Why educate yourself in the sciences?

There really ARE apps for all that!

First, a top five list - notable for a different flashcard application (I still like Quizlet a lot), another graphing calculator to try, and Evernote which I actually like and use. I'm planning to try the project app soon. Here's the link.

Next, here's a list from Lifehacker for the Mac Student

Continuing our Apple/Mac theme, here are 8 more.

And this' year's updates list from AppStorm here.

Know what doesn't work very well? Those big paper calendars that lie flat on your desk. Seems like it would be handy to write on, easy to see for reminders, etc. The reality? That's where I put stuff down or spread my work out on the desk, covering it up.

Sweatpants?

Sweatpants - at least a certain kind - are a great solution to the first decision of the day: what to wear. Nike makes them without elastic at the bottom, which makes them look more like pants and less like you're on the way to workout. And with the deep side pockets, back pocket with velcro, and the heavyweight fabric you just look like you're wearing COMFORTABLE pants. 

They're also a good solution for your mood, because who doesn't feel better wearing sweats?

Taking the longer view

Here are some ways I've been looking at the future:

This is the last time I'll see these particular trees in my back yard turn colors. Next year at this time I'll be living somewhere else, and see different trees lose their leaves.

I just placed my order for my cap and gown. Four years from now I'll have my college graduation to look forward to.

Ten years from now I will have become what I set out to be, working and driving (I hope) a paid-for Mustang GT.

How awesome is that?

Lessons from college visits

You don't know until you stand on the campus, eat in the cafeteria, and talk to some students.

Some colleges are just what you thought they'd be, but in my experience there are usually some surprises, not all deal-breakers, but some sure are.

One college I thought would be perfect turned out to feel like a small private high school, even though the campus wasn't all that small. It's just that the buildings, and all the rooms in the buildings, just felt small and kind of dark. I think it must have been all the big shady tress, but I just didn't like the feel. Great food, though. Gulag style dorms.

Another college I thought would be too big felt just right, a combination of the campus layout and the town it was in. I could see myself living there.

This is going to be tough, but try not to make your decision based on your tour guide, because their experiences may not be what you'll experience.  But I have to say that's really hard to do, because you wonder if all the students are like this one person, who may be annoying or just, well, not like you or your friends.

One of the whole points to going away to college is going away, right? Going away from your high school groups, whatever they were, and going away from your past in a lot of ways. Something new, different and even a little bit foreign might be a good thing. Right?

New element on the periodic table

High-school chemistry students, beware. Japanese scientists say they have created one of the elements still missing from the periodic table. The elusive element 113—an atom with 113 protons—has to be manmade because it doesn't occur naturally on Earth. On Wednesday, researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science announced the successful creation of the element for the first time. If the atom withstands scrutiny, it will be the first element discovered by an Asian country, giving Japan naming rights. So far, only American, Russian, and German scientists have had the honor. There are about 20 synthetic elements, the first of which was created in 1940.

Read it at CBS News

September 26, 2012 4:19 PM

I'm going to need a bigger backpack.

Just when you think you've got your routines down, your desk set up, all your studying ready to go...then, boom! AP Chemistry lands in your life.

Worth it? Yes - just take a look at any college's AP credit page, and then think for a minute about just how big a classroom (auditorium?) would have to be to hold the 300-550 students in an intro chem class.

Bigger backpack. More pizza.

AP scores!!

AP English Language   5

AP Psychology   5

And this just goes to prove that you really can be the master of your own fate. I'm the one who was so discouraged after making a C in my English class, but decided to work like crazy anyway outside of class. Is there a lesson here?

Decisions have consequences

So I decided I didn't want to work in fast food, and when I applied for jobs in May and June I discovered that my 9-1 class schedule was a problem for a lot of employers.

Which is how I came to be working in the sun during one of Texas hottest summers on record, by my own choice.

I'm working on an organic commercial farm, doing pretty much what farmworkers do: weeding, mulching, planting, clearing out old crops and preparing for new ones. Also changing tires on tractors, repairing their engines, and figuring out how to retrofit safety equipment on old models.

But here's the thing:  I've made quite a few discoveries. Shade moves. Did you know that? I'm a city kid, and I never really understood that one reality until I was faced with working the five planted rows on a 300 foot long raised bed that when I started was in the shade... and then it wasn't, as the sun rose higher and began to clear the trees. I don't know the temperature difference of full sun in Texas in July at 10:00 in the morning, but what I can tell you is that it feels like the difference between "OK, I can do this" to "I need water. Now."

