What does tableware have to do with geology?

Sometimes during lectures we tend to take a passive mindset. When the professor is speaking, we usually just lay back and listen. Sometimes if we're feeling a bit more attentive we try to do a bit more. Like take down notes, or try to listen as intently as possible to try and absorb as much as we can. Some people actually think that to do this is enough to get the most out of the lecture...but it probably isn't. 

Learning has to be done actively. When the prof. is giving his or her lecture, you need to actively think of what new information you're being provided with AND trying to sort it out in your head to see where it fits best with the knowledge you already have. Imagine having to maintain a filing cabinet with all your ideas. And your prof. is there handing out new documents of ideas every minute or so. It would be convenient (and somewhat passive) to just file everything you learned in that class under the top most drawer and then just pile on more stuff on it during your next class. But, that big pile of unsorted documents gets hard to find later on when you need them, say when you're studying for an exam. It's better to think of connections to previous knowledge that you already have, either filing them together or at least tagging them to be under the same topic. The more connections you make, the easier it will be to find that idea when a question about it pops up during your test. 

And these connections can be made with almost anything, even those that at first don't seem to be related. One good example I could think of is that moment of realization when learning about hardness in your basic geology or mineralogy class, and how it surprisingly relates to the material composition of tableware.

Common tableware. Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

[Just a quick background, hardness is the ability to resist scratching, not the ability to resist breaking. For example, if you have a goblet made of diamond (famous for being one of the hardest minerals) and it falls to the ground, it's probably going to shatter into pieces. But if you look at each shard, almost none of them will have any scratches.]

Anyway, what does this have to do with commonplace objects like tableware? Well, utensils are usually made of steel, while plates are usually ceramic. Steel has a hardness of around 5 to 5.5 on the Mohs' scale of hardness (where diamond has a hardness of 10). On the other hand, ceramic has a hardness of around 6.5. This means no matter how many times you scrape your plate with your utensils your plate won't scratch (imagine the damage a steak knife could do to a softer material). Now, an unglazed ceramic surface (like the rough bottom surface of a tile) is used as a test for hardness, since it IS quite hard. So, again, thankfully our plates are glazed and smooth, therefore preventing our utensils from being ground into short stubs of metal after scraping our utensils on our plates 3 meals a day, 365 days a year. It's also quite nice that drinking glasses are made of glass (duh) which has more or less the same hardness as steel. So when you dump them all on the dishwashing sink, there's a low chance of creating scratches despite the chaotic mixing.

Now, as you can see, the relationship doesn't have to be fancy or groundbreaking. But just connecting the new idea to the old can make the new idea that much easier to grasp, understand, and access when you need it most. Sometimes, the connections don't even need to be factual. This reminds me of my field geology instructor trying to help us remember the difference between Aa and Pahoehoe, two types of lava flows. Since Aa is usually spiny and rough, stepping on it without shoes will hurt, causing you to shout out "Ah! Ah!" It makes absolutely no scientific sense, but if you just want to remember things better, that connection will help. 

Aa lava flow: very rough and spiny. Makes you go "Ah! Ah!" when you step on it with your bare feet for some reason. Photo by Ragnar Sigurdsson from Imaggeo

Of course, connections that make sense are much better. And it takes a lot of mental activity to think of these things while your professor continues with the lecture. But this is one simple habit that you should try to maximize what you learn during lectures. Doing this actually means you need to spend LESS time at home while studying, because you already made the connections even before leaving the classroom.