How to Succeed in Your College Science Course

Remember: If you want to do well in this course, it will require 
          2-3 hours of studying for every hour of class lectures.

- Always do the readings before class.
- Take notes while reading, it helps a _lot_.
- Don't be shy about asking questions: they are most welcome.

- Above all: Don't miss class!  Listening to lectures and participating in
  discussions are much more effective than reading someone else's class
  notes.  Active participation will help you retain what you are learning.


Presenting Homework and Writing Assignments
by Jeffrey O. Bennett, Nicholas Schneider, Megan Donahue, and Mark Voit

All work that you turn in should be of collegiate quality: neat and easy
to read, well-organized, and demonstrating mastery of the subject matter.
Future employers and teachers will expect this quality of work. Moreover,
although submitting homework of collegiate quality requires "extra"
effort, it serves two important purposes directly related to learning.

1. The effort you expend in clearly explaining your work solidifies your
learning. In particular, research has shown that writing and speaking
trigger different areas of your brain. By writing something down - even
when you think you already understand it - your learning is reinforced by
involving other areas of your brain.

2. By making your work clear and self-contained (that you can read without
referring to the questions in the text), it will be a much more useful
study guide when you review for a quiz or exam.


The following guidelines will help ensure that your assignments meet the
standards of collegiate quality.

- Always use proper grammar, proper sentence and paragraph structure, and
  proper spelling.

- All answers and other writing should be fully self-contained. A good
  test is to imagine that a friend is reading your work, and asking 
  yourself whether the friend would understand exactly what you are trying
  to say. It is also helpful to read your work out loud to yourself,
  making sure that it sounds clear and coherent.


- In problems that require calculation:

	- Be sure to show your work clearly. By doing so, both you and
	your instructor can follow the process you used to get an answer.

	- Word problems should have word answers. That is, after you have
	completed any necessary calculations, any problem stated in words
	should be answered with one or more complete sentences that
	describe the point of the problem and the meaning of your answer.

	- Express your word answers in a way that would be meaningful to
	most people. For example, most people would find it more 
	meaningful if you express a result of 720 hours as 1 month.
	Similarly, if a precise calculation yields an answer of 9,745,600
	years, writing "nearly 10 million years" may be more meaningful.


- Finally, pay attention to details that will make your work look good:

	- Use standard-sized white paper with clean edges.  Avoid tearing
	paper out of notebooks because it will have ragged edges.

	- Staple all pages together.  Don't use paper clips or folded
	corners because they get caught in other students' papers.

	- Use a ruler to make straight lines in sketches or graphs.

	- Include illustrations whenever they help to explain your answer.

	- Ideally, make your work look professional by using a word
	processor for text and equations and by creating graphs or
	illustrations with a spreadsheet or other software.