Latest Posts by purpletelescope - Page 6

hey everyone! i’m a peer tutor at my university and i wanted to share some study strategies that i’ve found really helpful in my stem/content-heavy courses. please feel free to share yours with me as well!

(image descriptions under the cut)

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How to remain productive with online classes:

A few tips from a broke neuro-divergent academic

Try and wake up early, and go to bed early too. I’m not saying get up at 5 (unless that’s you’re thing) but sleeping into noon is a productivity blackhole. I go for 8 or 8:30, generally, but that’s just what works for me.

Get dressed for the day. I’m not talking like, jeans and a business casual outfit, but a clean pair of sweatpants, fresh underwear, and a new shirt can really put you in the mood for a new morning.

Have a workspace. Whether it be the kitchen table, a desk, a spot on the floor with a lap desk, have a place that’s dedicated to your work. Have items that signify that workspace too, like your book, planner, laptop, lamp, whatever. It can help you get into the zone, being in that space.

Have a morning drink. I choose earl grey tea with honey and cream, but black coffee, herbal tea, lemon water, whatever works for you is awesome, as long as itll wake you up and start your day.

To do lists. To do lists and to do lists and more to do lists. I have three. One is a post it weekly planner deal (3.99 at a local grocery store). it’s a weekly spread already set up, and if you’re anything like me, its really hard to set up a weekly spread. Then I have an app called Ike. I have a daily to do list I write on that app, and then I have four more to-do lists of what I have to for each specific class.

Spread out your assignments. Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you’re professors are like mine, and have the due date for each module as Sunday at midnight. What I do is spread out all my assignments from Monday to Saturday, and I leave Sunday blank, so anything I didn’t do that week, I finish on Sunday. It works for me, it might work for you.

Have a folder for each class, and a notebook for each class. I hate spending money, I’m broke as hell, sono al verde as the Italians say, but a 0.99 cent folder and a 0.25 cent notebook can do wonders for motivating one to fill them up.

Study with a drink. Tea, water, coffee, whatever, but my go to is generally a warm drink. I cannot study if I’m cold, I get tired and groggy, so warm socks, a robe, and a hot drink really keep me going.

Take breaks. Make time for your hobbies, for something fun. Working without stopping absolutely destroys my motivation, and let me tell you, when I feel like that, an episode of Avatar and a snack gets me right back on the wagon.

Do self check ins. Does your back hurt? Are you sad? Stressed? Do you have to pee? Are you hungry? Never put your homework over your health. You won’t be able to get anything done well anyway if you’ve got those blocks.

Most importantly, get enough sleep. I beg of you. Sleep is so important, and it’s the game changer, at least to me. We as students have such an amazing opportunity to get more sleep than we ever have before during the year. Take advantage of that.

September 1, 2020 - physics studies.

It's September already! August was a tough month for me and I'm so excited to welcome the better days ahead <33 ☁️ September, please be nice 💫

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Keep on working hard and take care of yourself friends ♡

🎶 Dynamite - BTS

September 1, 2020 - physics studies.

It's September already! August was a tough month for me and I'm so excited to welcome the better days ahead <33 ☁️ September, please be nice 💫

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Keep on working hard and take care of yourself friends ♡

🎶 Dynamite - BTS

How to Defeat Procrastination

How to Defeat Procrastination | A Mini Guide

Use your intrapersonal intelligence. Ask yourself when and why you procrastinate. Use your insights to identify the appropriate strategy to deal with those issues. 

Identify a purpose or meaning. Sometimes, it simply isn’t enough to do something for the sake of doing it. Know why you want to do it, it’ll be easier then. List down your goals, and beside it, identify the benefits. So that, when you feel your spirits drooping, you can look at the list be reminded of why you have to do it. 

Take charge of the situation. Gather up all the supplies and materials you need to get started. Choose a work environment where you can really really focus on what you are doing. Take responsibility!

Prioritize and stick to the order. When you feel overwhelmed, make a list of tasks that needs to be done. Tackle the high-priority tasks first. 

Relax your personal standards. If you’re a serial perfectionist (like me), lower your unrealistically high standards and expectations. You can still continue to produce quality work without it always having to be the BEST. 

Face your fear of failure. Focus on your positive traits. I’m hella sure you’ve got plenty of those! Focus on your accomplishments, and the skills you’ve acquired! Go in front of your mirror and tell yourself affirmations and positive pep talks! 

Visualize success. Visualize yourself working through the task, feeling positive about your work, and complete the task on time. Believe you can do it and you will! 

How to Defeat Procrastination

How to Defeat Procrastination | A Mini Guide

Use your intrapersonal intelligence. Ask yourself when and why you procrastinate. Use your insights to identify the appropriate strategy to deal with those issues. 

Identify a purpose or meaning. Sometimes, it simply isn’t enough to do something for the sake of doing it. Know why you want to do it, it’ll be easier then. List down your goals, and beside it, identify the benefits. So that, when you feel your spirits drooping, you can look at the list be reminded of why you have to do it. 

Take charge of the situation. Gather up all the supplies and materials you need to get started. Choose a work environment where you can really really focus on what you are doing. Take responsibility!

