Natural Science - Year I
Unit 0: Welcome to Natural Science Year One
Parents Guide for Unit 0
| This Unit's | Homework Page | History Lecture | Science Lecture | Lab | Parents' Notes |
Parent Notes: Course Overview
Please become familiar with the following resources at the Natural Science course so that you understand the course expectations and requirements.
- The Procedures page describes the organization of materials and requirements for the course and gives some indication of the level of work expected for each unit. I hope that you've already read this page in considering whether this course is appropriate for your student, but if you haven't, please take the time to do so now.
- If your student wants lab credit for the course, he or she will need to complete 18 of the nearly thirty lab exercises provided. You will also need to complete the Lab Permission letter before I can grant credit. This requires you to read the Lab safety procedures.
There is a list of online suppliers for lab equipment, but let me know if you have questions obtaining equipment.
- Please do read the the Parent Guide for Natural Science. This page contains more detailed information to help you help your student with the material and methods of this course. The course userid and password are in the materials sent to you at the beginning of the course. At a minimum, you should go over each worksheet assignment with your student once the worksheet answers are posted and help him or her understand why a particular answer is correct and complete, or why it is incorrect, or inadequate.
- You should also look at the course schedule of chat sessions. This identifies chat holidays for the year, as well as final exam dates.
- Finally, every unit has one of theses "Parents' Notes" sections, with suggestions on ways to help you discuss the material with your student.
Checklist
One way to help your student organize coursework is to create a checklist with due dates each week, and stick to it. The Procedures, the Parent Guide, and the Student Guide pages give several suggestions for possible schedules. Each unit contains the following tasks (you may want to copy off this checklist to use for subsequent units):
- To prepare for the next chat session:
- ____Check the homework page on the course content site for the history weblecture, science weblecture, mastery exercise, special assignments, lab work, and optional web reading
- ____Read the history web lecture, including the linked off-site materials, making notes for review and listing questions to ask in chat
- ____Read the science web lecture, including the linked off-site materials, making notes for review and listing questions to ask in chat
- ____Attempt the mastery exercises for the unit at least once all the way through, noting any questions that stump you.
- ____Write your answer to the essay topic assigned in the forum
- ____Study the lab assignment and make note of any questions you have on performing the lab; be sure to ask these in chat or email the instructor
- ____Attend chat and ask your questions, defend your forum essay, and participate in the discussion
- After the chat session:
- ____Complete the mastery exercises and achieve 85% or better
- ____Take the Moodle Unit Quiz: note these have limited availability dates and plan accordingly!
- ____Perform the assigned lab, analyze your data, and post your lab report by the due date
Parent Notes: Our First Chat of the Year
Below are notes on the main points of each assignment.
- History Web Lecture: Chat Preparation
If you haven't done so already, read through the Procedures page and the Parents' Guide for the course so that you understand all the assignments and can help your student complete these on time.
We briefly review the people and their accomplishments that we discussed in the year I units. This is intended to refresh the minds of students who took year I, and bring new students up to speed.
- Science Web Lecture:Main themes and topics in science already covered.
We will go over the written assignments due for each unit (Moodle essay, Worksheet, Quiz, and lab if the student is completing the lab option). We'll also briefly review the science topics we covered in Year I of the course.
- Chat Preparation Essay: Students answer questions about the course material layout and due dates, contribute a biographical entry of a scientist to the course wiki.
The Chat essay is due on the evening of the day after we discuss it in class. Students write Moodle essays directly in the forum window, but can prepare and upload worksheet assignments to the assignment link. Please make sure that your student follows instructions for the proper format for these. I can only accept files in Word .doc (NOT .docx), Mac .pages, PDF, RTF, or TXT formats.
- Mastery Exercise: The mastery exercise is located in the Moodle. It is open book, has no time limit, and can be taken repeatedly until the student achieves a passing score (85%). It asks the student to answer questions about the reading, and in some cases, to apply concepts to specific problems. Students should preview the mastery exercise before starting the webreading, and may want to keep the exercise open while doing the reading in order to look up answers.
- Discussion: Our Chat discussion will concentrate on the course materials on the web, and on concepts and people covered in the first year of the course.
- Quiz:There is a short quiz on this unit to make sure that students understand course materials and due dates. Note that students cannot take quizzes until they have completed the Mastery Exercise successfully.
© 2005 - 2025 This course is offered through Scholars Online, a non-profit organization supporting classical Christian education through online courses. Permission to copy course content (lessons and labs) for personal study is granted to students currently or formerly enrolled in the course through Scholars Online. Reproduction for any other purpose, without the express written consent of the author, is prohibited.