General | Science Knowledge

Deciding If A Marine Career Is Right For You

July 4, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium...

Image by comprock via Flickr

Marine careers are perfect for people who love Science, and marine creatures and plants. There are a variety of positions, such as marine biology, and the career is one which is widely varied, meaning your weeks are never likely to be the same. Getting in to the field does require plenty of maths and science knowledge, so before you decide what courses to take, decide if marine science really is the right career for you.

One of the most effective ways to see if you suit marine science is by getting an internship. Many different work environments offer these, from museums and science parks to federal laboratories and marine theme parks, and give you a chance to experience the type of work you’d be doing. Try to do a minimum of a week, and longer if possible, so you can really imagine how working there would feel. If you can, do an internship in more then one place, as this will give you an idea of which area you’d like to work in.

Read profiles of different jobs, and note down the ones you are most interested in. From marine biologists to oceanographers, you can read about the highlights and bad parts of each job, and discover ones which suit your interests.

Contact organizations locally, and look out for marine-related job advertisments locally. These will give you more information on factors such as responsibilities, salary and working hours, along with requirements. Once you’ve considered all this information, you can be sure marine science is a career for you!

Filed Under: General, Science Tagged With: Marine, Marine biology, Oceanography

Researching A Class Online

March 28, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are interested in taking a certain class online you may want to know a little more about it before you sign up. You can read through the class summary listed in the school catalog and you can read the brief description provided by the teacher but you still may not have a clear idea of what the class consists of and what the requirements are going to be. There are a few ways to find out more specifics before taking the plunge and signing up.

Search for information online. Many times you can type in the name of the class, the name of the school followed by words like syllabus, schedule, or outline. The information provided might be from a previous year and may even be a little outdated, but you can get a feel for what is going to be covered, how many assignments or quizzes you will have and even what projects are going to be required. This will work sometimes, but many teachers password protect these documents and in that case you will not have access.

Firsthand information is usually best, but where should you go to look for it? There are two sources that you may be able to track down in order to find out more. Go straight the the teacher and send an email that asks about the class. Feel free to request a copy of the syllabus or outline. If all else fails you can see if you have any fellow students that have already taken the class and ask them about it. Be aware that different people have different opinions of the difficulty and frequency of schoolwork.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Education, Syllabus, Teacher

Highlighting a Textbook

March 24, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Reading a textbook is not necessarily anyone’s favorite part of taking classes. For the most part the books are completely humorless, go into minute detail, and lack the interest factor. As you read, you want to make sure that you highlight the important parts so that you don’t have to skim back over each and every sentence looking for the information that you need. How do you determine what needs to be highlighted? It is a fine balance between what is necessary and what is just extra fluff.

You may have seen other students with almost every line of every chapter highlighted. This isn’t going to do much good if you just want to draw attention to a few facts and statements. As you read, think about what information could potentially be on the next test. Look for important dates, discoveries, and people. Look for statements that summarize what the entire chapter or heading is about. If you are working with a math or science textbook you might see formulas or example equations that you know you are going to come back to, go ahead and highlight them.

Choose the color wisely before you begin to highlight. If you really want to avoid taking notes and just want to use the textbook as your main resource for study consider taking an extra step when highlighting. Maybe all of the important dates are marked in yellow, the important people in pink, and the statements or facts in blue. No matter what the subject of study, highlighting can be a helpful tool when used correctly.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Education, Student, Textbook

Starting an Online Class

March 16, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

If you aren’t sure whether or not getting a degree online is something you can do, the best thing to do is try out a class. Start with something simple; maybe a prerequisite that you would need before taking some of the higher level course. You can get a feel for how the classes are set up, what is expected of you, and how much time it is going to require.

Most online schools begin the process with you applying to the school. Go through the process and find out what documents you need to submit and find out if you need to send in any transcripts. Then, browse through the list of classes and find something that has to do with your field of study. Go through the sign up process and get all of the important details you will need like the name of the required textbooks and assignment due dates.

When the class starts, read through the syllabus. Most will tell you how the class is set up and give you a guideline for getting in assignments, class projects (if applicable), and the final exam. You can begin to pace yourself to make sure that you can keep up with the work or begin to work ahead if you feel comfortable.

Some classes will require that you have tests and quizzes proctored by a local school or some other professional place. Find out what you need to do to get the materials sent there and how long it will take. If most classes require that you do this, it might be a good idea to keep all the information on hand for next time.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Class (education), Education, Student

Benefits of Getting a Degree Online

March 9, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Today many people just don’t have the time in their busy schedule to attend traditional universities and colleges. It takes a lot of time to drive down to the campus and spend time listening to a lecture and still have all of the homework and reading that is traditionally required. More and more professionals are looking to get a degree online because of all of the benefits it offers them.

Time is an issue. For most people time is a hot commodity. It is tough to fit in all of the regular responsibilities that life has without trying to squeeze in a class or two. When you take classes online, you decide what you take and when you take it. It is possible to fit school into your schedule because so many of the decisions are up to you.

Unlike traditional schools, vacations and time off are manageable. If you want to head out of town for a three day weekend, you can. There is no need to worry about missing out on one of the class meetings or not being able to turn in a homework assignment. You can work ahead to make sure that you are caught up and leave without any type of worry or anxiety. Many classes are completely self paced, so if you want to sprint through the work early, you are more than welcome. Or if you are more of a procrastinator, you can wait until the week before it is all due.

