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Ask Slashdot. Best Online Science Course?
First time accepted submitter blubadger writes "Having slept through chemistry at school, I'm looking to fill in the gaps in my science education by following a short online course or two. I've been searching for 'Chemistry 101,' 'Basics of Physics,' 'Biology Primer,' and so on. There's some high-quality stuff on offer – from Academic Earth, MIT and others – but it tends to take the form of videos of traditional university lectures. I was hoping to cut through the chit-chat and blackboards and get straight into the infographics and animations that will help me understand complex ideas. Flash and HTML5 Canvas seem wasted on videos of lectures. If the quality were high enough I would be willing to pay. Have Slashdotters seen anything that fits the bill?"
Where is the comic book version of the Library of Congress, so I can look at pictures and know everything?
Not sure if it has the things you need, but I love it.
Khan Academy. JFGI.
Have you looked at Khan Academy? http://www.khanacademy.org/
Feynman's Lectures on Physics is probably as good or better than any online course you will find.
@de_machina
I was hoping to cut through the chit-chat and blackboards and get straight into the infographics and animations that will help me understand complex ideas.
While there is some amount of popular science at the conceptual level that can be conveyed this way, you aren't really going to get far into even basic chemistry or physics via "infographics and animations", unless the latter have a lot more mathematics than is usually the case. One thing blackboards (and textbooks) have going for them is that, so far at least, they seem to be the main venues via which mathematics is conveyed, and it's quite difficult to get any serious understanding of science without being able to model phenomena mathematically.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse
Could you be a bit more specific as to what you're looking for exactly?
Higher education consists of actual dialog, lots of words, and drawing on blackboards. Why can't I have infotainment? I'm willing to pay to have things dumbed down for me.
I know I'm being obtuse, but seriously, this stuff is too complicated for simple little animations and pictures to make substantially easier.
I suggest you take a look at the videos at http://www.khanacademy.org/. The guy that makes these has quite a talent for teaching and the sketches help a lot with more difficult subjects. I'm currently about half way through with the macroeconomy playlist and I find the information very easy to obtain in the format it is provided there.
Get on craigslist/ebay and find some used text books that come with CDs. They typically have wonderful animations and interactive diagrams that helped me immensely in my Bio/Biochem undergrad. Also, do a cursory search on youtube. My wife recently completed some basic chemistry courses and showed me some of the stuff that was on youtube -- amazing it was.
Crashcourse has lots of nice animations and information. http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse
It's a work in progress, but there's a new YouTube series called Crash Course which presently covers biology and world history. They're planning to encompass other subjects in the future as well, but it just recently started. The history lessons are taught by author/nerd John Green and the biology is taught by his brother Hank Green. I suggest you check it out; it's got lots of neat graphics, simple explanations, and is easy to follow.
As mentioned in other posts, Khan Academy is also a fantastic online resource. It's not quite as spiffy as Crash Course, but covers far more subjects, and is easy to follow.
Time to hit the internets for some basics. Use the same search terms as you've just typed in and use the homework-helper sites for high school and college. Some professors (and good HS teachers) know their students need more than just lecture in class.
Also, visit Tube-U (youtube) and watch actual science experiments in progress. Go to Wiki places for dry descriptions and SOURCES you can actually look up at your local public library.
Specifics? chemistry.about.com, chem1.com, google...
Don't be afraid to take notes; if you have a question the (course/video/text) doesn't answer you will be able to look it up later.
Lay in a good supply of baking soda, vinegar and don't forget to notify the DHS you're interested in becoming a Mad Scientist.
But you just gotta have another sigarette
Back when I was in school, we has Schaum's outlines, and we liked them. Search the internet for explanations if you have trouble, but working through a ton of problems n paper will give you proficiency and confidence.
You should take a look at Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative ( http://oli.cmu.edu ). They have whole courses, which are typically not video-based, and they include lots of interactive exercises to help you grasp the concepts. (Full Disclosure: I'm currently working on a new chemistry course for OLI, which should be available later this year or early next year.)
