All posts by Suzanne Shaffer

college majors

5 Study tools for science students

 

graphing calculatorStudents have a lot to worry about when they get into higher education. For many, it is the first time they are on their own and have to worry about things like laundry and cooking. Even more, they have to worry about including study time in addition to other responsibilities. This can be very overwhelming, especially for science students. However, there are a few study tools they can use to make study time effective.

Graphing Calculators

Graphing calculators are very useful in working with complicated applications in science, especially those that involve math functions like calculus and trigonometry. These calculators are devoted exclusively to these functions, so they become easy to use. Furthermore, many of these calculators store information, so it is easy to go over concepts and track progress with the information.

Apps

With the rise of mobile technology and smartphones, apps are becoming even more popular and have a variety of uses. There are even science study guides available for various forms of science including physics and biology. However, the drawback of many apps is that they come at a cost, so they may not be an option for all students who need some extra study help. Still, there may be other free apps that help students understand concepts and provide other kinds of necessary information.

Websites

There are also many websites all over the Internet that can help students with many types of science needs. Many of these sites are free for all users and they can explain concepts and theories to students who need a little extra help with their science. There are many reference sites such as Knovel and the Science and Engineering Encyclopedia for those who need help with general concepts in science.

However, it may be more useful to find sites that are more tailored to specific subjects in science. For instance, sites like Chemdex, PTable and the On-Line Encyclopedia of Chemical Terms can help those who need to brush up on chemistry. Biology students can look to sites such as Everything Bio, Biology Reference and All Experts Biology. There are even sites for other subjects including astronomy, botany, environmental sciences, genetics, geology, physics and zoology among others.

Study Groups

The importance of study groups cannot be underestimated when it comes to studying any of the sciences. Putting together a study group is a very good way to compare notes and find out what concepts and ideas are important during the class in case something is missed. It is also a good way to begin understanding the work with the help of fellow students. If the group cannot meet in person, it is possible to begin a chatroom or communicate via webcam so that it is easier for members to get together.

Study Rooms

Whether in a group or alone, it is very important to find a place that makes uninterrupted study easy. For instance, many schools have designated study rooms, but they may need to be reserved in advance. Libraries may also be a good place to study for students who need a place that is already quiet and need to accommodate more than one student.

However, there are other options when it comes to study rooms or areas. Many students are now taking their work to cafes and coffee shops, which can be good for students who are not easily distracted. This may also be a good option for those who need to get off campus. Some students are even able to study in their rooms, but they should make sure they are comfortable and able to focus, especially if there is a roommate to consider.

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Author Bio

Ryan Ayers is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to education. In this article, he offers a few study tips to science students and aims to encourage further study through Ohio University engineering online.

tech gadgets, technology

Tips to make a smartphone battery last longer

 

smartphone batteryThe entrance of smartphones in our lives brought a lot of changes in the way we do things. This is due to the fact that this small communication device can assist us to undertake a lot of activities much easier and faster than before. However, each of these activities makes your battery deplete. This means that you need to find ways to reduce the battery consumption. This article looks at the science behind the various approaches.

Manage Your Screen Settings

Your screen is one part of your smartphone that is always on when performing an activity. Every operation on the phone uses the screen in one way or another. This means that your screen is one of the components that take up a lot of battery power. The good thing is that you can change the various settings that are used in your screen to reduce consumption.

If you have no time to customize this feature, you can select a theme that automatically adjusts the features to improve battery consumption. This is achieved by selecting the ‘power saving mode’ under your display settings. The science behind this is basically a change in the screen time-out and reduction in the brightness of your screen. This most definitely reduces the power consumption.

Manage Connectivity

No other smartphone function uses up your battery like connecting to the Internet via Bluetooth, data, or Wi-Fi. You may prefer to leave the connection turned on due to the fact that some of the apps and functions use the Internet, but you need to be ready with a charging pack very soon.

If you are not using the Internet, it is better to turn off these functions so that you do not waste your battery. Additionally, the higher the level of connectivity, the faster your battery will be drained. This means that it is more economical for you to connect to a 2G network rather than a 4G network.

Continue reading Tips to make a smartphone battery last longer →

college planning

College Then and Now: What has changed?

 

college now and thenWhile Americans have been going to college for over three hundred and fifty years of our history, only within the past three decades has the landscape of higher education changed drastically.  Students today now have less of a chance of becoming hired for a job after graduation, yet more and more of them are entering into the college ranks.  How has the history of university studies changed in the span of a single generation? What was college like then and now?