Flexibility is the main reason that people look to get their degree online. They don’t have to spend as much time in a classroom getting and education. While you are given some flexibility you are having to sacrifice the quality of education. Many of the teachers are professionals themselves so you are getting a chance to learn from their personal experiences.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: E-learning, Education, Homework

Study Sessions with a Friend

March 7, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are lucky enough to be taking online classes with a friend you have someone that you can study with when it comes time to get ready for a test or quiz. The two of you can meet somewhere and compare notes, assignments and even information. But there may be a few pitfalls that can get in the way if you aren’t careful. You want to make sure that you maximize the time that you have with your friend to study.

Find a time that works best for both of you. This can be tough if both of you are currently working or taking other classes. The time that you have available may be difficult to try and coordinate. Do the best that you can to work with each other to find some time. It doesn’t have to be a marathon study session. The two of you can just get together for a short one half hour or one hour interval to catch up and ask each other some questions.

Stay on task. If you don’t have a lot of time, don’t waste it by talking about things outside of class. This can be tough if the two of you are friends and don’t get to see each other often. If you are meeting for coffee and planning to study for an hour, see if you can get there early, order your coffee and have all of your study materials out before the time that you have set up to work. This way you can use most of the time working our problems or creating study sheets.

Come prepared. There is nothing worse than attempting to study with a person that is not caught up on the reading or assignments. Be sure that if you are going to work on the midterm project that you are caught up to the midterm assignments.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: E-learning, Education, Student

Birds Falling From The Sky: Scientifically Debunking The Apocalypse

January 27, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Ever since 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell out of the Arkansas sky at the start of this year, the media has been abuzz with more stories of mass animal death. The story has been a favorite of those who want to proclaim that the world is ending, or to say that it is all part of some giant conspiracy.

The most recent mass bird death, of 200 starlings in Yankton, South Dakota, came with something unusual: an explanation. The United States Department of Agriculture admitted to having trapped and poisoned the birds, in an effort to stop their defecating in a nearby Nebraska farm’s feed meal. The birds were endangering the health of the farm animals as well as the people who work there, and, down the line, the people who would later come into contact with the farm’s products. The USDA admitted to having poisoned an estimated 2,000 birds, but so far only 10 percent of that number have been found.

This news calls into question the fervor surrounding the other bird deaths. Is the United States government responsible for more deaths that we don’t know about? Are all of the explanations this simple? And is it really that big of a deal?

Experts say that these mass bird deaths happen more often than we think, and we are only just now hearing about them because of an apocalyptic media trend. There are many things that can kill large quantities of birds. Here are a few.

Poison: Pesticides like the one used in Nebraska, though not always actually intended to kill birds, kill 72 million birds a year in the United States.

Flying into things: One of the popular explanations for the recent mysterious deaths, this is actually a major hazard for birds living and flying in an increasingly urban environment.

Cats: They may not be mysterious mass killers, but cats kill hundreds of millions of birds every year.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Bird

How Does It Work?

January 25, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

As technology becomes more and more advanced, the science behind it can be baffling to some of us. This post is here to tell you how some of these things work.

Touch screens: Touch screens are actually picking up on an electrical current in your hand. That’s why you can use some touch-screen devices with the aid of a stylus, but you can’t change the song on your iPod while you are wearing gloves. One of those things conducts the electrical current and the other one blocks it.

Speakers: How does music come out of there? Speakers turn electricity into sound using magnets. Inside the speaker there is a permanent magnet and a coil that becomes and electromagnet when it picks up an electrical signal from, say, your iPod. The electromagnet attracts and repels the permanent magnet according to the electrical signal, vibrating the outer cone of the speaker, usually made of paper or fabric. This vibration creates the sound we hear.

Noise-canceling headphones: Noise-canceling headphones work by canceling out sound waves that they pick up around them. They are built with microphones on the outside, so they can pick up the sound outside and reverse it. The reversed sound is played over the headphone speakers and it effectively cancels out the noise around you, so that the speakers can then play music that is uninterrupted by crying babies and honking horns.

Global Positioning Systems: Ever wonder how the GPS lady knows exactly where to tell you to go? Your GPS device is communicating with three different satellites via radio waves. The GPS picks up signals from the satellites, which tell it the satellite’s position and the time that the signal was sent. By comparing this time to the time on the device’s internal clock, it can determine speed of travel. Then, by comparing intersections of three satellites, it can use geometry to figure out where you are.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Global Positioning System

Two Suns in 2012? Maybe Not.

January 18, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

The red giant star Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion, is relatively close to our solar system and scientists predict it will soon explode and become a supernova. But as far as when this will happen, and what the effects will be, there is some dispute.

Dr. Brad Carter of the University of Southern Queensland has stated that the star could go supernova as early as 2012, and the result will be a Tatooine-esque skyscape featuring two suns. This would go on for a few weeks, possibly with no night. Other scientists were quick to say that while the supernova’s brightness would be significant, it would look to us here on Earth to be more like a full moon and not a second sun.

Since this announcement, Carter and other scientists have emphasized the fact that, while the event might happen in 2012, it probably will not, and we have no way of knowing for sure when it will happen. It could be 100,000 years from now.

Nevertheless, some people want to believe that the world is going to end in 2012, in accordance with the Mayan calendar, and for those people, this is a definite sign of the apocalypse.

Scientists have put forth no evidence to suggest that Betelgeuse going supernova will have any negative effects on the Earth. In fact, the effect on the Earth would more likely be highly positive. particles resulting from the supernova could result in the creation of precious metals and other elements that are important to our survival.

The explosion will also effect a neutrino shower. Carter says that after the supernova we might see a new neutron star or a black hole. This would not, however, result in the end of the world. While the explosions will be more than ten million times brighter than the sun, it will also be more than 625 light years away.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Earth