Prioritize and stick to the order. When you feel overwhelmed, make a list of tasks that needs to be done. Tackle the high-priority tasks first. 

Relax your personal standards. If you’re a serial perfectionist (like me), lower your unrealistically high standards and expectations. You can still continue to produce quality work without it always having to be the BEST. 

Face your fear of failure. Focus on your positive traits. I’m hella sure you’ve got plenty of those! Focus on your accomplishments, and the skills you’ve acquired! Go in front of your mirror and tell yourself affirmations and positive pep talks! 

Visualize success. Visualize yourself working through the task, feeling positive about your work, and complete the task on time. Believe you can do it and you will! 

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

The holy grail of searching through academic literature is coming across a string of publications that are like:

Here’s An Idea. Smith et al. 2016

Terrible Idea; a comment on Smith et al. 2016. Johnson 2016.

You’re Wrong Too; a response to Johnson 2016. Nelson 2016.

Guys Just Stop Fighting, None Of Us Know What’s Going On; a Review of the Current Literature. McBrien 2017.

helpful links:

the one productivity system you need: time vs energy management

eisenhower matrix

similiar way to prioritize tasks

flexible time blocking

how to learn new content and never forget it

save this for your next academic year and finals, and it’ll save your grades and time.

1. whenever you read a paragraph with new content, close the book/look away and ask yourself: “what have i just learned?” explaining the concept to yourself right away and asking follow-up questions will change the way you retain new material forever.

2. at first, it’ll be daunting, and it’ll be pretty hard to actually bring yourself to do this. trust me, it’ll be worth it - as this is scientifically proven one of the most effective study techniques.

3. to try this out, set yourself a timer for how long you estimate learning a concept might take. now take away 20% from that estimate. you won’t be able to reach this goal with basic highlighting and re-reading techniques - but with active recall, you will.

4. once you’ve understood the concept, use spaced repetition systems like anki flashcards to force yourself to retrieve this information in a set period of time. this way, your brain will always be reminded of this concept before it could possibly forget it.

5. teach it to others as much as you can. as with the old wisdom “see one, do one, teach one”, one of the only guarantees you’ve really gotten something is when you can effectively teach it.

hope these are helpful for you!!

more content like this on my instagram, @softmedstudent

I may come back and color this at a later date, but here’s a little dragon flying around. No particular reason! Just some recreational drawing. :)

Scans of the inside covers of Strang’s Calculus, which you can legally-download for free here from the MIT website. This is my all-time favorite math or physics textbook. Scanned it so I could cut and paste it into my new sketchbook, wanna try and make a ~cool artistic~ reference poster out of it, ‘cuz I’ve been real into that idea since I took notes about rings for the algebra midterm on a big piece of watercolor paper.

Jellyfish Sprite

Red sprites or the tentacle-like spurts of red lightning in the sky during a storm are sometimes referred to as Jellyfish Sprite (because of their shape). There are also some that are vertical columns of red light and those are called carrot sprites.

They are ultra fast electricity traveling through the atmosphere towards space and are extremely rare (they last a tenth of a second). They can also be seen from space.

The picture above was captured on Mt. Locke in Texas (July 2nd, 2020) by Stephen Hummel.

“A rainy day is like a lovely gift – you can sleep late and not feel guilty.”

― Elizabeth Jane Howard

14.08.20

i’m so used to just filling in blank lec slides for maths but had to start writing my own notes for diff eq ✏️

Can we romanticize humble academia?? Be in love with sharing your knowledge with others. having a sheepish smile on your face as you clumsily explain a concept that you fully understand but haven’t read up on recently. Happily help someone understand a complex concept that you do understand. Roll your eyes and make funny faces at people purposely being pretentious. Give away or sell at a reasonable price old textbooks that you know are still in use. Lend and exchange notes with other genuine acedmics. Encourage others with whatever their studies/aspirations are.

Pretentiousness in academia is so outdated, and frankly off putting. Romanticize the academic practice of being kind.

Petition to stop using the phrases “hard sciences” and “soft sciences.” Different fields of science shouldn’t be pitted against each other. A hierarchy of importance shouldn’t exist among scientific fields.

Instead use phrases like “physical sciences,” “social sciences,” “life sciences,” “medical sciences,” etc. You better get across what field you’re actually talking about and don’t put down anyone’s work in the process! It’ll take time to make advances in interdisciplinary research, let’s start by leveling the field to make it possible

Spectacular 🤩

I don’t think there are words or pictures adequate enough to describe how absolutely spectacular Møre og Romsdal is. This is Trollstigen, my favourite viewpoint of the entire trip :)

gotta write a research paper for astronomy now whoops

shouldn’t be too hard tbh

done

some things i’ve learned while studying in quarantine

drink more water instead of more coffee.

weekly goals are bullshit. set yourself 3-day goals. you’ll be less laid-back.

don’t just mindlessly stare at words. before you start studying, know your approach to it. have a plan.

summarizing the concept in your own words is the key part of taking notes. don’t just copy things down, convert them into your own way of talking, your own vocabulary, no matter how dumb and unprofessional it sounds.

