Learning horizontally instead of drilling

Yes, this mechanical way of learning is really disgusting. However, there should be also better ways of studing natural science, too, because there is some point in almost every discipline that you can not go through without them. One way is of course, through historical approach and by practical examples, but it is dificcult not to become lost without proper litterature and guidance.

For worthwhile philosophy one should have considerable background knowledge indeed, so inviting knowledgable guests is good idea. For instance, i used to watch on german satellite TV – astronomy lectures (BR – alpha centauri) and also on croatian radio (HR2 – Andromeda) which besides technical component also bring in discusions about many philosphical elements which somehow make you drift away and open horizons of imagination. However, i noticed in reality (face to face) that is sometimes harder to achieve because you have to have some special atmosphere and environment, good moderator (somebody else or yourself) and also in the long run you have to have some concrete project not to exhaust the same topic without clear results. Because results also stimulate further activity. …

Absolutely, i agree. Natural science should be there to facilitate that mix, instead of making it more complicated then it realy is. However, it is also interesting to see how different disciplines use similar mathematical, fisical or chemical models and apply them for different purposes. In that way one may come to better understand these natural sciences, too. Of course, i am not saying that i have mastered all that and that i am giving some final conclusion about it, but this is my impression so far.

One of the areas that i was mostly interested in even before suistainable development was astronomy, which also calls for multidiciplinarity. However, i had problems with natural science (because i have studied in the other field), so i decided that in the beginning i will omit all more demanding mathematical formulas and concentrate on pure texts and illustrations. This is because it is dificcult to form a picture and really understand something before you collect a sufficiently large number of pieces to put together.

In natural sciences this is even more evident, because one area or formula is linked with the other, and very often the approach is that you have to memorise them and practice with excersises. But, unfortunatly you rarely get to know how someone invented them in the first place, to see the base concept of trial and error, so in the beginning and quite long after it is very borring because it seems it has no real purpose which maybe in the time of discovery in fact did, not to mention today when most people imagine pictures on computer screen (for instance) as some sort of magic or given things from nature like vegetables, only growing in computer stores.

Hi Sara,
I have been reading your blogs with interest and was wondering if you would like to contribute to our advent calendar on sustainable development (www.advent-calendar.info). If you could send me a short email I would send you more information… with best regards, Tania (schellenberg@gammarus.ch)