The title of book 6 is "Exploring Earth's History" and its another foray into geology (oh joy!!!)
After a brief introduction in chapter one, chapter two looks at geological time and stratigraphic columns.
Chapter three is a bit of a mixture. It starts off looking at fossils (there are some copies in the home kit for us to look at) and then goes into radioactive half-lives as a method of dating rocks.
Chapter four looks at igneous rocks (a couple of examples are in the home kit), how they form and how various minerals are concentrated in them.
Chapter five looks at sedimentary rocks (again a couple of examples are in the home kit), how the various sediments are laid down and how the rock is subsequently formed.
Predictably, chapter six looks at metamorphic rocks (yes we have a couple in the kit), their formation and deformation. This chapter also sums up the previous three chapters by introducing the rock cycle.
Chapter seven takes a look at the geology of the British Isles and chapter eight looks at human evolution and how it was affected by geological events.
I didn't find this book too heavy going, it was certainly easier than Book 5. I think it helped that I had attended SXR103 before studying it and so had some understanding of the processes involved.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
S104 Book 5
The title of this book is Life.
It starts off asking the question, "What is life?" and gives an introduction to reproduction, metabolism and population levels.
The book then moves on to consider diversity and the classification of species into domains and phyla.
Next we got a look at cells, their classification, structure and diversity as well as mitosis/meosis and both asexual and sexual reproduction.
Chapter five is an introduction to biochemistry. It explains polysaccharides, nucleic acids, enzymes and proteins in some detail.
We then look at how energy is created (photosynthesis) and used in metabolic processes in some depth.
The idea of energy utilisation is then extended from an individual to an ecosystem in chapter seven.
Chapter eight introduces genetic variation and inheritance as well as another look at meosis.
Chapter nine continues the variation theme by looking at genes and how they can become mutated.
The subject of genes is continued in chapter ten by looking at DNA and how errors can creep in.
Chapter eleven looks at how DNA is used in creating polypeptides and the genetic code.
There is another look at genetic mutation in chapter twelve.
Chapter thirteen looked at various genomes, as well as the projects to sequence the genomes of various creatures.
Chapter fourteen looks at Darwin's work on evolution and natural selection.
The final chapter, fifteen, looks at human evolution.
I found this to be a very long book and struggled to remain motivated through it. The TMA helped me consolidate my understanding of some of the topics covered (I know more about photosynthesis then I ever wanted to know) but it was still a slog.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
New practical science courses - Update 3
Online registration for any of the SXx288 courses is still not available for online registration. I've emailed the OU Student Registration and Enquiry Service requesting a date when they will be available and am awaiting a reply.
In the meantime here is a leaflet I picked up whilst on SXR103 with some information about them:
In the meantime here is a leaflet I picked up whilst on SXR103 with some information about them:
I know its not much but its something.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
SXR103 - Thoughts of the week
I really enjoyed my week in Brighton. I met a fantastic bunch of people, who like me are studying science with the Open University as well as a group of enthusiastic tutors who can make the subject come alive.
I would totally recommend this course to anyone interested in science. Its a great way to get your 'hands dirty' with some practical experience, meet some like-minded people and immerse yourself in University life.
I found it quite an exhausting week but would definitely like to do a similar summer school again. Its a shame that the OU have retired most of their level 2 and 3 summer schools but i'm hoping that the new level 2 'practical' courses are just as good.
Only the EMA left to do, but i'm looking forward to doing it as it should bring back memories of a great week doing science.
I would totally recommend this course to anyone interested in science. Its a great way to get your 'hands dirty' with some practical experience, meet some like-minded people and immerse yourself in University life.
I found it quite an exhausting week but would definitely like to do a similar summer school again. Its a shame that the OU have retired most of their level 2 and 3 summer schools but i'm hoping that the new level 2 'practical' courses are just as good.
Only the EMA left to do, but i'm looking forward to doing it as it should bring back memories of a great week doing science.
SXR103 - Day 7
The final day...
Another cooked breakfast (I know, im weakening) and then its back to the tutor room at Friston for the morning session with Brian.