don’t let the “studyblr aesthetic” fool you. studying doesn’t have to be pretty. summaries and notes can be messy as long as they’re comprehensible. you can always rewrite and reorganize them later. (honestly, you better do. and you better keep them.)

don’t throw away the papers you’ve solved your problems in. staple them to the fucking textbook. you need to see them constantly. cause you’ll need reminders of how far you’ve came, when you’re feeling discouraged.

don’t be an armchair analyst for your issues. if you have an idea then act on it.

remember: the exact point where it becomes difficult, is where your growth begins. take a deep breath, and try to focus on the paragraph in front of you.

get off your high horse and understand that if you’re a zero, you won’t go to 100 in a couple of days. first, you’ll need to reach 30, then from 30 to 60, and then from 60 to 90. nobody is 100 everyday. that happens very rarely.

you need to have fun everyday. you need to have peaceful time every single day. even on exam night. especially on exam night, actually. so make sure you’ve studied enough so you can have some time to yourself.

once you’re on a roll and in need of some challenge to stay on track, start writing down your studying hours. tell yourself you’re not allowed to do less than 80% of what you did yesterday. whatever the hell it was, even just one hour. so if yesterday you really studied for like, say 8 hours, today your goal is to study for at least 6 and a half hours. if you can’t keep up with that, make it 70%, or 60%. 

be forgiving of yourself. be kind to yourself. even if you bounced back and lost your streak. start again. as slowly as you did before. take your time. it’s okay, you were there once you can get there again.

Source

“Saturn in the twelve Signs of the Zodiac.” Clipped from a celestial atlas by Alexander Jamieson, 1822.

Learning astronomy

Podcasts

astronomy cast  : hundreds of podcasts! Great for beginners and general facts, but keep in mind that those are from 2006, so some technical things may no longer be relevant

Videos 

crash course : amazing synthetic videos about astronomy, those are my personal favorites 

Websites

astronomy basics : all you need to know if you’re a great beginner!

Free online courses

probably the most complete one I’ve ever seen

khan academy astronomy courses are quality af

Books

list of books about what to see and how with a telescope

another list of books about astronomy in general 

telescope books

astrophotography

Stargazing

Sky maps

sky maps per month 

very good starwheels aka planispheres 

How to observe

basic skills

10 steps to begin

the perfect all-in-one stargazing guide: I can’t recommend this highly enough!!

Telescopes and things

telescopes

telescope reviews : aka what to chose for what you want to see

everything about telescopes : super useful when you start using one!!

Astrophotography

Starting

everything you need to know depending on what equipment you have!!

all you need version 2!

General

catching the light

hundreds of tips 

Apps and websites

For computers

stellarium

googlesky

astroplanner: plan your observation!

winstars: 3D planet/stargazing!

planetarium 

+ full list of softwares and websites

For mobiles

starwalk2 (android version): alright guys, this one is my absolute favorite at all times. Like, really. Have you ever wished you could point a device at the sky and know exactly what’s above you? And have a description of those things? Even in the middle of the day?? Well, now you can yaaay! :D 

Astronomy News

astronomy.com

universetoday

skyandtelescope

space.com aka my personal favorite

astronomynow

sci-news

++bonus !

All the random facts

here +other links:  x x x x

Backgrounds

hubble site gallery

ESA/Hubble gallery

HD wallpapers

NASA gallery

Even more resources

friendsoftheobservatory

NASA

European Space Agency

ISS Live

I really hoped it helped! Thank you very much for reading! Zoya

The tails of Comet NEOWISE!! Comet’s usually have 2 tails that always point away from the Sun.

Here, NEOWISE’s blue ion tail on the left points directly away from the Sun and is pushed out by the flowing and charged solar wind. Structure in the ion tail comes from different rates of expelled blue-glowing ions from the comet's nucleus, as well as the always changing structure of our Sun's wind.

The other tail, the dust tail, is pushed out by sunlight, but curves towards its orbital path as heavier dust particles are better able to resist this light pressure. Comet NEOWISE's (Comet C/2020 F3) impressive dust-tail striations are not fully understood, as yet, but likely related to rotating streams of sun-reflecting grit liberated by melting ice on its 5-kilometer wide nucleus.

Image Credit & Copyright: Zixuan Lin (Beijing Normal U.)

wait is 5! = 120 an actual math thing i just reblogged it bc i sincerely believe that yelling a number makes it bigger 

How to Really Comprehend a Scientific Paper

**credit to my research advisor, she’s an amazing mentor and I aspire to be just like her someday :)

Read the abstract. Write down what the paper says it is going to be about.

Read the introduction. Write down what the paper says it is looking to accomplish and how.

Read the conclusion. Write down what the paper actually did accomplish.

Go through and find all the pictures, graphs, or diagrams. Write notes explaining these images to yourself.

Read the whole paper start to finish. Write a summary of the paper as though you are explaining it to a layperson, and then another summary as though you are explaining it to a colleague.

Throughout all of the above steps:

If there are words you don’t know google them and write down the definitions

If the paper defines a formula, law, variable, etc in a certain way write that down

If there are references to or recommendations of other literature write those down. After the last step if there’s anything you’re uncertain about or would like more information on look to that list for further reading