Learning physics has never been an easy task. Fortunately, I have met many great teachers and companions on the road of learning physics.
The lecturers in the Department of Physics are very responsible and friendly. Every question after class will be answered in a timely and patient manner. In daily lectures, our lecturers immerse themselves in the beauty of physics or mathematics in delivering physics knowledge to us. The excitement and devotion make us feel deeply connected to physics. In my sophomore year, I also joined the physics society and met many friends from the physics department. Dining together from time to time, we chat and discuss our future directions, have occasional meetings to plan physics-related project activities and putting them into practice. The activities outside of studies are fun and fulfilling.
With the advancement of my studies, I have realized that learning should not be limited to textbook knowledge. I am grateful to the assignments at the end of some courses that provides us an opportunity to study independently. While the process of writing a short project report is challenging, the process of self-selecting a topic of interest and exploring it is enjoyable. With each brainstorming session, the coming together of the report makes me feel accomplished. Most importantly, the independent study is just a catalyst for us to explore unknown areas, driven by our own initiative, to satisfy our curiosity.
The Laboratory class in my sophomore year was my first real contact with physical experiments after the epidemic. From the experiments, I have since found that there is always a big gap between theory and reality. There were various unexpected challenges in real experiments, and we had to improvise and modify the experimental method. This had a big impact on us, and it was the first time that we really felt the difficulty of designing an experiment. The self-designed experiment based on arduino is a field that we have never set foot in before. This is not something that can be summed up in textbooks, so we had to take the initiative to self-learn a lot of additional skills, such as simple programming and circuit connection of arduino, analysis and processing of experimental data, and many others. The lecturer for this class is not only imparting knowledge, but training us to confront and solve problems, sharing of each other’s experiences, and often enlightening us.
What impressed me the most was the poster presentation at the end of the semester. The lecturer asked us to summarize the experimental results of this semester into a poster, and invited many other lecturers and students from our Physics programme to observe and guide us. We practiced giving presentations on our experimental works with this opportunity. At the same time, we have benefited a lot from new perspectives from the students and the professors. The professors behave as both our teachers and friends, they are generous in imparting knowledge and experience, and also sincerely ask questions about areas that they do not understand, which makes the learning process even more wholesome.