Personal Computing

Perhaps no change has affected college life like the availability of computers.  In the 1980s, students could take computers to university, but only the wealthiest could afford them.  Indeed, many colleges may not have even offered computers to students, instead providing typewriters to compose lab reports and essays with.  Today, a computer is a mandatory part of any higher education program, and it is extremely difficult to go through college without one.  Teachers communicate exclusively by email to their students outside of the class, while more and more courses are moving to the digital classroom itself in order to provide instruction across time and space.  Indeed, it is now possible to get a complete university education in your own home with an Internet connection.

Continue reading College Then and Now: What has changed? →

college majors

Why math and science degrees are vital

 

math and scienceEducation, in general, is vital for the growth of any country, but as far as the US is concerned, there are two subjects in particular that require more attention namely math and science. Emphasis on these two subjects should not just be at the elementary and high school level the country needs more individuals with math and science degrees. But why exactly are these subjects so important?

Global Competitiveness

Technology in virtually every sphere of life is improving with every passing day. New and more efficient processes are being formulated and so are inventions. Obviously math and science play a major role in all these developments. Countries like China, South Korea and other emerging economies have discovered this and have consequently geared their education systems towards these two disciplines. An increasing number of their students are coming out of universities with very advanced mathematical and scientific knowledge, which they use to drive their economies. There is no doubt that the US has been lagging behind with regard to this aspect, case in point; the fact that more and more patents in the US are being issued to foreigners than to Americans. Needless to say, there is a need to lay more emphasis on math and science if the US is to remain competitive globally.

Continue reading Why math and science degrees are vital →

dorm life

Designer dorm rooms–the wave of the future?

 

designer dorm roomThe trend: parents hiring designers to deck out their student’s dorm room. Are designer dorm rooms the wave of the future? According to an article on bizjournals.com, parents are hiring interior designers for college dorm rooms:

More students and their parents are paying interior designers $90 to $175 an hour to turn drab dorm space into spaces worthy of magazine spreads, complete with upholstered headboards, wallpaper and crystal chandeliers, reports USA Today.

“There’s a (typically deep-pocketed) subset of the population that sees this as sort of an extension of their home,” Vennie Gore, president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International and the head of housing at Michigan State, told USA Today. “There’s a (typically deep-pocketed) subset of the population that sees this as sort of an extension of their home. They want to create in their room more of a home environment,” to the tune of $1,500 to $3,000 — although $10,000-plus makeovers are not unheard of.

Now you may not be one of those parents that will to drop that much change on a one year dorm makeover. But if you need a little help, there is some help available at a reasonable price.

Roomations offers e-decorating and virtual room design services that can help you transform a room in your own home (in addition to interior design tips and inspiration on our blog). Upload photos of your room and choose one or more interior designers who will prepare style boards based on your personal style, budget and preferences. Once you’ve approved your favorite style board and provided feedback, you’ll get a 3D rendering to help you visualize the design plus a complete shopping list, so you know where to get all products for your room makeover. Visit  and try their “Find Your Style Quiz … mainly because it is super fun!”

dorm room decorators


If this sounds interesting to you, you’re in luck because Roomations has provided my readers with a coupon code (BLOGHER13) for a 25% discount. As you can see, it takes 3 easy steps and your dorm design suggestions are yours!P.S.–Parents-have you thought about redecorating your son or daughter’s bedroom or that basement that was a dedicated video game space. You can use the coupon code for yourself!

 

 

admissions, college guidance, college planning, Guest Posts

Keeping “overwhelm” out of the college application process

 

Today’s guest post is from a lovely lady I met at Blogher13 a few weeks ago. She’s written a book about attitude reconstruction and I thought some of her ideas might be helpful to parents and teens to alleviate feelings of stress.

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college application stressThe college application process can feel overwhelming. Successfully completing this task requires breaking big jobs down into small doable pieces, dealing with the fear, keeping your thoughts constructive, and staying focused on what is in front of you today.

Find a buddy

Regardless of how involved your parents are in the process, find a buddy who also needs support and help each other. This will counter feelings of isolation. Decide how often you’ll check in to keep motivated, set up a regular time, and follow through. Offer each other appreciations for tasks completed and use this as a time to get clear on your next steps.

Outline your goals

Start the application process by outlining your goal in getting a higher education. Then identify potential schools that meet your qualifications. Assemble a list by going to the library, meeting with school counselors, or tapping into other resources, such as college guides. If this seems too daunting, do your research in small blocks of time. For example, make an appointment to talk with someone one day, visit a campus, or gather information by surfing the Internet for a half hour at a time (or even less). When your list is complete, select your chosen schools.

