Wednesday, August 31, 2005

More progress

In Chemistry, I've made another pass through chemical compounds and added a few more definites and possibles to the list, and in Astronomy, I'm working through stellar astronomy. I've finished a section on Earth history and will soon be cycling back through geology. I've also finished up a pass through religion and will be cycling through families, and I've progressed to a preliminary look at early Medieval history.

My analysis of customs is turning out to be more productive than I thought it would be. I had noticed in studies of psychology that motor activities, or what seems to be called kinesiology (the study of movement) are not typically studied. A look at that are has led to better understanding of social psychology, and in turn, customs. That's an example of the kind of connections I want to make with this program of study.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Sociology

The first topic of what I call Anthropology is something I call, for lack of a better term, social psychology, or social fundamentals. I'm having to draw much of my information from sociology textbooks. Based on my reading of these, I've reorganized my notes on the subject into Presentation; which includes how people appear and present themselves (nonverbally), whether it is involuntary and unintentionally or otherwise; Interaction, which involves communication and may include passing encounters or repeated social relationships; Norms, which I consider to be social habits, and Groups, which include the formation, structure, and behavior of groups of people.
I'm also starting to look at language, customs, and foodstuffs; and I've started another pass through western civilization, and 16th century history.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

More progress

In physics, I've started on another pass through electromagnetism. I'm taking a closer look at the major groups of chemical elements, have started looking at the minor bodies of the solar system (asteroids and comets), and have finished a pass through biology and am back to molecular biology. In psychology, I've made notes on the major systems of sensation and am looking at a classification of movements. I've also finished a pass through what I call anthropology and soon want to get into one of the basic divisions that has a lot of hidden content. I'm close to finishing up three major areas of culture, a summary of religion, and am starting on some cities; I've also finished the last round of review of peoples of the world and the future, so I can look at my introduction to modern history.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Circulation

A couple of the more important areas related to science but not divisions of it are individual scientists, scientific literature, mathematics, scientific education including research, and the history of science. I'm still making progress in the particular areas I mentioned yesterday. Among the more interesting things I looked at this morning were the human circulatory system, and trying to summarize what I know about mechanisms of social change. In history, I've progressed to late classical history (the 1st 5 centuries AD., so I should still be there for a while.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

More progress

More updates on what I've been working on. In physics, I finished slogging through particle mechanics, so I can move on to the mechanics of rigid bodies, and I finished a pass through the structure of matter, so I can go back to the beginning and connect science to other areas I've been working on. I've started back at the top in chemistry, am looking at the planets in astronomy, have started with physical geography, and am working on biological history. I've started some notes on major systems of the human body, gone back to the beginning on psychology, and added some more people to the biographical list. Within what I call Anthropology, I've advanced to human geography, and I have entries in language, occupations, and a couple of areas of material culture; I've reviewing governmnent, am looking at social change, American indian peoples, early classical history, and am preparing a couple of sections on the future. I'm touching these subjects fairly lightly at the moment.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Progress

Rather than go through the entire list again, I'm just noting areas where I have finished a unit of study for now and moved on. Eventually, I'll come back to the others. In the past few days, I've progressed into Solar system astronomy; I've picked up some of its major physical properties so that I can discuss physics in more detail next time around. In Earth sciences, I'm reviewing physical geography. I've decided that the human body should be an area of regular study, and I've picked up psychology as another. I now have a couple of notes on major biographical figures and I can continue to add more. I've finished up the summary of material culture and will be going back to language. I'm working on types of society, a brief look at the peoples of Africa and have started another pass through classical and medieval history.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Summer vacation

I took a couple of wweeks off from my study projects, so the last month or so might as well be considered as my "summer vacation". There is a series on education on Meridian Magazine that expresses some principles I agree with. It's written from and principally to LDS, but I think the principles are universal.

I thought I'd summarize some things I'm working on. I've been slogging through particle mechanics (a part of physics) for a while now; reviewing the structure of matter (also part of physics, but overlaps with chemistry), and summarizing some principles of chemical change. I just finished a pass through astronomy and am starting another. In earth science, I'm looking at the atmospheric sciences, and for biology, I'm starting the ecology group. I just finished a review of psychology, so I'm going back for another look at the humam body, and going on to a little more biography. I'm also looking at the relationsh of people to the environment, finishing a summary of material culture, have started another pass through economics, I'm looking at the structure of communities, the peoples of Asia, a review of ancient history, and starting a review of the 20th century.
I'm reviewing all these subjects a little bit at a time. So far, these are fairly superficial reviews, but each time I go through them, I add a little more depth.