Audie

I think the most important thing that was taught in class today was understanding how things work together as a system - the interactions and the roles each of them play. In doing so, we may find it easier to not just recall information, but to see the big picture and learn to truly evaluate and appreciate it.

It occured to me that in the area of Physical Geography alone, there are many different processes and cycles involved - the water cycle, the carbon cycle, so on and so forth. What I would usually do is to go online and google for information and then read all the lengthy articles that come my way, not truly understanding the links involved and why exactly things work the way they do. It is more often than not just a step 1, step 2, step 3 thing, memorised word-for-word. Concepts are not grasped and application then becomes an issue.

E.g. What is geography in the first place? Is geography a study of all these processes and cycles and how they are linked to human life? What is life? Do we understand these concepts?

In discussing the question: 'why is oxygen essential for life?' we covered the special characteristics of oxygen and how they were linked to human life. One thing that was brought up is that oxygen is extremely reactive, capable of giving rise to combustion and explosions, such as in the case of Apollo 1, but more importantly, to answer this question, it can combine with iron found in our red blood cells, and thus allows us to have oxygen to respire and live.

In fact, oxygen is a gas so crucial for the existence of not just humans, but all different forms of living organisms that it must be maintained as it is right now - the composition of air cannot be altered for otherwise, there will be drastic and severe consequences. All ecosystems will be dramatically affected and the world will cease to exist as we know it.

This brings to mind how the systems in the world are interlinked. Systems do not exist in isolation. In fact, the Earth does not exist in isolation, extending far beyond human observation, leaving an endless trail. There is an added dimension, with these interdependent systems, linked not just to understanding of physical landforms but even in direct/indirect relationships to politics (e.g. global warming), sociology and so on. Sounds ridiculous, but Geography indeed is a mass bank of knowledge summed up. Its relations may be so intricate that it goes beyond even human capabilities to fully grasp and understand.

But that is the subtle irony - it is a threat to survival and there is an urgent need to expand our knowledge on geography, yet it seems almost impossible for a human to grasp it in entirety. This pursuit may not always suffice, and it goes far beyond simply sitting in class and memorising information in notes and booklets.

Life and death coexist as polar opposites and even in this case, what seems so boring and irrelevant like understanding rocks and volcanoes could determine if lives are going to be saved, most relevant in nature. Nature and the man-made coexist as well and understanding these wide and expanded relationships are equally crucial. There is indeed no end, but that is what retains interest and wonder.

We also discussed in general, the structure and composition of the atmosphere, including important components such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, which serves as a basis for food chains (required in photosynthesis for the formation of glucose).

These are minute details that act as a foundation, essential to build up an understanding. Nature can be seen to exist in the most subtle manners, almost non-existent like oxygen, but yet could be so complicated intrinsically.

We were also taught that in order to answer essay questions, one main thing we have to remember is that we have to firstly understand what the question requires us to do. After we get that right, our burden is very much reduced because it will take a lot less time to get our essays done without having to regurgitate and spill large amounts of information that is completely unrelated, or at least, vaguely linked to what the question is asking for.

It is insufficient to simply memorise information from books. Rather, what we should and must do is to understand the concepts, the trends and big ideas that these pieces of information indicate and hint towards.

In conclusion, three things have been learnt today:
1) The importance of understanding concepts and seeing how things work as a system
2) The skills involved in answering questions - it's not so much about the answer, but about the question
3) In detail, with regards to the question that was discussed in class, about the atmosphere and life

And that is about it... I hope :)