Parent's Guide to the Forces of Nature Course

How help your student survive an online science course

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PARENTS: PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS GUIDE!

Many common concerns are also addressed on the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page for this course, so be sure to read it also!

Scholars Online courses are a cooperative effort between the teachers, the students, and their parents. Like the proverbial three-legged stool, if one leg is broken or missing, the stool will topple over. You are a necessary and important part of this course, and your student will need your guidance to apply the study skills and self-discipline needed to survive the class.

Forces of Nature Website Organization

For both maintenance and security reasons, there are three online environments for this course: course materials, Chat, and the MOODLE. Most pages will be organized by links in the Moodle to course homework pages, and links from the homework assignment pages to all other website pages required for a given assignment, so students can navigate from one environment to another easily.

• The Scholars Online Moodle contains the primary links for student work: students will upload assignments to the Moodle and. Feedback is reported to your student in the Moodle environment. Your student will receive instructions from Scholars Online to log in and verify access to the Moodle pages for all courses as part of the enrollment process.
• This site (where you are now) is the Forces of Nature Course Site, containing Web lectures ("content"). The Site Map for this course (click on the This Site link under Student Helps in the Menu Bar) describes the web-based materials of the course. Be sure to familiarize yourself with all the parts of the course, especially if you have a student who is new to this kind of instruction. There will be links in the Moodle back to this site; when in doubt, log into the Moodle and follow the Moodle course links to the the Forces of Nature Weblecture and other materials. There will also be a summary page of all important links to homework and online reading in the Syllabus Chat Schedule, which you should bookmark and refer to whenever you have questions about holiday dates (there are no exam dates since there are no exams).
• The Scholars Online Chat page is where our live text chat sessions take place. Students use the Scholars Online Chat Login page to list chats for each day and select the chat they wish to attend shortly before it is scheduled to start.

Expectations of Student Performance

Students are expected to complete reading assignments, experiments, and lab reports prior to each chat session, and to come prepared to discuss material. This is not a lecture course. Students are expected to bring the experiences they have to chat so that we can discuss them; if a student has not completed the assigned hands-on work, there is nothing to discuss. We know that summer schedules are busy, and we try to accommodate students who miss must miss one assignment for circumstances out of their control, we need your commitment to help your students find the time to do the work for this course in order for it to be successful for everyone.

Students frequently underestimate the amount of time required to complete experiments, partly because they have fun playing with the equipment, and partly because doing labs requires time for set up and clean up. Please make sure that you student has several time slots a week to complete the reading, experiments, and lab reports. These cannot be done during chat!

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© 2005 - 2024 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.