Check out Crash Course for two great courses in biology and world history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Courses
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/courses.aspx?s=821&ps=910
Udacity has a physics course it's rolling out at the end of the month. Looks fairly basic, but you'll have to decide for yourself if the level is appropriate for you.
Having slept through chemistry at school, I'm looking to fill in the gaps in my science education by following a short online course or two.
That's where most of the rest of people like you seem to end up.
Here's my ask Slashdot:
Are you actively trying to disgust long term users?
I used to check Slashdot daily. Maybe I'll just check in on Rob Malda's Google+ stream from now on.
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Pauling's General Chemistry is actually pretty readable. The units are a bit weird, but if you're not using it for a class, that shouldn't matter. Also, I recently read The Periodic Table: A Very Short Intoduction by Eric Scerri, which is short, interesting, and doesn't coddle you. If you insist on learning online, Khan Academy gets my vote.
Just because someone wants just the broad strokes doesn't make them a bad person.
Knowing ABOUT something is half the battle to knowing HOW to do something. I don't need to know how to do the math myself to appreciate the concept of what it is doing.
Just one look at the math for something like this makes they eyes of most people glaze over, and they don't even know it exists. Even without being able to solve those equations themselves, a "comic book" version of it, if done well, might make more people appreciate stuff they "use" every day.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/about/Phys253.html
Even if you don't understand them.
Verbum caro factum est
Having slept through chemistry at school, ...
Seriously, go for the lecture videos. Take notes, and review them afterwards, just as if there was going to be an exam on the topic. Don't overload yourself; these things take time to absorb and to integrate with your existing knowledge.
Pause and replay videos as much as needed, but you have to concentrate on the material being conveyed. An engaging infographic can give you an overview of some topic (like for plate tectonics or the SN1 reaction mechanism) perhaps to the "informed layman" level. To reach a more knowledgeable level, you'll have to get your own mind wrapped around related groups of essential details (the classes and processes of felsic minerals, for instance). If you fall asleep during a lecture video, then replay it and try to stay awake.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Open University. UK/European. Being going for years now. You pay for it though and earn real UK diploma/degree qualifications.
In my experience, scientists show results etc with graphs using slides and rarely ever show animations. Researchers are more interested in the numbers than pretty pictures that can be generated. I went to lecture that was basically on computer modelling in industry, who said animation were great for management and trade shows- they look nice and tell you absolutely nothing about what is actually going on.
In my area (chemistry) most lecturers don't have the time or the ability to create animations which are useful, even in areas where animations would look quite cool (e.g. time dependent quantum mechanics stuff). My recommendation to you is to live with the video or audio, or look at the popular science articles, NASA blog or whatever.
I am thinking quietly now.
You know, some things are complicated - no kidding. But the ability to teach those things, even complicated concepts, means you should be able to translate that information to something your students can learn. In other words, if you can't explain it, you can't teach then you really don't understand it yourself. That could be the reason for these snarky comments.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
worked for me. $20 new.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/
Floating in the black seas of infinity without a paddle.
I would check out the Edupunk's guide to DIY Education, and move forward from there. Khan Academy is good for math, because you can actually test your skills, but with science education, you need some way of actually showing the process skills. Until then, though, KA should be a good refresher.
I have taught K-12 for 8 years, college level for around 9. Besides my own YouTube Chanel on Human Anatomy and Physiology http://www.youtube.com/user/mrfordsclass/featured and my own website http://mrfordsclass.net.
I am also a huge fan of the following Mr. Causey for Chemsitry (YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/user/mrcausey?feature=results_main. The Khan Academy (I think everyone knows about this one) http://www.khanacademy.org/. You can also explore iTune, specifically their podcasts. User will upload their tutorials, and some univeristies have their own channels. You might also want to check out http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm. Not as easy to navigate, but it is huge in the e-learning world. Professors can upload videos, entire web-based trainings (WBTs) and more.
Beside my shameless plug at the start, I sincerely hope this helps.
Basically, when it comes to biology and geology you're gonna want to take these courses offered by Answers in Genesis.
