Science
I am a passionate student of most areas of science, most notably physics and the study of mechanics and motion. I always enjoy experimentation and attempting to learn more about any given scientific principle. If I were to pursue a science degree, it would definitely be in some branch of physics. It's dificult for me to picture what's going on with chemistry or biology, but it's easier for me to think about physics. I definitely need to work on my chemistry and biology skills.
Physics
One of my all-time favorite classes was my AP Physics class last year. One of the main things I enjoyed about it was that I was able to apply many of the engineering and calculus principles I was learning simultaneously in my physics work. For example, we were doing a unit on rotary motion and the center of mass. At the same time, we were working with centroids in engineering, and integration to find the centroid in calculus. I enjoyed physics so much that I worked with my counselor to drop my Environmental Science class this year in order to take a second year of physics. The picture below is of the project I did for my physics final. Although it mostly just looks like a bunch of wires stuck into a breadboard, when it's turned on, it reveals itself to be a fully working theremin. I wasn't able to work using the original ideas of Léon Theremin and his electro-magnetic fields, but I was able to achieve the same effect using photocells and a timing chip.
Chemistry
I've always enjoyed chemistry, even if I haven't had much of a head for it. The sheer amount of different combinations of elements, molecules and atoms has always amazed me. After taking physics, and learning about nuclear physics and how an atom actually works, I feel like I am now a little better prepared when it comes to chemistry. My chemistry teacher was loathe to present the whys, simply due to the amount of information we had to cover. She simply didn't have time to go into too much detail on why a photon acts like it does. Until I took physics, it was simply a photon. Now I can picture the self propogating waves of magnetic and electric force, and it makes more sense than a random particle (that isn't really a particle) traveling faster than any particle should. For one of our chem projects my group decided to make thermite (picture below). It took a good deal of persuasion to convince our teacher, but everything went well.
