Habit+of+Mind+4


 * LEARNING CONTINUOUSLY... 三人行，必有我师！**

There's a saying in chinese (above) which almost literally translates into "Out of three people, I must have a teacher". This is definitely applicable in chemistry, as well as in other classes that we continuously learn in. We are not born with the entire knowledge of the human race crammed into our heads; there must be other people to cram and hammer it in instead. Everyone has their strong points and their weak points in learning, and it is crucial that we depend on each other to build up our weaknesses so they can too turn into strengths. That is why, out of as little as 3 people, there can and will always be someone you can learn from.

So, I bet you're wondering who my teacher ended up to be. It's none other than James! He was really a great help to me when I came back from the weeklong MUN trip, in which I missed 3 classes on a concept that I could barely understand. Moles... they //were// my greatest enemy. In the beginning, I remember thinking: "How could a mole of one substance be different from a mole of other substances? How could I calculate the number of moles I needed to have of a reactant to get this much of a product?" It was definitely apparent when I came back from my trip to only blink at the Moles packet with utter confusion and despair. I considered asking my friends, but they were also busy on their preparation for the upcoming Chemistry test and I didn't want to bother them. Then, I thought that asking couldn't hurt because I know that explaining a concept to someone is also as good as studying, or even better. I admit, I wasn't comfortable to learn from when I was usually the one who was teaching (uhm...not modest at all?! D:), but humility was necessary for me to pass this test and my grade is always more important than my pride.

That's how this happened:

[11/26/11 8:50:39 PM] Emily: teach me? [11/26/11 8:50:40 PM] james: *lets say [11/26/11 8:50:44 PM] james: i have [11/26/11 8:50:47 PM] james: 3 apples [11/26/11 8:50:49 PM] james: ok? [11/26/11 8:50:52 PM] Emily: okay [11/26/11 8:50:53 PM] Emily: :D [11/26/11 8:51:07 PM] james: i use these 3 apples [11/26/11 8:51:11 PM] james: to make 2 cups of apple juice ok? [11/26/11 8:51:15 PM] Emily: loool ok [11/26/11 8:51:18 PM] james: + water [11/26/11 8:51:23 PM] james: but we dont care about water for now [11/26/11 8:51:25 PM] james: so i have [11/26/11 8:51:32 PM] james: A= apple, AJ = apple juice [11/26/11 8:51:37 PM] james: 3A + H20 = 2AJ [11/26/11 8:51:39 PM] james: right? [11/26/11 8:51:45 PM] Emily: :D [11/26/11 8:51:45 PM] Emily: okay [11/26/11 8:51:55 PM] james: doesnt that mean [11/26/11 8:51:56 PM] james: if i put [11/26/11 8:52:02 PM] james: 3 MOLES of apples [11/26/11 8:52:04 PM] james: i get [11/26/11 8:52:07 PM] james: 2 MOLES of apple juice?

It might look a little odd and out of place (the more I read it, the more I feel like I was absolutely clueless), but its simplicity really ended up teaching me the relationship between the moles of the reactants and the products. Coupled with the equations that Mrs. Knowles gave to us in class, I finally began to understand more about the ratios in the equation. Since he explained it in a more mathematic way, a way I was more comfortable with, the concept of moles began to become clearer and clearer. That is why, for this Habits of Mind, I chose 'Learning Continuously' because I ended up switching places as teacher to student, and I got a huge benefit off of that because moles are no longer an issue to me, as my grade on that last Mole test proves. :)

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