FREE STUFF
UC Berkeley Webcasts (I learned quite a bit from these -- try different courses by semester. Listen to the 1st and 2nd lecture to see if it's high value. Some are better than others. I got an excellent MEMS lecture from here once, and a really good one on Byzantine history. Some (like history) are good as audio in your car. Others get better with charts.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
MIT OpenCourseWare (haven't tried, but hear good things)
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Khan academy (of course)
http://www.khanacademy.org/
PAID RESOURCES
Kaplan http://www.kaptest.com/
(Take something like the MCAT review if you can afford it for science/physics. They do a really good job of distilling the basics of science/biology/etc. without any nonsense. Disclaimer: I've also taught for Kaplan)
Also, don't discount old fashioned books:
The "Head First" series of books
(Try the "Dummies" books also if you're not insulted by the title)
Head First Physics
Home Schooling Curricula
Whatever you may feel about the social implications of home schooling, there are some excellent science resources which will catch you up. I will shy away from recommending specific ones for fear of inciting a flame war. I hope someone better versed in these curricula can enlighten us with recommendations.
Textbooks!
Try to get some used textbooks from a used book store, if all you want is the 101 level stuff:
Chemistry (Oxtoby-Nachtrieb) http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Modern-Chemistry-Fifth-Edition/dp/B001F39B2Y
(There are many nicely written Biology books -- see what you like)
And if you really want to enjoy chemistry:
Chemical Demonstrations, Shakhashiri
(Warning: do not try these at home until you know what you're doing)
You may also wish to check out your local Makerspace/Hackerspace. You will probably find very educated geeks who'd be more than willing to teach you stuff...
You are looking for something called a "textbook."
A textbook does not have any fancy flash videos, but it does (usually) have helpful illustrations, sample problems and solutions, and good introductory material on a variety of topics.
The lectures are often superfluous for introductory science concepts. The books usually aren't. Sorry, you probably won't be able to find quality textbooks in eBook formats for your Nook or Kindle, either. I can assure you that, for physics, there are no fancy video shortcuts to understanding the concepts. It's a very heavily math-based field, so you need to sit down and wade through equations if you want to understand anything. Otherwise, it's a bunch of magical-looking directives handed down from on high.
If you visit a local college bookstore, you'll probably find many used textbooks for all fields of science at moderately crazy prices. Once you've written down the relevant author names and book titles, bring up Amazon on your smartphone and order them online for a saner price. Many college courses list books on the course web site, so you could draw inspiration from that as well.
Since I have no idea what you are interested in, I will recommend some physics books that I liked as an undergrad.
Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker is a good introductory physics text book.
Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics by Das Ferbel is a relatively lighthearted and humorous discussion of basic ideas behind nuclear physics and high-energy physics (quarks, etc.).
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths is my favorite quantum physics text book (square wells, etc.).
The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill is an excellent and practical electronics book. It will teach you how to make a circuit board. It's not exactly a beginner's book, so get something else first if you don't have a grasp of basic E&M (if you don't know what V=IR means, this book isn't really for you).
You will need a basic understanding of mathematics before anything in physics makes any sense to you at all. Calculus will get you pretty far by itself. I recommend a calculus book by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards for that; it has a lovely integration table in the back. Linear algebra is required if you want an undergraduate-level understanding of physics. Complex analysis, probability, and computer programming are also very useful subjects.
Oh, it's useful to note that there are no "nice" textbooks for graduate level physics. There are many textbooks, but they usually need to be accompanied by a lecturer who can translate the darned thing for you, because we can't be bothered to agree on basic terms. So, as a warning, stay away from grad-level physics text books as anything other than a sleeping aide or door stop.
Not quite Chem 101, but when you are ready for truly understanding the quantum mechanics of how molecules form from atoms, why molecules are acidic or basic, why they are reactive or not, you totally need to check out Prof. McBride's Yale Freshman Organic Chemistry (CHEM 125).
It is on YouTube, but the iTunesU version is better.
See the Virtual Cell Animation Collection at http://vcell.ndsu.nodak.edu/animations/
You can try these videos: http://fearofphysics.com/Videos/ for a refresher/gap filler on physics (mechanics).
