignatures. Also no. Now in the future, we can make better technology to get close to these "beings," but besides that, lets not go exploring unknown areas. 

References: 

A Primer on SETI at the SETI Institute

Technosignatures and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence | News | Astrobiology (nasa.gov)

New Model Predicts That We're Probably the Only Advanced Civilization in the Observable Universe - Universe Today

SETI scientists begin huge new hunt for intelligent aliens | Space

The engineering process

June 4th, 2024

    We went through the engineering process, which is a series of steps that engineers use to guide them to solve problems, to make a model that was able to transport objects or move objects with it. In other words a creative car. As we began this process, we had to go through the engineering design process and this is how it went:

Step 1: Define the problem

Our problem was to make a car/ mode of transportation that will move, is sturdy, and it has to carry or move an object. 

Step 2: Ask ( Research the problem)

The problem that we are trying to figure out is how we are going to build the car. What tools will we use to build the pieces. Others have used the slingshot method in which the car not only moves but it can diploy or move an object. That was our goal, to make a slingshot car. However, there some constraits and criterias that we had to follow. We had 10 minutes to plan and build the car. We had to use the tools only given to us. 

Step 3: Imagine 

We first started with imagining a regular four wheeler, but then I came up with the idea of  building this slingshot contraction on top of the base. The idea was to just have this pole and attach the rubber band on top of our base. In essence the rubber band would extend to the opposite end of the car, and attach itself to one of the long pieces given and slingshot its way.

Step 4: Plan

Down below is an image on how we wanted our car to look like, of course it does not show all of the pieces needed but we had a rough idea. Once we got to the materials, we saw 4 wheels and decided to make them into our wheels. The pillars, coming from various sizes, were to act as the connection and base to support the wheels. Some clamps to hold the structure in place and done. It sounds simply but we sure did have to figure out exactly what size, shape, and material we needed or should use. 

 

Step 5 & 6: Prototype and test

For our prototype we first decided to make the base of the car actually move. You, know, a backup plan in case our whole slingshot plan wouldn't work. At least it moves? Yay? 

As you can see, the body of the car is pretty short and there are these clamps inside and outside the body of the car. However, we did not test out if this four wheeler would move, instead we jumped right into finishing our proposed idea, the slingshot. 

Step 7: Improve

We really wanted to have this car to do a crazy stunt with the rubber band, but we just couldn't figure how we would connect the pieces together! We were stuck. It was hands on deck at this point. Lets put this together. No, this wont work. Actually were getting somewhere! Yeah no. And then the bell rang on us. Time was up! Oh,no. Lets just put something together and hope it works in these few seconds. 

At the end we were able to work with what we had and present our not so prototype "prototype."

Step 8: Redesign

As mentioned before, we were on a time constraint so we were not able to further make it better. We were definetly eagered to do more to it. 

At the end of the day, we learned that things take time and careful planning. Kudos to all of the researchers who take a lot of time to come up with something all of us can use. We'll be back 4 wheeler!

Self-Driving Cars

 From the beginning, our ancestors wondered when flying cars would exist. Guess what ancestors! We made planes? Does that work? Since that was not our ancestors' vision, we might as well make something cool. Automated cars! 

    With every new invention comes problems. There is a debate on whether if these Artificially intelligent cars should be on the road. Of course, it is revolutionary, but it needs work. Needs work in terms of programming what the vehicle does in situations in which a moral decision is needed. We all know that computers dont have feelings. Matter a fact, their dumb. So the scenario given is to either avoid crashing head-first into an obstacle, steering to the left and hit an SUV or steer to the right and hit a motorcyclist. 

    If I were to be the programmer I would choose to hit the car head first because there is always a chance of causing a bigger accident. An SUV is generally held by a family with children as their occupants. While motorcyclists, having gear or not, can cause accidents with other incoming traffic. This is truly a big dilemma. Now out of this context for a second, parents always want to get their children out of danger, right? That is how I think of this dilemma. Saving others while sacrificing yours. Now not a lot of people think this way but if it means saving other people, then head-on collision is the safest/unsafest way to go for a programmed AI car. 

    However, the car needs to be programmed so that it sees every type of possible outcome. This looks like sensors on the car. Detecting the type of cars beside it and even drivers if we want to get more advanced. Detecting cars would be like seeing what car it is, how old it is, does it have cargo, and what could happen if the worst were to come. With this foreseen technology then we can keep a safe distance between any car at any time. Although this would help us narrow down the dilemma AI has on morality, there will be problems to acknowledge with this proposed technology. 

For example: 

What should be the distance gap? 

Will this cause more traffic since cars are allowing safe distance gaps? 

What if the sensors are damaged?

How do we solve interface probelms?

    In conclusion, I would have the car programmed so that it crashes into the upcoming obstacles so that it does not cause any greater harm. This is such a complex topic that we would have to test out everyone's theory out to see what would be the best solution.

About Me

   

  My name is Kimberly Vargas and I was accepted into the GSSE Program for the summer of 2024. I have never heard about a Governor's School, which is a new experience. I am very excited to be here and learn many new things. I am taking biology in the afternoon! I come all the way from Antioch, TN. On the first day, I was surprised that I could make so many friends. I am proud of myself and thankful to my counselor for exposing me to these programs because even though I do not have all of these AP classes to take, I have other opportunities to explore. I come from a Hispanic household in which a lot is expected from me. I am seeking opportunities and I am trying to put myself out there. 

I took this picture for my trip to Mexico

Fun Facts about me: 

• I was born in Dallas, Texas
•  I play 3 instruments (guitar, piano, and violin)
•  I was born with Scoliosis ( I think this is a fun fact rather than a sad one)
•  I am the only child
•  I love exploring anything new
•  I love baking (especially brownies)
•  I am interested in working out
•  I love animals 
• I love taking beautiful sunsets