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Homework Help

7/2/2017

I am trialling an online homework help service through the website, aiming at bridging the gap for students who may need assistance with their school work in between tutorial lessons. There are two services available: Homework Live Chat and Study Forum.

With Homework Live Chat, students can text chat to the tutor live when available. Students may ask any question or post problems on any topic from their school or university mathematics and science subjects. If the tutor is not available a student can post a question and the tutor will reply with an answer, usually within 12 hours.

The Homework Study Forum allows students to post mathematics and science questions and problems and the tutor will reply with solutions, hints, etc. within a 24 hour time frame. To access the study forum, students will need to register with a user-name or email and their own password.

To access the Homework Live Chat or Study Forum students go to www.sciencetuition.com.au/homework-help.html and enter a site password that they will receive upon registration of the service. From there students go to the Study Forum link or Homework Chat link.

Students may trial the homework help service for a month for no fee. If a student wishes to continue the service a monthly subscription fee will apply. The fee for the Homework Study Forum is $75 / month and $125 / month for Homework Chat.

For further details or to trial the service please email Scott.

Penmanship

4/2/2017

As a tutor, I find poor handwriting skills of students an aspect of tutoring that can be frustrating. Handwriting is taught in primary school, but modern schools give less attention to it than they once did. This attitude continues into high school where good penmanship is not emphasised to students and parents.

Schools will argue there is no need for concern with poor handwriting due to the reliance in modern society of computer technology. Most written communication these days is through a computer medium, typically via a keyboard. That is, we now tend to do more typing than handwriting. However, this does not diminish the importance of maintaining good handwriting skills.

In teaching students mathematics and science, I find many lack basic handwriting skills. Without these skills, students struggle to write text and symbols consistently and legibly on the page. Some student’s work is incredibly sloppy and will lead to lost marks in exams. Besides, students are less likely to learn a complex technical subject well if the working is not neat and organised.

It is important for students to learn mathematics and science well. There is also the need to effectively communicate this knowledge to others. This may be a teacher or fellow student. In later life it may be a work colleague, such as an engineer or manager, for example. Students can be under the impression that it does not matter if their work is untidy and barely legible, so long as they can read it themselves, then it’s not an issue. But, I see students misread their own messy handwriting and as a result get wrong answers. Further to this, concise penmanship and written work that is well organised on the page, helps students to remember concepts and procedures better. Going through the physical process of writing complex mathematics or science on paper, enhances our retention and understanding of these subjects.

It is the inherent nature of mathematical based sciences to require very detailed and often small characters to be written down. If a student has poor penmanship then the written work will be difficult to follow, even for the student themselves. These technical subjects need many different symbols to represent a large array of quantities. Some of these characters and symbols are quite similar in appearance. Often a student will write the numeral '5' almost exactly the same as the letter 'S'. Or, the letter 't' similar to the operator '+'. Other examples include writing the numeral '2' indistinguishable from the letter 'Z'. Careless handwriting may also make it difficult to distinguish between upper and lower case letters. For example, a lower case 'p' sloppily written above the line could be confused for an uppercase 'P'. This is important as there are occasions when an uppercase character represents a different quantity to the lowercase one.

When it comes to handwriting, students often do not realise the importance of a quality writing instrument. A good writing tool can make a significant difference to penmanship. For example, I often see students writing with cheap ballpoint pens that leak globs of ink on the page. Their hand can smudge the ink making their handwriting appear even worse. This can be avoided by using a better quality pen. Today we are spoilt for choice when it comes to pens and pencils. Good quality ballpoint, gel-ink, felt-tip pens, etc. are widely available at reasonable prices. Even the traditional fountain pen is still favoured by many in search of quality handwriting. There are a variety of pencils to choose from too. The two main types are the click pencil and traditional graphite-clay lead inlaid in a wooden stick. Each pencil type is also sold with a range of lead grades. It is a matter of students experimenting with what suits their personal style and needs. Along with the variety of writing instruments available there are also many nib sizes to choose from. For the mathematical sciences I would recommend a maximum of 0.5 or 0.7 mm nib size. A small nib will assist in drawing intricate characters.

Students should also learn how to hold their pen or pencil in the right way. The correct holding technique may have been taught to a student in their formative school years. However, it is easily forgotten and a poor pen holding position habit develops. It can take a concerted effort to relearn the habit of positioning the writing instrument well.

In spite of the heavy use of digital devices in today's society, it is still very important to learn and maintain legible handwriting skills. Students need to learn penmanship and have it emphasised to them until a good handwriting habit develops. This will pay dividends in their studies throughout the remainder of their schooling years.

New Academic Year

3/2/2017

Greetings parents & students,

A new school year has begun and soon the university academic year begins too. I hope you all had a nice, relaxing Christmas with family and friends and you have 'recharged your batteries' over the summer holiday break.

Though tuition ran throughout the summer holiday period, with the start of the academic year, tutorial times will default back to the standard times of weekdays 4 PM and 6 PM for the tutorial workshops and weekday mornings and early afternoons for individual tuition. Students who intend on continuing with tutorial lessons in 2017, please let me know as soon as possible what tutorial session times you prefer, so as to guarantee a placement on your preferred day.

Finally, students please remember that greater success in your studies will be achieved the more organised you are. You cannot possibly be efficient in your learning if your study environment isn't clean and organised. It is also important to be organised with each subject, noting when assignments and tests, etc. are due. Make good use of your school diary for this purpose. There's also a variety of student apps available to help you organise your study routine. I would suggest doing a search for study apps in places such as Apple App Store, Chrome's Web Store, etc. There's plenty of free ones available too.

myHomework Student Planner

Summer Break Holiday Tutorials

22/11/2016

Tuition will be available over most of the summer holiday period. The centre however, will be shut for the Christmas/New Years period from 24th December to 1st January. The office reopens on Monday, January 2nd.

Year 10 and 11 students who are currently doing 'rollover' into year 12 would find it beneficial to continue studying for their maths and science subjects to gain a head-start for the 2017 academic year. For other students who may have struggled in mathematics, physics or chemistry during the school year, the summer break is a good time to resolve difficulties.

For current year 10 students, transitioning into year 11 is quite a big jump and often students struggle with the increased level of homework and subject difficulty. Getting an early start on the more difficult technical subjects can be very beneficial for students to ease their way into upper high school.

If you wish to organise tutoring for the summer holidays please email Scott or phone the office. Various tutorial sessions are available during normal office hours in the summer break.

Publications website

21/3/2016

Students wishing to purchase publications produced or sold by Perth Academy of Science may do so at our new separate publications website at www.mpcbooks.com.au. Publications include school books and educational science aides such as Techniques in Differentiation, Periodic Table of the Elements Reference Card and Periodic Table Mouse Mat.

new academic year

3/2/2016

Formal schooling has begun for the year and the tutorial workshops are now available in the evenings during school term. New students requiring further information regarding our tuition service please email or call Scott. Details on contact page.

christmas closing times

16/12/2015

The tuition centre will be closed for the Christmas / New Years period from Monday 21st December until 3rd January. Lessons will resume on Monday 4th January.

Wishing all students and parents a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

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new academic year

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Blog & Notices

﻿Homework Help

Penmanship

Further Reading

New Academic Year

Summer Break Holiday Tutorials

Publications website

new academic year

christmas closing times

Author

Archives

Categories

Homework Help