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Hi everyone, I played around with creating an avatar of myself using some free design software called "open peeps." Go to the link below to create your own : https://blush.design/collections/open-peeps/open-peeps/character-avatar-and-backdrop/cJSvIp5SJQixR8L3?c=Skin_0%7Ed08b5b

Then create a new post on this board that includes your avatar(or use a photo or different avatar if you prefer), along with some information about yourself. Where were you born? What's a recent or long-time favorite food of yours? Do you have any pets? Any siblings? Why did you decide to take this class? What's one interesting/fun thing you did last summer, fall or over winter break?

For me: I was born in Corvallis, Oregon. My favorite food (at the moment) are bao buns. I have a cat and two dogs an one sister. Last summer, I went to Peru because my younger daughter was studying abroad and complete a 7.5 mile hike to Machu Picchu, which was the hardest hike that I've ever done! My legs were so sore the next day that I could barely walk.

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I was born in Joliet, Illinois. My favorite food is grilled chicken. I have one dog and two older brothers. I decided to take this class because it fit my schedule and needed another elective course to graduate this spring. Taking the Science Knowledge Quiz, I was surprised the number of questions I had got correct. I know a fair amount of science information, but don't stay up to date on it like I should. Something interesting I did over winter break was attend the Pontiac holiday tournament. This is something I do every year. It is a high school basketball tournament that takes place in Pontiac, Illinois. I've always had a love for the game of basketball, so I'm always found at a game or in the gym.

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I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. I have an older sister that works as an air force medic and a younger brother who is a college football player. My favorite food is the three finger combo at Raising Canes. My favorite thing to do in Boston is going to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox. I wanted to take science journalism because I have never really thought of focusing my writing on science, as I have been mainly writing about sports and news, and I feel like it will open up an avenue for new journalism careers. I was kind of surprised at how well I did on the science knowledge quiz because I have always felt like science is not really one of my best subjects which is one of the reasons why I chose to study journalism.

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Hi! My name is Hailee. I was born in Hometown, IL, but currently live in Plainfield, IL. My favorite food would be any sort of salad or rice/quinoa bowl with fresh veggies and roasted sweet potatoes. I have two dogs and two cats. I am the second oldest and have 3 sisters and 2 brothers. I decided to take this class because I am a clinical psychology major with a minor in journalism, so my career goals consist of writing and publishing articles related to any research I or others complete in the field of psychology. Over winter break, I visited Houston, Texas to move my long-time boyfriend into his new apartment to start work at NASA. We visited the Houston Space center and got to see Mission Control at Johnson Space Center.

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I thought this quiz was a fun way to test some base knowledge that covered several scientific topics. I scored at 9/11 on the quiz, which was not too surprising. I feel like I know basic topics of science, however I really do not know much about chemistry or physics. That was never my strong suit.

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Hi everyone, my name is Lourdes Medina. I am a senior studying Political Science and Psychology with a minor in Journalism. I am from Chicago, where I have grown up my entire life. I have a dog named Skittles, and I am an only child. My favorite food is pasta. I decided to take this course as an elective for my Journalism minor. Over winter break, I traveled to Guatemala with my mom to visit my grandparents. We visited my grandpa's coffee bean field, which I had never seen before!

I received a 7/11 on the quiz. I learned a few things and did not expect to know what I knew. For example, I was not familiar with the genetic engineering question but knew the question about fossil fuels. I liked testing my knowledge prior to beginning the course.

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Hey guys, I'm Aaron! I was born and raised in Mundelein, Illinois and have two siblings, both of whom also graduated from UIUC. A long-time favorite food of mine is Reuben Sandwiches, which has been reinvigorated, for better or worse, by living close to Murphy's Pub which has excellent Reubens. However, a recent favorite food of mine lately has been sushi, and campus is a great place to get into it. I decided to take this class because I've always been interested in science, but it's definitely been an academic blindspot of mine for a while. I scored higher, 9/11, on the quiz than I expected, and I found it enjoyable to take. What better place to learn how to communicate more intelligently about science than through the lens of science journalism?

