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Physical Science class reccomendations?
Sandor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm signing up for classes for fall right now, and I need one earth science class to complete. I have between Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth, Geology, Oceanography, Phsn (dunno what it is), and Physics to pick from. I'm kind of leaning towards Astronomy because I love space, but a friend of mine told me it's more math than space. Anyone care to recommend something? Thanks.
Sandor on
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Look through your course catalog and read the descriptions. Also, a huge part of the class is dependent on the professor. Try using ratemyprofessor.com to get a handle on the teachers, but take it with a grain of salt.
Do any of these relate to your major? Really, just pick one that sounds interesting.
I'm a film major, so not really. These are just the last credits I need to finish up in my last semester before getting my AA and transferring to a UC or wherever I want to go.
I would say Geology, but I'm an Anthro minor, so I'm a little biased.
Any of those classes can be taught with a lot of math and none of them have to be. Personally, I find all of those topics interesting, but again, classes on those subjects can either be fun and interesting or horribly boring depending on how they are taught. Look at the class descriptions and ask around and see if you know anyone who has taken them with the professors you are considering.
If my google-fu and intuition has served me correctly, PHSN is probably straight up physical science.
If it IS physical science, it's more or less physics with training wheels on. I took the class in high school and we spent a lot of time learning how simple tools (wheel & axle, lever & fulcrum, wedge, pulley, screw, and inclined plane/ramp) can be combined to make every object with moving parts that has ever been invented. We also covered a lot of concepts that end in -ion: radiation, convection, condensation, evaporation, acceleration, torsion, and in one impromptu lesson, explosions.
So it depends on who you get.
Unless you want to understand calculus better, don't do physics.
edit: Good chance that entry level physical science doesn't use calculus (but calculus is awesome anyway).
The subject of the class is really secondary when it comes to how much you'll like it: check the professor out online and go with whoever has the best ratings.
Personally I'd go for Astronomy or Oceanography.
I found Astronomy to be one of the most fun and fascinating classes I *had* to take, but it's certainly more work than Geo.
Physics
Physics II
Geology
Chemistry
Astronomy
Of those, I found Geology the most fun, but for all of those whether I enjoyed it largely depended on the teacher. Geology had basically no math that I remember. The hardest part for me was the lab exams where we had to identify various minerals by sight.
My Geology final was a 100 question multiple choice test. I noticed as I was going along that I had an awful lot of C's for the answer. Like 95%. I went back and looked at the ones that weren't C and either realized they should be or could have gone either way, so I changed those to C. When I turned it in, I said, "These answers look a little strange" and the instructor said, "Looks like an A to me".
Also, how much do you want to avoid math? Alternately, where do you start being uncomfortable with math (fractions, calculus, algebra, whatnot)?