Teaching yourself science

[silentsailor]

High school can be slow. Completely, utterly, dreadfully, mind-numbingly slow - and as a freshman, I've got firsthand experience in this matter. Some teachers are better than others, but even then the quality of the class depends on funding, time, the brilliance/idiocy of fellow students, and a whole slew of other issues. So: what are some of the better online resources for learning the basics (and/or more) outside of school? Uber Spiffy experiment sites, eTexts, organizations - any good resources are welcome.

[paleolithic]

Hey I was just on the end of my sophmore year but *graduated, I have a big interest in science and have learned a lot on my own, more than in school at least. Stick around these forums, you'll probably learn a thing or two here.

 

By the way, what field(s) are you interested in? I may be able to help with a link.

 

 

 

*http://www.chspe.net

[5614]

Yeah, as paleolithic said, what area of sciece?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.hbcpnetbase.com/

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl?Type=TOC

http://www.motionmountain.net/

are some good ones.

[swansont]

There's the sticky in the astronomy section, and I like HyperPhysics Concepts as a physics reference.

[silentsailor]

Yeah' date=' as paleolithic said, what area of sciece?

[/quote']

 

Primarily biology, biochem, and bioengineering but honestly, anything would be great. Thanks for the links

[radiohead]

Yeah, I know how you feel. I am a sophomore and I hate school with a passion. I find alot of things there are completely useless *coughenglishcough*. Thats why I came here.

[5614]

Primarily biology, biochem, and bioengineering but honestly, anything would be great. Thanks for the links

 

http://employees.csbsju.edu/hjakubowski/classes/ch331/bcintro/default.html

and

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.html

and

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/

seem to be the most popular ones... I don't know many, I know all the physics/chemistry ones!

[Auburngirl05]

Here's a good biology one:

http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/

 

I'll try to dig out some more that I used to review for the AP Bio test last year.

[arbitratus]

I don't know many, I know all the physics/chemistry ones!

 

I would love any physics/chemistry links you might have...

[5614]

I would love any physics/chemistry links you might have...

 

Well the 4 I said originally are great:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.hbcpnetbase.com/

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl?Type=TOC

http://www.motionmountain.net/

 

And swanson mentioned http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hph.html which is good.

 

But other ones include:

 

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/

http://www.jyu.fi/tdk/kastdk/olympiads/

(the above offers International physics olympiad papers from 1967 - present)

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/

http://www.hpwt.de/Quantene.htm

(the above I just found in my favourites, I don't remember but it seems ok for reliability)

http://science.howstuffworks.com/

(above is reguarly updated)

http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html

(above is the "element song" it's quite a famous old funny song with all the elements in)

 

Yeah, that seems to be a good bunch!

[arbitratus]

Yeah, that seems to be a good bunch!

It does indeed, thank you.

[revprez]

High school can be slow. Completely, utterly, dreadfully, mind-numbingly slow - and as a freshman, I've got firsthand experience in this matter.

 

Well, can we see some of your completed homework, then?

 

Rev Prez

[aaronmyung]

you should join a study group. a group of friends and I meet up everyweekend and do heaps of work. Great, self-paced learning fun !!!!

[silentsailor]

Well' date=' can we see some of your completed homework, then?

Rev Prez[/quote']

 

I'm here asking for help, no need to be patronizing :\

[Kygron]

Well, can we see some of your completed homework, then?

 

This is a response that I don't like to see used. If he's telling the truth then doing the homework will seem so useless that it won't get done. I've been there. He has a problem, and forcing him to show that he can do something someone else's way isn't going to help solve it. Help him to get involved in something that interests him! Maybe he's actually "bad" at school, but in order to find out he needs to learn someting in a different way first so that he figures out what the problem is. Maybe he's "good" at school but is in danger of giving up because it seems useless to continue. Help him see what he likes so that he can make a better decision about doing his homework, so that he can graduate and move on to those things that interest him.

[Bio-Hazard]

I personally think going into the field of robotics is a rewarding one.

Not only that, but you get to put mathematical experience into work. School doesn't really teach people much about electronics would I find very sad since America had become a dispoable economy. If more people had experience, they would be able to fix their devices.

 

Chemistry is also another fun thing you can learn to play with. You could go into pyrotechnics to play with the knowledge you have learned. I suggest you pick up the book Chemistry of Pyrotechnics: Basic Principles and Theory by John A. Conkling.

 

That way you'll use some time in creating fireworks that are fun that you can have on your birthday, new years, or 4th of july.

 

Some other things that are fun to do have to do with putting the things you've learned in school to use. If you go into robotics which I reccomend, you could go into programming also. When going into programming you use a lot of your mathematical experience in creating programs to help drive the robot around.

 

Increasing your reading and comprehension speed would be another considerable thing to do. Try learning about different things, maybe take up a martial art. I always think it's a good idea for people to take martial arts.

 

If you're not taking AP courses, I suggest you do. These courses help you obtain college credit.

 

I personally like thinking up of ways majestic creatures such as dragons could have consisted. Certain types of acids being inflicted upon by electromagnetic waves to create nylon type wings. Could the dragon possibly have used this type of acid in it's body to create fire among villages?

 

Biology is fun to study and becomes more realistic when you start to go into the chemicals and elements that alter the body of an organism or how they can survive them.

[Ken Ramos]

...

[Skye]

Primarily biology, biochem, and bioengineering but honestly, anything would be great. Thanks for the links

Take a look around http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

[Bluenoise]

For the fields of interest that you've stated.

NCBI - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ would be a great place to start. They have a large selection of textbooks available online that may be of interest to you (Molecular Biology of the cell is awesome), plus links to many other sites. Anyways if you want to go into these fields you WILL be using this site occasionally, if not very often.

 

I'm currently completing my undergrad in a Biochemistry (Biotechnology specialization) which covers your stated interest and have a large collection of related bookmarks that may interest you.

 

pm me if you are interested.

 

Well' date=' can we see some of your completed homework, then?

 

Rev Prez[/quote']

 

Really was that necessary? First of all who care if she's doing her homework or not? What's that supposed to prove? If I was bored and uninterested and found the work non-challenging well I wouldn't do it either.

And I didn't when I was in high school. I couldn't stand it. Spent more time in coffee shops then I did in class. Hell I even dropped out once because it was soo boring. Travelled a bit, then went to a more immersive/challening school to finish. Needless to say I'm almost done my degree and am doing quite well.

 

Anyways rev, just going out and searching for additional information shows a deep intersest in the sciences, which has to be in itself the most important requirement to succeed in these fields. You wouldn't believe that amount of kids that enrolled in my program that got in with amazing marks and no interest in the subject matter. Well needless to say there aren't many of them left now. And the couple that are I don't see lasting much longer or going anywhere with it.