DEMONSTRATIONS

You can bring yourself some mass and verify your understanding of the materials by doing demonstrations with little random objects you have at hand.

There are several advantages of this

• You can do it anywhere

• You will check your understanding

• You can simulate application.

You should have a little demo kit that you keep close to your study area. It can contain various objects that you can make demonstrations with. The subjects shouldn't have much significance to them; they don't have to look like what you study. Paper clips, rubber bands, screws, batteries, keys, beer caps, or whatever.

Now, showing principles of your subjects with paper clips put you to a certain test. You have to understand what you studied in simple terms, and you have to divorce your understanding from the words used about it. You have to show it actually in the physical universe, not just explain it in significance.

For example, say you were supposed to show the law of supply and demand. You could say that these paper clips here are cars that are driving around, and they need gasoline, and this rubber band over here is an oil company, and the beer caps are gasoline they are producing. You can show they are exchanging gasoline by moving the beer caps from the rubber band over to the paper clips. And now, if we add more cars (paper clips) we need more gasoline (beer caps), and you would show that.

You can only do that if you have grasped some degree of simplicity about the subject. And you might realize, while you try to show it, that you hadn't really translated it to reality before. What mentally appears to be understood might reveal some flaws when you have to show it.

When you do a demo, you make the demo items show what you are talking about. You move them around as appropriate to illustrate the matter. If you do it for somebody else, you would explain what each item illustrates. However, it is not acceptable to do it by significance only. Putting two rubber bands on the table and saying "This is the supply and this is demand" is not enough.

Once you get the hang of it you will realize that is quite a useful way of making sure you can translate the studied significance into physical action. You will catch yourself in parts you didn't fully get, and you can maintain a better feeling about what you study.

The actual mass of the subject is always best, but demonstrations are a practical and convenient substitute.

CLAY DEMOS

There is a more elaborate method of doing demonstrations for the principles you really have to grasp. To establish that you know and can use the basic principles of the subject, you can do clay demos.

A clay demo is done with clay, model wax, or Play-Doh. You make the clay show what you are trying to illustrate. You would put labels on each part saying what it is.

For example, if you needed to show "a policeman," you could make a figure out of one color of clay, attach a little piece of paper with "policeman" written on it, make a blob of another color into a hat and write "hat" on the label, and make a "gun" out of another piece of clay.

This is not an artistic endeavor; it doesn't have to be pretty. We are just trying to bring something from the realm of significance into the physical universe

You make something out of the clay, and then immediately you put on a label. The clay must show the thing, so no involved explanations on the label. "Student" might be acceptable to put on a clay body, but "tired student" wouldn't be. You would have to get the clay to show a tired student if that was the job at hand.

When you are done with a full clay demo, you make a big label for the whole thing saying what it is supposed to be, and you turn it upside down. If you are doing this as part of a course, the instructor would then examine your clay demo. He looks at the clay and tells you what he sees. If that matches the purpose of the demo, it is a "pass". If not, you need to work more at it to make the clay really show it.

A clay demo is mostly for the students' benefit. It will also provide a method for the instructor to check the student, but that is only secondary. The main purpose is for the student to achieve a higher degree of understanding and application concerning a certain subject.

Clay demos aren't meant to be easy; they are expected to be a challenge. What you will be asked to demonstrate will not be "policeman". It will be more involved subjects, such as "What is study?" or "A mis-understood word". If you have to show that in clay so that somebody else can see it you must get down to the simplicities of the matter. You might not know how to show it when you start out, but after working with the clay for a while, you will.

In trying to make a clay demo, you might realize that you didn't really understand that part. In that case, you would go back and re-study it, and then try the clay demo again later.

Conceptual Understanding

The understanding we are after in study is not literal, and it is not complex.

If you really understand something, it is simple for you. You don't have to walk around remembering many complex rules. You have a conceptual understanding of the basis for the rules, so you could make them up when necessary.

Conceptual understanding is not words. It is the clear idea of what we are talking about, beyond mere language.

You might have to study a lot of words and complexities to reach a conceptual understanding of something. It is not what you start out with; you've got to work at it. But the eventual test is that everything becomes simple and intuitive.

A true expert in any field has conceptual understanding of their subject. He can express it to others in simple or complex terms as he chooses. He can think with it, work with it, and develop it further. He is not dependent on textbooks or other authorities. He knows the subject.

There is a distinction between "knowing" and "knowing about". A student is learning about something and getting to know about data in the subject. An expert knows without having to refer much to specific data.

Knowing is conceptual. Knowing about is more mechanical.