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Hi! My name is Jakia. I was born and raised in Chicago as the only child. I am currently hooked on crab rangoon; it's been one of my favorite go-to foods when returning home. I have one pet, a pittie, who I spent most of my time with over winter break. I decided to take this class because I want to explore and learn as many beats as possible in journalism. Being versatile will open more doors and provide a wider range for reporting and showcasing my work. Also, like many others, I was surprised by my performance on the science test. While science can be fascinating, it hasn’t always been my favorite subject. However, I still think it's important in this field to be able to make science digestible for the rest, so I am hoping I can learn to do just that!

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I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My favorite food is pasta, really almost any pasta dish is great with me. I have one younger brother and two cats. I decided to take this class because as a journalism major, I wanted to venture into a subject matter that I had very little previous experience with, and science is that for me. Plus, I've always struggled with science as a school subject and thought approaching it from a journalistic perspective could help me learn more about it. To that point, I was fairly surprised that I scored an 8/11 on the science knowledge quiz, but I thought it was a good test of basic science knowledge without digging into topics too complicated or hard to understand. Last summer, my family and I visited Lake Tahoe which was a really cool trip. The scenery in that area is unlike anything I've ever seen and some of the hikes and car rides we were able to go on were incredible.

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I was born in Deerfield, Illinois. My favorite food is Pizza. I have two dogs and one brother. Last summer, I was a head counselor at Camp Ojibwa, an Eagle River, Wisconsin overnight sports camp. I chose to take this class because as a journalism major, I want to expand my knowledge in journalism to different fields.

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Hi everyone, my name is Faith! I was born in Chicago, IL, but I currently live in Flossmoor, IL (a south suburb of Chicago). For the past few months, I've been obsessed with eating Wingstop, but my all time favorite food is pizza. I have two siblings, an older sister who lives in New York City and a younger brother who attends UIUC with me. Some fun things I did over last summer were travel to New York City for the first time and attend the DNC! I am taking this course as an elective to finish up one of my final degree requirements.

I took the science quiz and was not surprised at all by the score I received. I was never the best or very interested in science growing up and it's been a very long time since I've taken a science course. I hope that taking this class will help refresh some of my scientific knowledge!

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Hello! My name is Lindsey, and I am from Bartlett, Illinois. My all-time favorite food is steak, but I always love anything chocolate and sweet. I have one dog named Callie and two older sisters. With this semester being my last on campus, I wanted to take some courses in which I have very little experience. I have never done science-specific journalistic work, so I am excited to explore an area that is unfamiliar to me. Last summer, I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Italy, where we visited five different cities. It was the trip of a lifetime, and I would love to go back someday!

Given my limited science background, I received an 8/11 on the quiz. I believe that I have a basic understanding of science elements which allows me to use context for areas I am uneducated in. I thought that the quiz covered a vast array of topics and I am excited to learn about science in a different format than I have ever used before - journalism ethics rather than straight lectures and exams.

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Hi! My name is Megan, and I was born in Dyer, Indiana. My all-time favorite food is pierogies, but I love any and all pasta. I have a dog named Ginger, a seven-pound Yorkie and Maltese mix, and I have a younger brother who is a freshman in high school. My favorite memory from winter break was having game nights with my friends and learning how to play pool. I decided to take this class because I liked that it was online and fit easily into my schedule, and I also have an interest in reporting on public health-related topics. I was surprised with my 10/11 score on the science quiz because science has never been a strong subject for me. I think having several questions related to health/medicine helped my score.

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Hi everyone!

I was born in Grayslake, Illinois. My favorite food is sushi! I have a cute little Boston Terrier named Rizzo at home (I miss him very much). Over winter break, I traveled into Chicago and spent quality time with friends and family. That trip was probably my favorite part of break!