We start by going over how we think we worked together yesterday. Which isn't too bad a way to start and I think went well. Then we start on a "writing up practicals" workshop. This involved us performing a little experiment (measuring the time for a pendulum to complete one swing) before Brian took us through how we should and shouldn't write it up (he had a handout on a less than ideal write-up).
After coffee we did a quick debrief on "Doing Science Safely", which was a little online section we had to do before coming on the week. The relevence for today was that there is a question on "Doing Science Safely" in the EMA.
Finally we took a quick look at the EMA (I had downloaded it this morning). Brian couldn't go into too much detail here but we all saw that there was nothing too taxing. His advice was to do the EMA as soon as possible, whilst everything is fresh in our minds.
Then it was all over. We posed for a group photo, said our goodbyes and parted company for the last time.
Another cooked breakfast (I know, im weakening) and then its back to the tutor room at Friston for the morning session with Brian.
We start by going over how we think we worked together yesterday. Which isn't too bad a way to start and I think went well. Then we start on a "writing up practicals" workshop. This involved us performing a little experiment (measuring the time for a pendulum to complete one swing) before Brian took us through how we should and shouldn't write it up (he had a handout on a less than ideal write-up).
After coffee we did a quick debrief on "Doing Science Safely", which was a little online section we had to do before coming on the week. The relevence for today was that there is a question on "Doing Science Safely" in the EMA.
Finally we took a quick look at the EMA (I had downloaded it this morning). Brian couldn't go into too much detail here but we all saw that there was nothing too taxing. His advice was to do the EMA as soon as possible, whilst everything is fresh in our minds.
Then it was all over. We posed for a group photo, said our goodbyes and parted company for the last time.
 |
| The Yellow Spots - 09-15 July 2011 |
SXR103 - Day 6
Activity E, the dreaded poster project. Of all the activities this is the one that few people have been looking forward to. The thought of a whole day researching and producing a poster seems very unexciting compared to the lab days (even the field trip) but it has to be done.
So after a cooked breakfast (only my 2nd of the week) I wander off to Friston to meet the rest of the group in our tutor room.
After a little prep talk from Brian we all moved on to the room dedicated for our project topic, Aluminium (if you're a spot you get Aluminium, if you're a rectangle its Energy), where we heard the subject areas on offer. From memory they were: Aluminium Recycling; Aluminium and Health; Uses of Aluminium; Aluminium and the Environment; Aluminium from the Earth. We then went and sat next to the subject area we were interested in and I picked Aluminium from the Earth with Pat and Michaela. We were then given a well-thumbed pack of information we could use as well as a group logon for the computer (this is mainly so the OU can limit our printing capability to a set budget of £2.50 with 5p per b&w print and 20p per colour print).
We then looked through the information pack trying to find a thread to follow. Our pack was a mixture of geology and processing based information with a few odd additions (the aluminium content of certain gemstones) which were soon abandoned. After 30 minutes of brainstorming we had a skeleton outline for our areas of research, we would each do 2 sheets of A4 and I agreed to cover the geology of bauxite (the principle ore of aluminium). Within another hour we have exhausted the information packet so it's off to the computer suite for some web-based research.
I pretty much knew how I would lay my section out and had gotten a lot of information from the information pack; I just needed to fill in the gaps. After lunch I had most of the information into Microsoft PowerPoint and it was just a case of tweaking the layout. Then disaster struck, we had a power blip and half the computers rebooted!!!! There were a few cries around the room, including a tutor who was working on something in front of me when the power went, so we waited for the PCs to boot and log back in. Fortunately Microsoft had saved the day with its auto recovery feature and so I had only lost a couple of tweaks, I think a lot of people saved their work at this point!!!
The afternoon went pretty quickly and by 3 I had my first draft printed in b&w so I could check the overall result. A few further tweaks were required which I made while I remembered and then I was done. All I had to do was to wait for my teammates to finish their contributions and we could see the final product. I spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with the odd technical question (IT-based) and sorted out my bibliography. By 6 we were done and dusted and I was quite pleased with the results, then it was off for tea.
