Baylor Clark

Iowa State University

EE 494
17 October 2023
General Education Reflection
General education electives provide students the unique opportunity to expand their
knowledge beyond the required classes in their major program. Some students take technical
classes to complement the learning in their major, while others look to expand outside the reach
of their major and be more diverse in their educational journey. I took the more diverse route,
urged on by my affinity and joy of history. Each semester, a general education elective needed to
be completed. My first choice was whatever history class fit my schedule. To some, history
classes do not complement learning in engineering; however, there are numerous perspectives
and learning points in history that can immensely benefit any type of engineer. I could only take
two history courses at Iowa State because of the credits I transferred from high school, so I will
only be discussing those in this reflection.
The next two courses are history classes that I consider my true general education classes.
To fulfill my US diversity requirement, I took HIST 380, titled “History of Women in Science,
Technology, Science, and Math.” Some laughed at my choice to take a class about women's
history in STEM, but I was incredibly excited to learn what immense contributions women have
made and their struggles in STEM fields. Dr. Amy Bix did an excellent job of starting from little
we know in ancient history and working through time to identify where women made strides in
STEM. Throughout the course, it was evident women had immense difficulty entering these
fields and trying to make meaningful contributions. Often, they had to go against society's rules
and push boundaries to positively impact society. While times have changed, the case can still be
true in STEM. Women encounter instances of harassment and disrespect in the workspace from
male colleagues. This history of women in STEM is why I believe I can take the information I
learned in this course and apply it in the workplace. Respecting and supporting coworkers
creates the most productive working environment for all.
The final general education course I took as a part of my degree requirements was HIST
402 Greek Civilization. This Greek civilization course has been my favorite general education
elective. Dr. Hollander was very passionate about the coursework and interested in making sure
it was explained to us properly. The course followed the majority of Greek history, from early
groups of people to Alexander the Great. Along with lecture information, the class also read an
ancient translation that accounts for a fairly truthful history of important events in ancient
Greece. The collection of books is called The Histories by Herodotus. The information learned
throughout the course may not be easily correlated to my major coursework or future work, but I
think certain aspects of the course can be translated into future engineering work. The
relationships between the city-states in ancient Greece drove many public relations and conflicts
during Greek history. Understanding relationships and people’s views on certain subjects is
important in working well with other engineers and coworkers to ensure the job is done correctly.
 Each of these classes has provided a unique learning experience that differed from the
technical coursework I have become accustomed to during school here. While I didn’t choose
history as my major, I still love taking advantage of an opportunity to learn. While history isn’t
as obviously correlated to the field of engineering, I have always held the sentiment that
understanding history and relationships between people in the past can make it easier to work
with people in the present. Furthermore, one can take mistakes people have made in the past and
make better decisions in the future.