Friday, July 12, 2019

The most enjoyable subject...

  In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they are not.
Albert Einstein

The career or profession of your life is always an elusive, but important issue. As a young adult, my parents, friends, magazines, institutions in the city,... were the source of information. Nowadays, you find accurate information at home in front of a computer or even on your smartphone.

You click here and there to find information about the university that deserves your presence, the career that seems the most promising, that has the best study programme, one whose prestige might be helpful to find a good job, an institution with well-known researchers, an institution that ensures a brilliant future...

Chemistry Lab
Eventually, you find a suitable career and, filled with content, start attending classes waiting for the best class ever and, at the beginning, this seems to happen with most subjects. As time goes by, this excitement changes to a state of normality that persists until you eventually graduate and, on looking back, appreciate their contribution to your personal growth.

In your mind, however, you shall dearly keep a small bunch of subjects, activities in classrooms, in laboratories, activities that had a special flavour because of the contents... the classmates... the teaching staff... the season of  the year... and/or any other activity that made quite an impression on you.

Safety Chemistry  Lab
Laboratory activities demand most of our attention and usually strengthen teamwork, improving the desirable friendliness of students with a common goal. Thus, lab work becomes quite attractive, particularly to those eager to set up equipment to do, for example, simple distillations, solvent extraction... Others feel satisfaction upon observation and study of optical phenomena, such as dispersion of white light through prisms, reflection, diffraction.

I actually enjoyed learning chemistry/physics/biology in the labs when I was in high school. The possibility of observing actual phenomena with the naked eyes and also doing my own experiments gave me an indescribable pleasure that led me to observe with curiosity all the processes occurring in our daily life.

Yet, theoretical activities in the classroom also caught my attention; especially my teacher of biology who created an atmosphere of mystery to uncover the "truth" under common living processes, who made me dream of the varied "worlds" existing in our daily life. Thus, the theoretical data ranged from solid ground information in a particular issue to doing exercises, analyses, and other learning activities.

So, theory or practice? I say both.



Now it's your turn:

Write about your favourite subject this term.
  • Name of the subject:
  • Describe what you do in classes
  • Explain why you like the subject
  • State whether your classes are mostly theoretical and/or practical
  • What makes the subject interesting
Other considerations that you might use:
  • People participating in the teaching activities (teacher(s), auxiliaries, ...)
  • Importance of teaching people in your choice.
  • Importance of the subject matter in your decision...
  • The approximate number of students in the class.
  • Main contents you have seen

Word Count: 180
Make comments on 3 of your partners' posts, plus comment on your teacher's post

18 comments:

  1. yeah me too,i also like biology,the mistery of how everything works in nature, find something, i know that feeling

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Omar,
      Biology, Chemistry and physics are such interesting subjects...
      See you,

      Delete
  2. It's so exciting to work in the laboratory with all this implements, I enjoy this classes a lot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Vicente,
      And working in small groups make it fun too...
      See you,

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Hi Eduardo,
      And what about the theoretical issues? Do you like them too?
      See you,

      Delete
  4. Laboratory is very entertaining but at the same time dangerous, you have to be very careful and especially when using acid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Katherynne,
      Nice to know you are well aware of the dangers involved ...
      See you,

      Delete
  5. i would also choose both, the theory and practice are really complementary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tamara,
      Right you are... Theory and practice go together.
      See you,

      Delete
  6. I prefer both, too, because they complement each other

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Maribel,
      A wise, sensible student...! (look for the meaning of the term "sensible")
      See you,

      Delete
  7. Laboratory is very fun and interesting, practice what you’ve learned is the best

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Martina,
      Theory needs practice and vice versa...
      See you,

      Delete
  8. I prefer that my classes are mostly practical because it´s more interesting for me. The theorical is more boring.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think your point of view is very interesting. I also prefer the both ways, because there's no practice without the theory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Fernanda,
      So much so that theories need to be validated with experimental activities...
      See you,

      Delete