Taking requests…

I just finished up summer quarter and have some time before I have to start Fall quarter.  I am going to be doing some writing for Nursing Linkup, a new site for nurses and nursing students.  I am also going to be devoting some time to my blog and helping my readers find the information they need to be successful in college.

So if you are having trouble finding something specific or have a question please post a comment and ask.  I will gladly help my readers figure out anything I can and you never know it may make a great post topic.

Thank you!

Free tutoring-that’s right I said free.

If you are taking any summer classes chances are your college doesn’t have any free tutors on staff.  I found this out this week while trying to answer some of my own chemistry questions.  I did a search and found http://www.tutor.com, They offer the first 25 minutes for free.  You don’t need a credit card to use the free session. The site provides online tutoring using a chat and white board format.  You can write out a mathematical or chemical equation and they can visually and verbally walk you though it step by step.

Study and relieve stress? YES it is possible.

Are you stressed for a big test? Need to study but just can’t seem to retain much? Perhaps you should try another method. A new study from East Carolina University says you should fire up a casual game. The gaming company PopCap underwrote the research, so much of the study is focused on games they offer. However, this can easily be translated into study skills. So, if you just aren’t getting anywhere or are getting stressed about upcoming tests try a study game.

Get a study group together for a game of trivia; everyone can bring their own questions and answers to put in the game. This will help you retain information better, if you hear several questions about the something worded different ways. Plus it starts a great support group for getting good grades in a challenging class. If you are enjoying yourself, your brain will release endorphins and that may help increase your power to retain information.

If you are looking for some solo games try StudyStack.com. John Weidner submitted this idea. Study stack allows a user to input information they need to learn in a ’study stack’ and then use it for flash cards, notes, or games. You can play matching games, hangman, cross word puzzles, word searches, and fill in the blanks. You can search other people stacks to see if anyone else is learning about cellular respiration, or photosynthesis, or human anatomy. You may be surprised at how many subjects are already covered.

6 reasons to consider Open Source College

 

Open Source is touted as the face of online learning. Many colleges MIT, most notable has published their entire curriculum online in the form of free learning forums. As you can imagine this is a great opportunity for many who are unable to afford a traditional college. The down side is that the syllabus, and basic curriculum is there. Most classes do not have recordings of lectures or tests available for you to test your skills on. MIT has been getting a lot of negative feedback about this. So perhaps in the future it will be available. However, don’t let that discourage you. An individual motivated to learn and not afraid of seeking out their own answers can still get a lot out of these classes. If you meet any of the following 5 categories, you may want to consider looking into Open Source classes.

MIT’s open source can be found here http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.hml

1. You do not need the credits, but want to learn a new material for a career. Many employers may still contribute to expenses like books, if you can still down and explain the concept to them or show them the web site. Especially, if you want to find a class to help improve management skills or update HR practices. Employers may appreciate your cost saving strategy for learning.

2. If you are looking to enrich your life by learning and would normally have to travel a long distance to a community college. Many Sr. Citizens may find this a cheaper alternative. As long as you are internet savvy and able to search out material not found in the course-such as, videos shown in the lecture available in a different location online.

3. You are planning on attending college or are already in college and would like to challenge a class, this could provide you with the resources to learn the material ahead of time. Then you can ‘buy’ the credits without having to sit through a class. This option will generally save you a lot of money and allow you to achieve a degree faster. Most colleges allow you to test out of basic courses like math and English as long as you can score high enough on a placement test. This can get you into advanced courses faster, and help you to get out of college sooner.

4. If you are having trouble deciding on a major and want to check out some of the classes offered in a specific area. So next time you aren’t sure if psychology or social work is the right path for you. Check out a few classes over the summer and see what strikes your fancy without having to pay for a class and change your mind.

5. If you are unable to afford college, or get to a college for any reason, but want to increase your job skills. Even though it does not offer any degree. An employer will always like the fact that you are improving yourself. You may need to emphasis the responsibility, creativeness, independence, and motivation that it takes. But, if you find the right employer, they may just hire you because of the class work. It looks much better than just a high school diploma or GED. Especially if you can talk to a local college and take a final in a like course and show some type of proof of your learning. Even if the college doesn’t count it as a credit, they may be able to help you in other ways.

6. If you want to improve your computer skills, learn a new program or code. There are plenty of classes available to teach these skills. Classes for Office, Access, HTML, Basic, java. This is a great way to teach yourself new computer skills.

Mac Freeware for college students….

Here are a few great mac downloads for college students in math and science. I found these helpful for my nursing prerequisites.

CRYSTAL MAKER 8.1.0

An award-winning Mac program for building, displaying and manipulating all kinds of crystal and molecular structures – with real-time photo-realistic graphics and “out-of-the-screen” 3D display.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/crystalmaker.html

ATOMIC MAC 6.9.0

The award-winning periodic table of the elements for the Macintosh. In addition to the usual information found in such programs, The Atomic Mac also contains a wealth of nuclear information on each isotope, including half life, decay mode, and daughter products. No other periodic table of the elements has more data than The Atomic Mac!

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/atomicmac.html

GRAPH PAPER MAKER

Software that lets you create your own custom sheets of graph paper. You have complete control over the graph characteristics:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/graphpapermaker.html

PAPERS 1.8

Bundles all the great technologies that come with Mac OS X to give you a completely new workflow for reading scientific articles. You seek, download, archive, and organize all your articles within a single application. But that is just the start, using spotlight you instantly find the paper you are looking for. Read it fullscreen, add your notes, send it to a classmate.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/papers.html

Great news in a week of downers

My week this week didn’t start out well. First off, I broke my foot. More specifically I got a stress fracture in the joint at the base of my big toe. So I can now be referred to as gimpy, or hop-a-long in case you needed a nick-name for me.

I ride the bus everyday with Olivia in to PA to go to college. So crutches, fancy cast boot deal, a toddler, a back pack and diaper bag…. let’s just say it is rough. Plus Olivia didn’t feel great on Tuesday and decided to share breakfast with me. (She got bus sick) …luckily I had a spare set of clothes in my locker. We had been through this before.

On the plus side though…I aced my biology test so I have one of the best grades in the class. Yeah me! I am so happy I have a 3.85 so far in college. For someone who is getting their first ‘A’ in a math class I am ecstatic!

BUT the best news….I got a $9,000 scholarship from Forks Hospital!!!!! It is actually $3,000 per year, and the last year they may decide to give me more. It comes with an employment contract, so after I graduate I will have a job waiting. I am so happy!