We reconvened at 7:15 and got to take a look at what the rectangles had done. The task was actually to critically review one of their posters, which proved slow going (4 people reaching a consensus of opinion often does) but I did take the opportunity to look at the other posters as well and they were all of a very high standard. Then we got to look at the comments the rectangles had made of our poster, some of which I agreed with others I didn't. Then the day was over.
In all it wasn't too bad a day. Creating a poster is a valuable skill to have and so it was a useful exercise. Last day tomorrow, well half day as we end at 12:30.
So after a cooked breakfast (only my 2nd of the week) I wander off to Friston to meet the rest of the group in our tutor room.
After a little prep talk from Brian we all moved on to the room dedicated for our project topic, Aluminium (if you're a spot you get Aluminium, if you're a rectangle its Energy), where we heard the subject areas on offer. From memory they were: Aluminium Recycling; Aluminium and Health; Uses of Aluminium; Aluminium and the Environment; Aluminium from the Earth. We then went and sat next to the subject area we were interested in and I picked Aluminium from the Earth with Pat and Michaela. We were then given a well-thumbed pack of information we could use as well as a group logon for the computer (this is mainly so the OU can limit our printing capability to a set budget of £2.50 with 5p per b&w print and 20p per colour print).
We then looked through the information pack trying to find a thread to follow. Our pack was a mixture of geology and processing based information with a few odd additions (the aluminium content of certain gemstones) which were soon abandoned. After 30 minutes of brainstorming we had a skeleton outline for our areas of research, we would each do 2 sheets of A4 and I agreed to cover the geology of bauxite (the principle ore of aluminium). Within another hour we have exhausted the information packet so it's off to the computer suite for some web-based research.
I pretty much knew how I would lay my section out and had gotten a lot of information from the information pack; I just needed to fill in the gaps. After lunch I had most of the information into Microsoft PowerPoint and it was just a case of tweaking the layout. Then disaster struck, we had a power blip and half the computers rebooted!!!! There were a few cries around the room, including a tutor who was working on something in front of me when the power went, so we waited for the PCs to boot and log back in. Fortunately Microsoft had saved the day with its auto recovery feature and so I had only lost a couple of tweaks, I think a lot of people saved their work at this point!!!
The afternoon went pretty quickly and by 3 I had my first draft printed in b&w so I could check the overall result. A few further tweaks were required which I made while I remembered and then I was done. All I had to do was to wait for my teammates to finish their contributions and we could see the final product. I spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with the odd technical question (IT-based) and sorted out my bibliography. By 6 we were done and dusted and I was quite pleased with the results, then it was off for tea.
We reconvened at 7:15 and got to take a look at what the rectangles had done. The task was actually to critically review one of their posters, which proved slow going (4 people reaching a consensus of opinion often does) but I did take the opportunity to look at the other posters as well and they were all of a very high standard. Then we got to look at the comments the rectangles had made of our poster, some of which I agreed with others I didn't. Then the day was over.
In all it wasn't too bad a day. Creating a poster is a valuable skill to have and so it was a useful exercise. Last day tomorrow, well half day as we end at 12:30.
SXR103 - Day 5
I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, what with the very loud line dancing going on across the road (some kind of event) until gone midnight and the recycling truck picking up the glass at 6 am. So the alarm going off was not a welcome sound.
Still we are doing chemistry today so I'm in a good mood, so after breakfast we all congregate sound the chemistry lab on the 4th floor of Chichester. The smell of a chemistry lab is so unique and it instantly brings back memories from 18 years ago. I'm really looking forward to this!!
After a quick safety briefing from our activity tutor (Danny) task 1 was some qualitative observations on the reactions between certain metal nitrates and several common lab reagents. This was a nice introduction with some pretty coloured compounds made.
Next we had to identify which metal nitrate is in an unknown sample. For this we used the data previously gathered and come up with the correct answer, all very satisfying.
Now we moved onto quantitative analysis. We wanted to know how much aluminium is in a sample of water to determine whether it meets recommended levels. For this we use a commercial test kit which includes a colorimeter. The catch is that each group wil test a different concentration of the solution so we can plot a graph and arrive at a constant of proportionality which can be used to convert the figure from the colorimeter to the value of the concentration. I found this experiment nice and easy (which you would expect from a commercial kit) and we came up with a pretty good figure (according to Danny). However after getting the data from the others and plotting it the line of best fit was very loosely applied. Still we got a value, which at level 1 is the object.
