Periodic table of the chemical elements Español: Tabla periódica de los elementos Suomi: Alkuaineiden jaksollinen järjestelmä (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I was in grade school, I liked every subject I studied. I think it was because they were the basics, and as such, were introductory. Like I said previously, I love learning, and in grade school everything was new. But even back then, I could tell what subjects I preferred.
Once I got to middle school, and especially high school, those preferences became much more pronounced and developed into my favorites.
Math
By far, my most favorite subject was math. It just made sense to me. The beauty of math is that the more you learned, the more it lead to new ideas and the next level. If I forgot a particular idea, all I needed to do was go back to the last step, then build upon it to get to the next step. That’s what was so beautiful about math – everything builds upon the more basic concepts. This love of math grew with each subsequent level. From the basics of addition, subtraction, to algebra, to geometry, to calculus, to Boolean algebra, to analytical geometry, to statistics, and on and on. Guess what was my favorite type of question on a math test. Most people think I’m crazy when I tell them this, but it is a word problem. My love of mathematics, I believe, is what underpins the rest of my favorite subjects.
Physics
Physics is awesome because, to me at least, it takes my most favorite subject, math, and applies it to the real world. From classical Newtonian mechanics, to quantum mechanics, to heat transfer – just like math, the next concept builds upon the last, all the way back to the basics. Sure, you had to learn some basic concepts first, but once you had those down, it was all a logical progression from there. What physics showed me was that, no matter how confusing the world around me, it could always be reduced to an equation, or a series of equations. And equations can be solved. That was very comforting to me in my adolescence.
Chemistry
Another subject that takes math and applies it to the real world. Similar to physics, you had to understand the basics before you could advance. Chemistry, in my humble opinion at least, has more basics to learn than physics. Nonetheless, each new concept in chemistry builds upon the last. And what is the most beautiful concept and structure in chemistry? The Periodic Table of The Elements. How awesome it is that the basic elements of matter can be sorted into a logical, structured table like that!
Conclusion
What does this say about me? Well, besides that I’m quite the oddball, that is. What it tells me is that I have an analytic brain, that logic factors heavily into my thinking, and that I’m not a typical person. But then, I’ve said as much before in previous posts anyway.
How about you? What were your favorite subjects in school? Were you a math and science admirer (read: geek) like me?
This post is for the September Back To School Blog Challenge, hosted by Matt Conlon on Join Something.
September Back To School Blog Challenge
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I was kinda awesome at math and science EXCEPT for geometry and physics. Not sure what really did me in with those but let’s just say I didn’t have teachers that understood how to teach different learning styles. My favorite hands down was dissecting a fetal pig in Human Anatomy & Physiology my senior year!
It’s funny, but for a long time I had considered geometry as “just another kind of math.” But when I worked at a school, the math department chair told me that people are either great at algebra, or great at geometry, but rarely both. He said that the typical person’s brain is “wired” for one or the other. Since then, I’ve discussed it with many students and friends that seem to confirm his observation.
I did the fetal pig dissection in freshman year bio. I didn’t particularly care for it – not because I was squeamish, but because I couldn’t stand the smell of the formaldehyde. I swear that smell permeated my hands and stayed with me for a week.
Oh it did! That smell would attach onto you without even being in the room for 5 mins. I had it last period so it worked lol