
I am struck with the difference between learning for a test and learning to understand. I do decently on my tests in Nutrition, yet when I have to explain why the data from our lamb trials came out the way it did, I am at a loss. I end up with an awkwardly worded (not that writing in the 3rd person, past, passive isn't awkward enough) paragraphs that dance around the questions I'm supposed to be answering because I don't know how to take the facts I've memorized for the test and apply them to explain the data. And I'm turning in a discussion section that I know I'll lose points on because I've already spent four hours on the lab and there's other stuff that needs to be done.
*sigh*
I am not a nutritionist. I will never be. The field is marginally related to mine, in that proper nutrition is essential in producing health and the ability to fight off disease, which is reasonably related to halting the spread of disease after an outbreak occurs, which is directly related to the tracking of the epidemic. But I'm not sure that we know exactly what proper nutrition is, and this class has done nothing to convince me. Looking at the shit that we see fit to feed our animals doesn't bolster confidence in what is considered appropriate for humans.