Continue reading Keeping “overwhelm” out of the college application process →

mom approved tips, parenting

Mom-approved tips: The ups and downs of raising a senior

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Every Monday I will be sharing my personal (and experiential) tips to help parents survive the college admissions process. It’s my hope that this series will encourage you that you are not alone and even give you a chuckle as you relate. Can’t remember to check back? Subscribe to my blog on the left and you will receive my posts in your email.

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parent and studentSummer is winding down and parents and students are preparing for the new school year. For seniors, it’s their last big hurrah before heading off to college. They are at the top of the food chain and excited to walk on campus as seniors. After all, they’ve earned the right!

As any parent will tell you, stress and seniors go hand in hand. Add that to anxiousness, frustration and over-commitment and you have a recipe for disaster at home. Tempers rise and everyone’s emotions are volatile. If you’ve learned anything over the last 17 years, it’s how to choose your fights—letting the unimportant matters slide to focus on the more important ones.

Here are just a few battles I faced with my teenagers and some mom-approved tips on how to handle them:

Clothing disagreements

Me: Are you really going to wear that?

Daughter: What’s wrong with it?

Me: You’re showing too much cleavage.

Daughter: You never like what I wear! Everyone is wearing these kind of tops.

Let’s face it. We rarely like what they wear. That’s part of being a teenager (the clothing rebellion). Perhaps a better way to avoid this battle and prepare them for choosing the appropriate clothing in college is to suggest alternatives. You can even go shopping with them–that’s an adventure in itself! Or, you could just ignore the topic altogether and pray no one notices. (Denial…a not so good parenting tactic!)

The inevitable battle over cellphone usage

Me: Do you really have to have that phone in your hand 24/7?

Son: Yes. I don’t see what the problem is.

Me: Put the phone down and have a conversation for a change.

Son: Why would I do that?

Today’s teens are tech addicts. Most parents simply don’t understand why they have to text about everything instead of pick up the phone. It baffles most of us that they will text to one another in the same room. But they do. What works for me? Set aside time (usually dinner) when everyone is gadget free. That means YOU have to comply—if you’re honest with yourself, you won’t like it much either.

The organization debacle

Me: Did you follow up and email the college rep you talked to at the college fair?

Daughter: What college rep?

Me: The one from your first choice college.

Daughter: Oh. No. I haven’t done that yet. I’ll get to it later.

Procrastination—a teenager’s favorite technique for avoidance. If procrastination is their favorite technique, then tomorrow is their favorite word. Parents detest hearing that word from their kids, especially when it comes to the application process. What’s a parent to do? You can leave them to their own devises or you can be smart and find ways to help them stay organized. Beat them at their own game: text and email them reminders. If you’re sneaky, you can even add them to the calendar alerts on their smartphone or laptop. Hey, whatever works.

College visits gone awry

Me: Don’t you think you should at least get out of the car.

Son: No. I’m not feeling it.

Me: We’ve come all this way. You can at least get out and walk around.

Son: You can if you want, but I’ll just stay in the car.

Believe it or not, this happens more than you think. My daughter didn’t even want to apply to colleges because the buildings were “icky”. These types of comments can drive a parent nuts. We’re all about making logical decisions. They are all about bordering on the irrational. It’s best to move on when this happens because it’s impossible to drag a 6 foot boy out of the back seat of the car.

Emotional college choices

Me: Why do you want to go to THAT college.

Daughter: Because my boyfriend is applying there.

Me: That’s not a very good reason. What if you break up?

Daughter: (bursts into tears) Break up? Of course that’s what you want. You’ve never liked him!

Expect your son or daughter to apply to colleges based on what might seem illogical reasons to you. They will inevitably make choices because of peer pressure, friend pressure and even boyfriend/girlfriend pressure. Your best bet is to steer them away from these choices and help them see the long term goal. If you’re successful (and a little bit lucky), the college they choose won’t be the number one party school. Then again, all colleges are party schools.

What am I saying? Pick your battles. Senior year is going to be stressful and a turning point in your student’s life and in yours as well. If you choose to be the parent who is screeching about every little thing, you will miss some of the best shared moments in your teenager’s life. The college admissions process, if done wisely, can serve to cement the parent/child bond when you share this experience. Take advantage of the opportunity and don’t be so serious. If you’re lucky your student will emerge victorious and you will breathe a sigh of relief that you have survived yet another milestone in your child’s life. At the very least you will have some stories to share in a blog or at your amateur night at your local comedy club.