I decided to take this class because it seemed interesting and I wanted to learn more about the mechanics and techniques of a science-centered beat in journalism. I have had to write scientific pieces in the past, so I figured this course would help expand my knowledge. I was surprised to find that I got 8/11 questions right on the Scientific Knowledge Quiz. I wasn't super sure on some questions, but I felt the quiz covered a variety of scientific topics that would be explored in journalism. I do not have a great grasp on science and I used to prefer the humanities when I had to take science in high school. However, I think it's time to challenge my prior knowledge!

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Hi, all! My name is Darina, and I'm from Elk Grove Village, IL! I was born in Melrose Park, IL! I've always been around that area, and I transferred to Illinois from my City College! I decided to take this class because it fits into my degree audit and because I have written science-centered articles before, and I thought it would be a good class to enroll in. One of the best moments I had during summer break was going to New York again! It's my favorite city, besides Chicago, of course!

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I was born in Champaign, Illinois. I have always enjoyed eating pasta. I also love sushi. I have one dog, named Rizzo. I have two siblings one ten years older and one two years younger. I am excited to expand my journalism skills by covering a topic I normally wouldn't. I am focusing on sports journalism so having the skills in other topics I feel will only improve my overall writing knowledge. This past summer I visited Europe for over a month. I visited five different countries, my favorite being Paris. Over winter break I went to California to visit my older brother and his fiance, we did a lot of hiking, yoga, and of course ate lots of sushi. I actually did not do as bad as I thought but also I was a biology major the first two years of college here so that probably helped!

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I am Andrew Burkey and I am from Huntley, Illinois, but was born in Peoria, Illinois. My favorite food has been the same since I as long as I can remember, and it is cheeseburgers. I do not have any pets. I have a younger sister who is graduating from high school this year. I decided to take this class because it filled a requirement, however I am very interested by science, partly due to the fact that my mother was a science teacher. Over the summer, my family took a trip to Los Angeles, and I was able to go into the press box at Dodger Stadium and SoFi Stadium.

I received a 10/11 on the quiz. I thought the quiz was interesting because it covered a lot of different ground in the field of science. Like I said earlier in my post, my mom was a science teacher, so being around her has raised my scientifical knowledge. Seeing where I was before we start the course was helpful.

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I have always liked these quizzes or tests at the beginning of semesters because they provide a good baseline for knowing where I am in the subject. It also helps the teacher know what areas we should work on as a class and individually. I wasn't surprised at my low score because I haven't taken much Science in my life. I am excited to learn and see if my score improves as the semester goes on!

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Hi, I'm Eric, I'm 23 years old and I am from Tuscola, Illinois. It's a small town 30 minutes south of Champaign. I own a pitbull back home. I have one sibling an older sister. I am taking this course cause it fulfills a requirement I need to graduate this May. Over the winter break, I go down to St Louis to watch the Illinois bragging rights game against Mizzou. My family usually takes me to those events like the bragging rights game.

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Hi guys! My name is Ashley Howerter.

I was born at home actually in a small town called Marietta in central Illinois. A long time favorite food of mine would be cereal. I LOVE cereal. More specifically Fruity Pebbles. I have two dogs, one is a German Shepard mix and the other is a Newfoundland. They are both big dogs, but our Newfoundland (her name is Daphne) is huge. She is probably like 15 pounds overweight, but we love her. I have seven siblings. Four of them are adopted (three from Colombia and one from China). My other three siblings are biologically related to me. I am third inline. I decided to take this class because I heard it was fun and my friends actually learned a lot from it. Over summer break I lived in Austin Texas! It was fun but I hated the heat. But the food and music was great!

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I thought the quiz was quick to get through and was nice to show my knowledge on certain topics. It shocked me with some of the questions how much I knew cause I hadn't taken a science class or anything focused on science in a while so I was surprised with the amount of information that I had retained from over that time.

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Hello everyone, I’m Jacob Karman! I am a senior from Highland Park Illinois, a suburb North of Chicago. I have a younger brother who is going into college next year.

I definitely take pride in my nerdy side as I love games and other things, but I also love sports and music, of which I collect records.

Over winter break I went to Nashville with a friend of mine where we met an uncommon snowfall in the area.