Grades!

Two A's.

And the things I know about microeconomics...

Finals!

This is it. My grades are good so far, just have to avoid blowing it at the end. You know the feeling.

What's great is that I've taken notes every single day in class, using my laptop which means I can organize and review pretty easily.

This is also where keeping on top of your reading pays off. Now I review information for the second or third time, not the first.

Time to order more pizza.

Research paper, for real

Combine "microeconomics" and "research paper" and what do you get? A weekend of work without a break, my friends. Ordered pizza. Twice.

College continued

While this is not easy stuff it is pretty straightforward information to learn, and the classroom lectures have enough discussion to make it interesting. I'm enjoying studying about US government in an election year, and who knew microeconomics could explain so much?

Here's some advice:  do NOT skip the reading. Don't even think about it! On this kind of schedule there's no room for slacking off, because the very next day you'd be lost.

College vs High School

No worksheets, no daily grades, no attendance, no bathroom passes, no tardy slips.

Instead a syllabus and lots of reading, tests and research papers we know about far in advance. Also time for discussion, asking questions, debating opinions.

And no substitute teachers.

College classes

Reporting from my first college summer classes:  My first experience of summer school and college courses is so far a positive one. Two hours a day, five days a week with reading and homework every night makes for an intensive learning experience, but I think I like it. Even with two classes (yes, that's right, boys and girls, four hours a day in class, reading and homework every night x2) it's manageable, but the interesting thing is how much I'm learning. So this is my summer so far...

Do yourself a favor

What I wish...

Is that someone had shown us the Common Application form back in 8th grade or so, but definitely no later than the first two weeks of high school. If we had known then what we'd be faced with filling out 3 years later, a lot more of what we kept hearing about from our parents, teachers and counselors would have made more sense.

These big blank sections really get your attention: Academics. Honors. Extracurricular Activities and Work Experience.

If you are a parent reading this, it's never too early to show your child the Common App. Think of it as a reality check - what's on this form will determine how they will be viewed, evaluated and ultimately either accepted or rejected by a college, maybe their perfect college.

Think of it as the finish line, and show it to your kid before the race gets started.

School's out!

The end is in sight! No, wait, that's just the start of summer school.

Dual credit classes at nearby college, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I think of it as a practice run for college.

This is way better than dual credit classes offered on my high school campus at 7:00am, which just sounds crazy.

College, so many choices

Parameters

I'm trying to come up with some minimums and maximums for college size, based on the choices a lot of the college search programs ask you for.

Do I want a college that is smaller than my high school? (Will I ever see anyone I don't already know?)

Do I want a college where the football stadium holds more people than the population of the town where I live?

ACT or SAT. That is the question.

Or is it both? Neither?

April 14 is national ACT test day, and I'm taking it to see how my scores look. What's interesting is how many of my friends tell me that colleges want SAT, not ACT.

So I researched it, and found out that it's kind of a regional difference. Most of the midwest states have a tradition of taking ACT tests, but the east coast is all about the SAT.

College websites tell a different story:  they'll take either one, and some of them don't care if you take neither.

What's more important is to take a look at something called "common data set" for each college (Google it for each college; it's faster) which shows the most recent scores for the students accepted to that college, 25%-75%, along with what percentage took ACT or SAT.

It's one way to see if that's a college where you might fit in, data wise.

AP Test season is upon us.

That is the sound of me sighing. And yawning.

I know, I know. Some of you, like many of my friends, are wall-to-wall AP classes this year, with something like 6 tests facing you in a little over a month's time. But hey, my 2 AP classes are lot, for me. I actually know some people - perfectly nice, bright, mostly normal - who are taking NO AP classes at all, apparently using the GPA strategy which doesn't include that "rigor of study" part I keep seeing on college websites. It was a shock to hear, on some of my spring break college visits, that some colleges don't weight pre-AP or even AP courses - they just look at an unweighted average. Not sure if my no-AP friends have it right, but then I wonder if my all-AP friends have it right either.

But I guess that's why there are so many different kinds of colleges out there, and we just have to find our way to the one that's right for us. Right?