I'm more visual than auditory, especially for things like directions (I'll draw a map). I have to be really interested in something to actually learn significant amounts from an audio track--a video of a presenter with background graphics (or even a slideshow with audio track) is more engaging.
For something like physics or chemistry, an audio lecture can give the highlights but is going to be useless for the details--imagine trying to verbally explain a long complicated formula with multiple terms, superscripts, subscripts, parentheses, etc.
Seriously, not to knock the pursuit of knowledge, but what is your goal? Are you looking for a layman's understanding? There are tons of great lectures on YouTube giving you the basics. If you want any more than that, animated graphics won't do it. You're going to have to crack open a book.
And, I say this 140 pages into my old Calculus textbook in an effort to relearn for a math class I'm taking in the Fall after a 15 year absence.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I can highly recommend The Great Courses. They are a professionally-produced series of either Audio or A/V lectures, accompanied by a very thorough outline/supplement. The only drawback is that when a particular course isn't on sale, their prices are ridiculous. But they go through a regular schedule of rotating sales, so any particular course will be on sale every few months.
The courses are generally written to the level of an advanced High School class or early undergrad class, depending on the specific course. They are good way to pick up general literacy in a topic, if not complete mastery that would enable you to pass a college course.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE82493DFAB9EA6FD&feature=plcp
The playlist is in reverse, but the show itself (from public television before it went commercial) is cute and entertaining as well as being an introductory course on physics. The same Youtuber also has a senior physics playlist that I haven't yet viewed.
I know I'm being obtuse, but seriously, this stuff is too complicated for simple little animations and pictures to make substantially easier.
I'd say high quality animations and pictures are EXACTLY what's required to make basic biology, chemistry, and physics substantially easier. These subjects are ideal targets to improve with these tools. Consider the excellent animations in this ted talk: (animations start at around 3:40).
How long do you think the level of understanding granted by a few minutes with these animations would take to impart via "dialog, lots of words, and drawing on blackboards"?
Regarding your request for STEM materials, you are welcome to use my Chemistry screencasts (http://www.youtube.com/user/WSCCCalomeni). The 18 screencasts are not lecture videos, but instead designed for an online Community College Introductory Chemistry Course. They are not as popular as (and different than) Khan’s work (I have not advertised them), yet they have still had over 20,0000 views in a year and a half. I have also authorized their use for school systems in India.
You are also welcome to use any of my various periodic charts, periodic tables, and handouts (Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0y957p0tpiork8z/g0-SxImEKa). All of the materials are FREE. They are licensed to the public and commercial domain under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. (Disclaimer—I am not trying to profit off of any of the above material).
The screencasts were produced a year and a half ago; I am currently working on producing updates. Any constructive feedback is welcome. The creation of any successful online STEM course is a lot of work. While developing courses at a university, I developed 29 design courses in six months. The development (and teaching) of one online chemistry course took two years of half-time work. A lot of the work consisted of making the course highly resistant to the cheating/plagiarism common in online courses (the solution is easy—make the assignments unique and challenging enough such that cheating/plagiarism is more work than the course assignments).
As far as STEM courses go, I consider chemistry and discrete math, two of the best course which teach critical thinking. A course which focuses on the weekly solution of problems will be of greater long-term benefit.
My background is software development and engineering. I completed my first “online” course (Statics) in Fall of 1984 using an Engineering University’s internal network of Unix computers.
Best regards and professional success.
I guess the real question to ask is why? This has a lot of baring on where you should look for info. But seriously, the best way is just to get a Chem 101 textbook and query the internet when you need help disambiguating topics.
You said online but also said willing to pay, so for what it's worth....
Linus Pauling's "General Chemistry" is brilliant and a Dover Publication so it's cheap and a classic.
For a popular introduction to science (esp. great explanations of the chemical bonds, but also amazing word play...): The Canon, by Natalie Angier.
I think someone mentioned this company above.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/
I've really enjoyed the courses I bought from this group. The content richness varies from prof to prof but all high quality.
You should go and check none other than the Khan Academy. He his the best .
http://www.khanacademy.org/
One must be copied "backwards" Why? WTF?
Why can't you just match section to section?
