Hello there! My name is Ken and I am a Chinese A Level student in Guangdong Country Garden School. Welcome to Ken's Study Journey website and blog! Today, I am going to talk about the importance of discovering and applying knowledge in real life.
It is very important to apply knowledge in real life while studying. Not only can it help you understand knowledge easily but also we can share it with others.
I always discover and share academic knowledge with other students while travelling or going outside, so I can study and relax at the same time. By the way, other excellent students can correct my errors.
Meanwhile, some of my classmates successfully understood some difficult knowledge, especially computer science, after I taught them using understandable language and examples in real life.
In fact, there are a number of benefits for applying knowledge in real situations. Let's go!
Memorise Knowledge more Firmly
Firstly, discovering knowledge in real life is very helpful to memorise them more firmly, especially before an exam.
We always need to revise and remember knowledge more firmly before some important exams because they always test the knowledge we have learned and remembered.
Many students have a variety of ways to keep knowledge in their mind. For example, they may open some textbooks to recall some formulae, chemical equations and key concepts, or they may use their notebooks or online resources.
However, I always discover knowledge I learned from my school in real life along the way I revise knowledge before an exam or while relaxing after studying for a long time. This is because it can help me find out and recall relevant knowledge points when observing the phenomenon in nature.
For example, I usually get sweat when climbing up the mountain, but I feel very easy when going down from the zenith of it. Why is this?
In order to find the reason, I started to think about which part of knowledge is relevant to it. It might associate with physics knowledge because it involves movement, height and force.
Then, I realised that it involves energy change. The movement of climbing the mountain is caused by a force exerted by myself.
Human and animals store chemistry energy. When we climb the mountain, the chemical energy is changed to 4 other types of energy: kinetic energy (k.e.), gravitational potential energy (g.p.e.), heat energy and sound energy. This is why we usually get sweat when doing exercise. It is generated by heat energy.
However, when we go down from the mountain, both chemistry and gravitation potential energy change to kinetic energy. We have gravity on the mountain, so we can go down more easily.
But what will I do if I forgot this part of physics knowledge? I will take out my IGCSE physics textbook or notebook to find out the original knowledge. If I didn't take it, I still can find the knowledge on the Internet. This is why we can revise and remember knowledge more firmly when discovering knowledge in real life.
Explain Phenomena Happen in Real Life
Secondly, knowledge of most of the subjects can be used to explain the things that usually happen in real life, like mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, biology, economics and computer science.
As I mentioned before, energy change of physics can explain why we get sweat while climbing the mountain.
I think that 75% of the knowledge can explain what happen in real life. Without knowledge, we will not able to learn why some special or scientific phenomena happen, even though they are explained in the news websites or newspapers. Here are some examples I picked from knowledge I already discovered.
Economics: Price Elasticity of Demand (PED)
Price elasticity of demand measure the extent of change in the quantity demanded of a product when the price changes.
Necessity and addictive products (e. g. medicines) are inelastic demand (PED < 1), which means the proportion of the quantity change is smaller than the price change. Many people buy them even though their prices are very high.
However, luxury, like my new 2020 MacBook Pro huge prize, are elastic demand (PED > 1). More people will buy when the price decreases. That's why my parents did not award me until there was a dramatic drop in the prices on December 12.
Chemistry: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Carbon Monoxide (CO)
As we know, we need to have barbecue activities in well-ventilated environments. This is because caron monoxide may be produced inside the room.
There are 2 reactions occur of combustion of carbon, depending on the amount of carbon and oxygen.
When the combustion is complete, carbon dioxide is formed. However, when oxygen is not enough, carbon goes incomplete combustion, carbon monoxide is formed which is poisonous. Here is the chemical equation.
Carbon monoxide can stop the blood cells from transporting oxygen.
Oxygen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are all colourless gases without smells, so we cannot easily see whether carbon monoxide presents.
Let Other Excellent Students Correct Errors
Another function of discovering knowledge in real life is to let other excellent students correct errors if they discovered.
I always take photos, edit them and add some knowledge, formulae and chemical equations on my laptop using Photoshop, and then share them on social media (e. g. WeChat Moments).
Not only can it let other students know that I discovered knowledge in real life and help them understand difficult knowledge points more easily, but also it lets other excellent students correct errors in case I made some errors when sharing the knowledge.
When I go to Lianzhou Underground Lake during a trip, I discovered chemistry knowledge related to a reversible reaction.
However, I incorrectly recognised that both sides of the equation are 1 mol (the left-hand side should be 3 mol). Then, I sent a WeChat Moment contains 'the equilibrium will not change whatever the pressure changes' which is wrong.
Then, another excellent student, Erik Xie, who was my previous schoolmate in my junior high school PCIS and good at chemistry, discovered and commented about this error. After that, I realised the error and bore the correction in my mind.
So, we can also study with each other and get help from other excellent students by discovering and sharing knowledge in real life.
Let Other Students Understand Difficult Knowledge Points More Easily
In fact, some knowledge may be difficult to understand for some students.
However, some teachers can make knowledge easier for most students to understand using fascinating languages with a sense of humour.
I usually give some examples in real life along the way I teach other classmates in my free time acting as an excellent student. For example, the temperature sensor in the air conditioning monitors the temperature from time to time and then ADC (Analogue to Digital Converter) converts the analogue data to digital.
More importantly, students can understand difficult knowledge points more easily associating with phenomena in real life. This is because they can make observations on the things related to the knowledge learned.
Knowledge Points I Discovered
By the way, I want to tell you some knowledge points that we can use and/or I usually discover in real life. You can try to find out the relevant phenomena while travelling or going outside.
Mathematics: Gradient, Mutually Exclusive Event, Trigonometry, Binomial/Geometric Distributions, Integration
Physics: Going Round in Circles, Sound/Water wave, Dispersion of white light (rainbow), Work done, Energy transfer, Refraction of light (between air and water)
Chemistry: pH, Acids and Bases (acid rain, pH < 5.6), Reversible Reactions, Shifting the Equilibrium (temperature, pressure and concentration), Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide, Photosynthesis, Electroplating (electrolysis)
Economics: Opportunity cost, Price elasticity of demand, External cost, Factors of Production (land, labour, capital, enterprise), Firms Integration (horizontal, backward/forward vertical)
Computer Science: Interrupt, Buffer, DDoS (Distribution Denial of Services) Attack, Lossy and Lossless Compression, Sensor, HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Drive), Functions of an Operating System (OS)
We need to keep studying during the holidays. Knowledge appears every part in the world, so we need to discover them as we can.
These are the 4 reasons why we should discover knowledge in real life. It is helpful for your study. I hope you can study better and getter excellent results with my suggestions!
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