What's My IQ?

Briar takes an IQ test for the first time!

Welcome to Briar’s daily journal. This is where Briar writes about everything she learns daily, mostly for her own personal record. Never stop learning ♥

11/21/2024

Happy Learning Thursday, everyone! I have lots of things to share today!

Psychology

Today in psychology I had an exam. I did not study for the exam, and I wasn’t confident in the information at all. Well, sometimes you just take the test anyway, even though you are ill-prepared, and I still got a decent score😏. So, I learned that I should study next time, but I also learned that I can make poor time management decisions and still get good grades…

Speaking of intelligence(😆), after the exam, we started the next section, which is all about intelligence. We learned about IQ scores and the pros and cons of taking IQ tests.

My IQ score range is supposedly between 105 and 137. I am not exactly sure because I just took two different tests that were free samplers. The actual tests cost money to take. At the end it gives you a range on what they believe your IQ score is depending on how many questions you get correct. The two tests overlapped at 121, so for simplicity, we’ll say my IQ is 121… which is above average. Supposedly, only 8.9% of the population is above 120.

While I love to think of myself as above average(LOL), we also learned a lot of negative things about IQ tests, specifically about how they have been brutally misused in the past to justify horrific things like the mass castration of people in Virginia during the early 1900s. 70,000 people were sterilized because they had disabilities, looked a certain way, or were considered feebleminded. This was all in the name of eugenics, which is based on Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory.

Another example was during Nazi Germany, children who scored low on IQ tests and had mental/physical disabilities were murdered.

I also learned all about the different biases. Woah. I am a very biased person. I truly thought I wasn’t super biased when it comes to research and presenting my points, but guess what? Thinking you aren’t biased was one of the types of bias! This was the quick video we watched in class about this.

I must say, when he talks about you being 55 times more likely to die from a TV falling on you than a terrorist attack, I’m not sure how true that is because I looked it up and couldn’t find any solid statistics. Besides, children are the ones dying from TVs anyway, so I think this YouTuber is biased in his research about bias😂.

My professor also told us about a website called procon.com. It is supposed to be unbiased and give information from both sides. I thought that was pretty cool, and I will probably check it out one of these days to see just how unbiased I feel it is(while I am biased).

Also, during psych class, my professor said he didn’t know what an armoire was before he got to college, and that was because of his upbringing and whatnot. I can’t quite remember the context of why he felt the need to say that, but I had to Google it because I didn’t know what it was. It turns out it is a type of wardrobe.

Botany

Botany was wild today; I have never laughed so hard in a class in my life! At this point, all of my classmates know eachother pretty well and Professor Valerie is getting very comfortable with picking on us. Let me set the stage for you.

It’s towards the end of class.

Val loves to use massive models in the classroom that nobody can understand. She asks vague questions and expects us to answer them correctly. Now, I love Val, but she could improve at giving good incentives. In her mind, she was going to play a fun quiz game where she gave us candy when we got the answers right. The problem was that the candy was 5 years expired organic Halloween candy corn in itty bitty packages. I’m not sure if you know what happens to food when it doesn’t have preservatives added to it, but it actually goes bad.

Okay, so already nobody cares about earning these prizes. Val then starts to pick on the students who aren’t doing well in the class. They had no clue what the answers were to any of the questions. The rest of us who sort of had an idea about what the answers were got the stale candy, woohoo. Val was trying so hard to give everyone candy because she wanted to get rid of it, but some of my classmates just couldn’t answer her questions correctly. It was all in good fun, although it was totally awkward the whole time she quizzed them. In the end, she tried giving the one guy some pity candy(keep in mind this is a middle-aged veteran guy), and he would not accept it😆. After gnawing on the candy corn, it felt more like punishment than a reward🤣.

Best by 07/2020, that probably means it was made in 10/2019!

As for real facts and information, yes, I learned a lot. Here’s the list:

-Abscission is the act of trees dropping their leaves.

-Geraniums can tolerate light freezing, which is why Val had a geranium blooming in late November.

Val told us two Ole and Lena jokes. I didn’t know that was a thing, but apparently, there is a site where they have a ton of dumb jokes written out in the traditional Midwestern dialect(I think it is supposed to be Norwegian). The jokes Val told us in class were her attempt to teach us about auxin and what it does to plants. I didn’t see the connection, but witnessing her trying her best accent impression was entertaining.

-The question “What makes sensitive plants close up when you touch them?” was asked during the lecture. I raised my hand and said that it was probably because of little hair triggers on the leaves. Val said, “Well, yes, but what makes that close the plant?” Good question. I did a quick Google and shared with the class. It turns out that when you touch the sensitive plant, it sends an electrical signal to the swollen base of the leaf and empties the water. This causes the plant to fold up and bend over immediately because of the lack of water inside the leaf.

-Guttation is different from dew. Dew is little water droplets on the leaves from moisture in the air, but guttation comes from the leaves themselves. It looks pretty cool.

-You guys. This is the CRAZIEST fact ever. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I live in the Midwest. We grow a lot of corn here. Interestingly enough, it can get pretty humid during the summer. I never questioned it, but I have always despised that part of the year. WELL! It is corn’s fault. Corn can sweat and makes the Midwest humid. I am not even kidding. Here is a chart that shows the affected areas.

-There is less oxygen in the winter. It makes sense when you think about it. When the trees and plants aren’t growing and giving off oxygen there will be less in the air. According to my quick research, it is minuscule enough that it isn’t an issue and doesn’t affect us.

-A galangal is a root that is kind of like ginger

-Certain varieties of corn need to be nixtamalized before you eat them. That means treating them with an alkaline solution(usually wood ash or lime). This softens the corn and improves the flavor.

-Bananas have weird-looking flowers. Why haven’t I seen these before?

Cheesemaking and Fermentation

Last, we have my favorite class: cheesemaking! Today, we made cheddar. Unfortunately, I have to age it for several months before I can taste it.

-People who are lactose intolerant can usually eat cheese aged for over 6 months.

Butyric acid is in many dairy products and can give them an unpleasant “barn smell."

I have another classic Valerie word for you guys! Today, she threw the word “skosh” at me. I pulled out my phone and Googled it. Turns out it meant a “small amount.” It worked in the context she used it in. I have no clue where she gets these words from, but I need more of them🤣.

Annatto is what they use to dye cheese orange. Yep, I’m sorry to break it to you, but most cheeses aren’t naturally that beautiful, rich orange color. Annatto comes from the seed of achiote trees. We learned this because Val forgot to bring it to class, so we got white cheddar instead of orange.

-Speaking of my cheddar, it was pretty straightforward to make. It was a slightly different process from the other cheeses that we have made. Mostly, it involved a lot of waiting for it to ripen. The fun part was trying to figure out how in the world I would press it. We were all tasked with making our own cheese presses. I found two containers that fit nicely inside each other. The difficult part was finding what I would put on top to give me 50 lbs of pressure. Well, when you are a reader and a homestead wannabe, this is what your cheese press looks like😆:

Well, my friends, today was a long day, but tomorrow will be even longer… I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

-Briar Albaugh