These kinds of animations are worse than useless, because they invariably leave out or gloss over details without which it is impossible to actually understand anything that is being "explained"
A huge segment of even "educated" people have no idea of how little they actually understand.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series61.html
"A video instructional series for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 26 half-hour video programs and coordinated books"
I've watched it twice, once in my twenties, and once with my kid. It is hosted by a Nobel prize winning chemist (Roald Hoffman) with demos by Don Showalter. Holds up pretty well for something from 1990 as far as the basics, except maybe for touting the wonders of Bisphenol A in the last episode or so.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
> There's some high-quality stuff on offer – from Academic Earth, MIT and others – but it tends to take the form of videos of traditional university lectures.
>I was hoping to cut through the chit-chat and blackboards and get straight into the infographics and animations that will help me understand complex ideas
The idea of taking a class is that the teacher *explains* stuff to you. If you could look at some Infographics and understand everything, then you wouldn't need professors at all. There's a lot to be said for self-study, but it can not and will not replace classrooms. Lecture style teaching has been around for thousands of years, not just because we didn't have computers, but because it works. In fact, the closer to that we can get with internet classes, the higher the quality will be (f.e. real-time many to many HD video conferencing between all the students and the professor at the same time would allow people to ask questions and allow everyone the benefit of the answers just like a real classroom). The Internet maybe new fangled, but we have had mail-order "correspondence" courses for a long time.
Anyway around it, you can't not put in the work and expect to get the benefit.
Udacity has now expanded its courses to include a new introductory physics class. In this class, you get to travel around Europe virtually and learn the basics of physics on location by answering some of the discipline's major questions from over the last 2000 years.
It looks like a lot of fun, and do also check out the MIT Tech TV videos mentioned on the page I've linked above. They are a fun way to learn physics too.
My photolog
I have purchased two copies; Dover has a LOT of good stuff, Science, Math, Art, Philosophy and more! Also (for math and physics) try looking at Roger Penrose's "The Road to Reality" http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Reality-Complete-Universe/dp/067945443; I was amazed at how much I DID understand! Additionally do consider Ash and Gross "Fearless Symmetry" http://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Symmetry-Exposing-Patterns-Numbers/dp/0691124922
This is rather away from your query but it may be of interest to some slashdotters: for obscure -often "old fashioned"- hands on 'Maker' tech try Lindsay Technical Publications http://www.lindsaybks.com/
Even though I've finished university of applied science about ten years ago I stumbled upon the MIT classical mechanics lectures by Walter Levin and couldn't resist to work through the whole course. It's excellent. The same goes for electricity and magnetism lectures.
This reminds me of the folks that would pop in the IRC channels and say something like, "can you teach me how to hack?"
Most inspiring course that I've seen:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biology/7-012-introduction-to-biology-fall-2004/
Biology turns out to be way cooler than all this computer stuff. The cells in your body are actually stochastic digital computers which were not designed by a human intelligence, and so we're basically hacking alien computers to figure out how life works, and these computers are WAY more complicated and powerful than anything you've ever experienced.
If you're a young tech geek, then this might just inspire a career-path change.
The MIT OCW course linked here has both audio and video lectures (I first listened to the audio version and was able to get most of it without needing the video content). Don't get too bogged down in the chemistry at the beginning. And know that what we know has increased dramatically from the time of this 2004 snapshot.
It's getting a bit long in the tooth now (there's an updated 701SC in their simplistic "Scholar" series, but I find it just too light and fluffy without most of the really inspiring stuff). Hopefully they will release the full 7.012 from fall 2011 at some point.
G.
Virtlab.com offers a chemistry laboratory manual targeted to a simulated web-based laboratory written in Flash. I'm biased because I helped develop it but my authors and I are quite proud of it. The exercises are intended to help students with the quantitative aspects of chemistry and are specifically designed to help spark intuition.
Good points. Thanks for the TED link.
I recommend the Teaching Co's courses, either on DVD or on CD's. Go to www.thegreatcourses.com. I've gone through many of their history courses, one of their geology courses and am now working my way through astronomy. They also have math and chemistry titles. -walt