I was not surprised however by my 6/11 score as the last time I took anything science related was freshman year in college so there is definitely some rust to brush off. However, I grew up loving science so I can anticipate improvement as the course goes on. This is a big reason why I took this course due to my interest in science.

Look forward to spending the semester with you all!

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Hi everyone! My name is Coco Pietsch. I am a senior studying journalism and political science with post grad plans to attend law school. I'm from Wrigleyville/Lakeview area in Chicago and some of my hobbies include going on walks (especially when its nicer out but sometimes a cold walk is good too), listening to music and finding new music/curating different playlists, going to the gym, and reading. Lately, I've been really into historical nonficion books and have a lot of good ones on my TBR shelf. I got a 9/11 on the introductory science quiz, which I honestly was slightly impressed by because I was putting a lot of faith in my gut for some of the answers.

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Hi everyone! My name is Kevin Hamilton and I was born in Arlington Heights, Illinois but currently reside in Phoenix, Arizona. My favorite food is presently a nice medium rare steak. I do not own any pets and I have three siblings: two brothers and one sister. I took this class because it helps towards my degree and I’ve never taken a scientific journalism class before. Over winter break I was selected to the 2025 USA Wheelchair Rugby Training squad. I got a 10 on the quiz and was pretty surprised by that result. Maybe I know more science than I thought, or it's beginner's luck.

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I felt like the quiz was a good test of practical science that everyone will realistically encounter in day to day life and in the news. I found that I did better than I anticipated and which might be due to the youtube scientists/ science journalists I keep up with like John and Hank Green, Cleo Abram, etc.

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I was born in Durham, North Carolina and grew up in Raleigh. My favorite food is probably sushi. I have a pet bird named Abu. He's turning 7 this year. I have an older brother. I decided to take this class because I really enjoyed learning about Rachel Carson in History of American Journalism. I went to India over the summer to visit family and travel. While I was there I saw Ajanta and Ellora, Buddhist temples carved into caves. 

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Hi! I'm Mariana and I was born in Lima, Peru but now live in Naperville, IL. My favorite food is a dish called causa. I have one dog named Jolie who's staying with me now. Over winter break, my family went hiking at Starved Rock (Jolie was our guide.) I decided to take this class because I thought it would be helpful to know about other branches of journalism. I was also surprised to find that I got an 8/11 on the quiz because I feel like I don't read much about science news. I've never been a science person but I am very interested in how to cover it through journalism.

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Hi! My name is Haritha Srikanth. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but I live in Hawthorn Woods, IL. My favorite food of all time is avocado toast and watermelon. I do not have any pets, and I have one younger brother, who is currently a senior in high school. I decided to take this class as I am a current Integrative Biology major and have always immersed myself in science. However, I have never had any experience thus far with journalism and it has always been something that has piqued my interest. One interesting thing I just did this past weekend over winter break was visit my friends in Florida and go on a cruise with my family out from there! I also thought the multifaceted nature of the quiz was very interesting, and I learned much through the questions themselves.

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Hello, my name is Connor. I was born and raised in Decatur Il, which is about 50 minutes west of UIUC. My favorite food is mexican, I could eat only mexican food for the rest of my life and be just fine. I currently have 2 dogs and 7 chickens that are at my family home. I have one younger sister who just started her first year of college. I took this class because it was a requirment and was recomended for me. The most interesting thing that I did over summer was my internship where I i got to spend my days in the middle of a field and learned a lot about crop science. I scored a 9/11 on the quiz, which is about what I expected. I am very interested in science especially within the environment, so those questions I knew pretty well.

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Connor Fryman is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with Connor Fryman and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.

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Hello everyone! I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My favorite food any type of spicy pasta. I do not have any pets. I have one brother and one sister. I decided to take this class because I am interested to learn how science can relate to journalism. A fun thing I did last summer was visit London for the second summer in a row! I enjoyed myself even more the second time around. The Science Knowledge Quiz reminded me of the things I learned while I was in middle and high school. I had to dig deep to remember those past lessons! I ended up getting a 8/11 which is better than I expected so I was pleasantly surprised.