Then there was just time for lunch, a very good chicken curry before we moved onto flame tests.
The activity tutors were a bit nervous about this part of the day, I'm not sure what had happened on previous days but we did fine and no one got burned. Basically we burnt a small sample of a metal chloride in a Bunsen flame and watched the pretty colours. We then used a hand-held spectroscope to look at the light being emitted by the burning salt, which was quite tricky to do and wasn't particularly satisfactory.
This had all been building up the main event of the afternoon, using the grating spectrometer. This fiddly bit of kit allows you to measure the angle of diffraction for a particular element being excited either through combustion or electrification. We started getting to know this tool by looking at the spectra of a sodium vapour lamp. From this we managed to calculate the spacing of the lines on the diffraction grating in nanometres. This was quite a mind-blowing thing. Here we are looking at glowing lines through a small telescope and after taking a few readings we can get a figure that small!
The final task of the day was to look at the spectra of a metal salt being blown through a flame and identify the metal involved. I found this fiendishly difficult and only managed to identify my metal by discounting the others but some of the other groups had their "eye in" and were going great guns.
The lab was over and as this was our last practical of the week (tomorrow we get to do a research poster) I have to say that I'm going to miss the labs. They were really well written and led you naturally through to a conclusion.
I decided not to do any optional tutorials or lectures, I was tired and needed to sort my notes out for the day.
Not really looking forward to tomorrow but the end is in sight.
Still we are doing chemistry today so I'm in a good mood, so after breakfast we all congregate sound the chemistry lab on the 4th floor of Chichester. The smell of a chemistry lab is so unique and it instantly brings back memories from 18 years ago. I'm really looking forward to this!!
After a quick safety briefing from our activity tutor (Danny) task 1 was some qualitative observations on the reactions between certain metal nitrates and several common lab reagents. This was a nice introduction with some pretty coloured compounds made.
Now we moved onto quantitative analysis. We wanted to know how much aluminium is in a sample of water to determine whether it meets recommended levels. For this we use a commercial test kit which includes a colorimeter. The catch is that each group wil test a different concentration of the solution so we can plot a graph and arrive at a constant of proportionality which can be used to convert the figure from the colorimeter to the value of the concentration. I found this experiment nice and easy (which you would expect from a commercial kit) and we came up with a pretty good figure (according to Danny). However after getting the data from the others and plotting it the line of best fit was very loosely applied. Still we got a value, which at level 1 is the object.
Then there was just time for lunch, a very good chicken curry before we moved onto flame tests.
The activity tutors were a bit nervous about this part of the day, I'm not sure what had happened on previous days but we did fine and no one got burned. Basically we burnt a small sample of a metal chloride in a Bunsen flame and watched the pretty colours. We then used a hand-held spectroscope to look at the light being emitted by the burning salt, which was quite tricky to do and wasn't particularly satisfactory.
This had all been building up the main event of the afternoon, using the grating spectrometer. This fiddly bit of kit allows you to measure the angle of diffraction for a particular element being excited either through combustion or electrification. We started getting to know this tool by looking at the spectra of a sodium vapour lamp. From this we managed to calculate the spacing of the lines on the diffraction grating in nanometres. This was quite a mind-blowing thing. Here we are looking at glowing lines through a small telescope and after taking a few readings we can get a figure that small!
The final task of the day was to look at the spectra of a metal salt being blown through a flame and identify the metal involved. I found this fiendishly difficult and only managed to identify my metal by discounting the others but some of the other groups had their "eye in" and were going great guns.
The lab was over and as this was our last practical of the week (tomorrow we get to do a research poster) I have to say that I'm going to miss the labs. They were really well written and led you naturally through to a conclusion.
I decided not to do any optional tutorials or lectures, I was tired and needed to sort my notes out for the day.
Not really looking forward to tomorrow but the end is in sight.
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