Introduction & Course Philosophy
This course is a bit different from other classes you might be used to. For one thing, it's online. That means that the responsibility falls on you, the student, to put in the work to learn the information and do the work. Of course, this is how all learning is supposed to be, but often in classes at school, the teacher ends up taking a lot of the responsibility in keeping you on track, keeping the class moving, and making sure you get your work done on time. You don't have that here: it's just you, and that's a lot of new responsibility. But, it's also a wonderful freedom. Learning at your own pace means that you can slow down and really take the time to understand concepts that you may struggle with, knowing that there are other things that will come more easily to you that you can speed through a little faster. It means that, if something interests you, you can look into that in more detail, because you're not bogged down with busywork waiting for the rest of the class to catch up with where you are in your learning, and because you don't have to worry about slowing other students down with something that might not be interesting to them. In this way, even though every student who uses this website is reading the same information and doing the same activities, online education can still be so much more personalized than classroom education—it's just on you to actually take advantage of that.
The second bonus of learning online: You're not stuck in a classroom! You can learn wherever you may be or wherever the world takes you, and that is an incredible thing. It means that no matter where you come from, you can have the same opportunity for education, and can end up going to the same place (or different places, wherever you want!). It means that you can actually go outside and explore the amazing world that you're learning about, to discover and experiment and learn out in the open: just how learning was intended to be. And, it means that you can learn on your own schedule. Don't like waking up early? This website is up 24/7. Have a cool music class or sports practice that you want to go to? You have the freedom to set your schedule and to figure out when the best time to study is, so long as it's some time. There are so many advantages to learning in this new way through an online platform, and it is my sincerest hope that you use this awesome opportunity to its fullest.
But, this course isn't only different because it's online. We haven't just taken a textbook and printed it on the Internet. We want to change the way people think about learning: not just memorizing facts for an exam (although, yes, there is a certain amount of memorization that is helpful to understanding the material), but really making learning enjoyable again. It's about the whys of science. Not just what happens or how it happens that way, but, fundamentally, at the core principle of why things in our universe, here on Earth, and in our bodies happen the way they do, why things happen. Of course, this is an introductory-level course, and there are certain things that we don't fully expect you to understand just yet. That said, we will do our best to fully explain everything at a level that is appropriate to your learning, not because we expect to memorize the whole explanation, but because the explanation is what leads to real learning and real understanding. So, if there's something that you don't understand, dig in a little deeper. Try to reword our explanation in your own words. Try to draw a picture of what we're telling you—whether that's a literal picture or a mental picture (in your head). Try to explain it to someone else. Find other sources that might explain it to you better—that may be a parent, a friend, another website (just make sure it's a good website, which you can be pretty sure of if it ends in .edu, .gov, or .org), or a YouTube video (though, again, some of these are higher quality than others, and we've done our best to bring the best of these videos onto this site). If, after you've put in the effort, you get the basic idea but still don't fully understand it, that's okay! Move on for now and rest easy in the knowledge that you know more now than you did yesterday and will know more tomorrow than you did today. Learning is a process, and just because you may not understand something yet doesn't mean that you won't ever understand it.
More than making learning enjoyable by refocusing on the fundamental, universal principles rather than memorizing a list of facts, you'll note that we really encourage hands-on learning and exploring new ideas on your own. At the end of each lesson, you will be given an activity called an EIS, which stands for Exploration in Science. These are basically labs that you can do at home. Unfortunately, not every topic lends itself to an activity that is safe to do at home, in which case we've done our best to replicate that experience in a safe, computer-based platform. You will also have a Project at the end of each experiment, which are somewhat structured (as in, there are certain requirements that we ask you to meet), but also give you a lot of leeway in choosing what you're interested in and what you want to explore further. (There's that responsibility again!) They're basically mini Science Fair projects. These projects and the EISs are all meant to be fun! As with really everything in this course (and in life), you get out of them what you put into them. You can decide to scrape by doing the bare minimum required, and that's okay some of the time, especially if it's just not a topic that you find super interesting. But, where these activities are really going to contribute to an enjoyable learning experience is if you decide to get creative with them, still doing what the assignments ask but putting your own spin on it. (Of course, always get the permission of a responsible guardian before any science experiment). So, dig deeper into the science. Be creative. Explore. Most of all, have fun and enjoy learning!
The second bonus of learning online: You're not stuck in a classroom! You can learn wherever you may be or wherever the world takes you, and that is an incredible thing. It means that no matter where you come from, you can have the same opportunity for education, and can end up going to the same place (or different places, wherever you want!). It means that you can actually go outside and explore the amazing world that you're learning about, to discover and experiment and learn out in the open: just how learning was intended to be. And, it means that you can learn on your own schedule. Don't like waking up early? This website is up 24/7. Have a cool music class or sports practice that you want to go to? You have the freedom to set your schedule and to figure out when the best time to study is, so long as it's some time. There are so many advantages to learning in this new way through an online platform, and it is my sincerest hope that you use this awesome opportunity to its fullest.
But, this course isn't only different because it's online. We haven't just taken a textbook and printed it on the Internet. We want to change the way people think about learning: not just memorizing facts for an exam (although, yes, there is a certain amount of memorization that is helpful to understanding the material), but really making learning enjoyable again. It's about the whys of science. Not just what happens or how it happens that way, but, fundamentally, at the core principle of why things in our universe, here on Earth, and in our bodies happen the way they do, why things happen. Of course, this is an introductory-level course, and there are certain things that we don't fully expect you to understand just yet. That said, we will do our best to fully explain everything at a level that is appropriate to your learning, not because we expect to memorize the whole explanation, but because the explanation is what leads to real learning and real understanding. So, if there's something that you don't understand, dig in a little deeper. Try to reword our explanation in your own words. Try to draw a picture of what we're telling you—whether that's a literal picture or a mental picture (in your head). Try to explain it to someone else. Find other sources that might explain it to you better—that may be a parent, a friend, another website (just make sure it's a good website, which you can be pretty sure of if it ends in .edu, .gov, or .org), or a YouTube video (though, again, some of these are higher quality than others, and we've done our best to bring the best of these videos onto this site). If, after you've put in the effort, you get the basic idea but still don't fully understand it, that's okay! Move on for now and rest easy in the knowledge that you know more now than you did yesterday and will know more tomorrow than you did today. Learning is a process, and just because you may not understand something yet doesn't mean that you won't ever understand it.
More than making learning enjoyable by refocusing on the fundamental, universal principles rather than memorizing a list of facts, you'll note that we really encourage hands-on learning and exploring new ideas on your own. At the end of each lesson, you will be given an activity called an EIS, which stands for Exploration in Science. These are basically labs that you can do at home. Unfortunately, not every topic lends itself to an activity that is safe to do at home, in which case we've done our best to replicate that experience in a safe, computer-based platform. You will also have a Project at the end of each experiment, which are somewhat structured (as in, there are certain requirements that we ask you to meet), but also give you a lot of leeway in choosing what you're interested in and what you want to explore further. (There's that responsibility again!) They're basically mini Science Fair projects. These projects and the EISs are all meant to be fun! As with really everything in this course (and in life), you get out of them what you put into them. You can decide to scrape by doing the bare minimum required, and that's okay some of the time, especially if it's just not a topic that you find super interesting. But, where these activities are really going to contribute to an enjoyable learning experience is if you decide to get creative with them, still doing what the assignments ask but putting your own spin on it. (Of course, always get the permission of a responsible guardian before any science experiment). So, dig deeper into the science. Be creative. Explore. Most of all, have fun and enjoy learning!