Last weekend I visited the New York Hall of Science with my family and a friend. The New York Hall of Science is a museum located in Queens and established in 1964. The museum offered many great indoor and outdoor exhibits that explored many different areas within the study of science. There was an abundance of variety amongst these exhibits as well, which allowed me, my father, and my three year old nephew to enjoy them alike.

The group of exhibits I enjoyed in particular were the ‘Seeing the Light’ exhibits. This series included optical illusions, reflections, refractions, and more. One of these exhibits had a motion tracking camera that output real-time colorful silhouettes in intervals, which proved to be most entertaining to me. Other parts of the series involved casting shadows and, at least what seemed to be, endless mirrors. However, my favorite part was the optical illusion section because the illusions are confusing. I’m incredibly intrigued by the fact that I can deceive myself through my own perception, and I believe there’s a real-life lesson to be learned there. This applies to my first semester at Baruch because it helped me understand perception, and how perception affects my peer’s opinions and my own. It also taught me why discipline is necessary by demonstrating how easily perception can be deluded.

Another exhibit worth noting is the ‘Connected Worlds’ exhibit in the Great Hall. Using projectors, the designers created immersive environments that show how your actions impact the ecosystem. These environments are designed to be interactive to exemplify how our decisions can have effects ranging from small to large scale, and short to long term. This experience helps me understand just how connected the world is, which pushes me closer to deciding what profession will allow me to benefit it the most.