Uncategorized

Study tips for students

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students studying

College can be a shock to high school students. The new sense of freedom alone can be overwhelming, which is why strong study habits are best learned now. Without reinforcement, it’s easy to botch time management and amplify poor study habits through the age-old adage of “idle hands.”

In college your son or daughter will have much more freedom over where and how they study. The decision to go to college should not be taken lightly either. With tuition prices rising, it’s important to reinforce the behaviors that will lead to a bright future. Following are some study tips for students:

Identify Learning Goals

Look objectively with your teen at a report card and identify areas that need improvement. It can be difficult to keep patience with an “F” on a report card. That stress is only amplified on your son or daughter. Instead, ask them how they feel about those subjects and get them to understand that getting help is not a bad thing.

Discuss college majors to get a feel for what your child wants to do in school. Review job placements and form a realistic picture of the future. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a great place to search for potential careers, with data on expected growth and potential earnings per year.

Gamify Study Methods

Create achievable goals with realistic rewards. Reward an hour of study with a walk outside, or points toward something larger. Divide study sessions into “checkpoints” where students must read for a certain amount of time before taking small breaks.

Games are great about rewarding the player for doing something right, so create rewards that help them along the way. Buying books from iBooks, Kindle or Nook is like feeding candy to the brain. Reward students with high quality notebooks for hitting goals. Use these rewards to create a sense of pride in your teen’s accomplishments.

Seek Outside Tutoring

Reinforce high aptitude with advanced tutoring, or help your teen better grasp topics they find challenging. Look for one-on-one tutoring with college preparatory instructors like Huntington learning tutors; sessions are often conducted in a distraction free environment outside of school or home. Sessions like these can help prepare for specific college testing, or personal essay writing and general college applications.

Tutoring also reinforces strong study habits and can help students move from a “B” to an “A.” Teaching good research habits is another benefit that you might not get in school. Learning where and how to acquire information dramatically cuts down on study time and allows a student to retain more valuable knowledge.

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Uncategorized

Rising college costs = student loan debt

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student loan debtRising college costs put the student loan debt at an all time high. Paying for college is one of the greatest challenges when it comes to securing a college education for your children. While it seems that getting accepted into a college is the biggest hurdle, once they have received the acceptance letter, you can stop worrying about that and start worrying about how to pay for it. With tuition costs rising every year (nearly 500 percent in the last 60 years), most families find it difficult to cover college expenses. Financial assistance from the college is available to a lucky few, as are private and federal grants and scholarships. However, the vast majority of students will end up taking out student loans in order to pay for their education.

Picking which loan to take out is key. A loan, regardless of what kind, is something that will need to be repaid—which means your children will be in debt before they even start working. So, before you start applying for any and all student loans, find out more about the reality of the debt management post-graduation. This infographic clearly lays out the past, present and future of student loans and consider how it would impact your children’s financial outlook.

Continue reading Rising college costs = student loan debt →

Uncategorized

Students and stress

 

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students and stressStudents and stress seem to go hand in hand. It goes without saying that students today are under a great deal of pressure to achieve, which creates stress; especially with the college application process becoming more and more competitive. Once students graduate from college, the stress of job hunting is added to the pressure to succeed. According to the American College Health Association’s health assessment survey in 2012, 86.8% of students felt they were overwhelmed with what they had to do. The survey sited some alarming statistics:

  • 46.5% of students felt hopeless.
  • 86.1% felt like they were exhausted.
  • 57.3% felt very lonely.
  • 61.0% felt very sad.
  • 31.3% felt so depressed that they found it difficult to function.
  • 7.1% seriously thought about committing suicide.
  • 1.2% attempted suicide.
  • 5.5% intentionally bruised, burned, cut or physically hurt themselves.

With school starting in the fall, seniors especially will begin to feel the pressure and the looming deadlines ahead of them. Standardized tests and college applications weigh heavy on them, along with striving to keep their grades up and their social life consistent. Becoming overly stressed will weigh on them emotionally and physically.

What can you do as a parent to alleviate some of the stress?

Don’t put added pressure on them and expect them to do things they are simply unable to do. For instance, don’t encourage them to go to a college just because it’s your choice. Or ask them to apply to colleges that aren’t good fits. Ease their stress by helping them to stay organized and take some the tedious tasks, like keeping track of deadlines, away from them. Remind them but don’t harass, nag or badger them in any way. You can also make sure that they make time for family and friends, which will help them decompress and relax.

 

Continue reading Students and stress →