• Question: My classmates and I, do theory on a certain topic e.g. Metals, Woods and Plastics, then we enforce this learning by doing Practical lessons. Do you still apply the knowledge that you learnt in secondary/high school to your everyday work?

    Asked by kathrynduffy3 to Amit, Emily, Joanne, Martin, Paige on 18 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      Good question! I think a lot of what you learn to be an engineer comes from what you learned in college… at least in the united states. I don’t apply what I learned in high school on a daily basis… but what I learned in high school was very important as a foundation for my learning in college!!!! So keep working hard in your classes. 😉

    • Photo: Emily Bullen

      Emily Bullen answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Definitely. In fact I’d say pretty much everything I do is putting in practice what I have learnt at school/university.
      When I work in the lab I put in practice what I learnt in chemistry (pH, titration, balancing equations)
      When I do calculations I put in practice my maths (although I have forgotten a fair bit of it because the computers do it for me… but I still need to understand it)
      When I write reports I rely on the practice I had writing essays for example, to make sure that I can write something that makes sense.
      The list goes on and on…

    • Photo: Martin Wallace

      Martin Wallace answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I would say a lot of the learning at school I don’t use directly in my day-to-day job, but it was very important to understand what I learned at university. If I didn’t have the basic knowledge that you pick up in school. I would have found it incredibly hard to learn anything more afterwards.
      However the Maths that I learned at school is very important. Like Emily I’ve forgotten a lot of the basic stuff as the computer does it for me, but I do every now and then need to re-visit the subjects I learned when I was a lot younger.

    • Photo: Joanne Davies

      Joanne Davies answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      Cool question kathrynduffy3 🙂

      Everything I learned at school and university I use in my everyday work.

      Think about it for a moment. 🙂

      In Year 1 you learned to count ‘1,2, 3’….How could you count anything without these basic foundations?

      Also, we do experiments in exactly the same way we did at school using a plan, materials, method and writing down results.

    • Photo: Amit Pujari

      Amit Pujari answered on 21 Mar 2012:

      Hi kathrynduffy3,

      Sorry for the late reply. As other engineers have already said, I also think, what you learn in school/high school is very important as basics, without which you cannot learn further.

      So when you graduate with a degree and start working, you may not realise that you are using knowledge you earned in school, but you are using it unconsciously, so to speak.

      I think, your method of doing theory followed by the practical lessons is one of the best ways to learn effectively.

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