OU Course.

[sanmatt]

I found the statistics modules the most interesting. My degree was in maths and statistics. Though I did particularly enjoy M381 which was on number theory and mathematical logic. The OU are incredibly supportive and when I was due to take exams when my daughter was 4 months old they arranged for me to have an invigilator at my house and take my exams there to allow me to feed my daughter and have breaks when I needed to. I couldn't fault them.

wow that really is above and beyond! really pleased to hear this kind of story!

[George Jones]

I found the statistics modules the most interesting.

I took one statistics course. I got through it, even though I somewhat ignored it . I should be forced to really learn the material.

My degree was in maths and statistics. Though I did particularly enjoy M381 which was on number theory and mathematical logic.

I had bits of mathematical logic and elementary number in a few courses, and I enjoyed this stuff.

The OU are incredibly supportive and when I was due to take exams when my daughter was 4 months old they arranged for me to have an invigilator at my house and take my exams there to allow me to feed my daughter and have breaks when I needed to. I couldn't fault them.

wow that really is above and beyond! really pleased to hear this kind of story!

I agree!

[Marshall1234]

Im doing the OU as well A guy who likes astronomy | Astronomyman is my blog charting my progress. I have just signed up to the s177 stars, galaxies,planets as well using it as 10 creds to wards my natural science degree in astronomy and planetary science.

So far iv done S154 starting science , and currentrly the biggest one s104 exploring science which has loads of maths. So we appear to be on the same short course

[Treeden]

... WAY more math involved in this '... you don't need any prior experience' course than I thought there would be!

Bryan

Good luck with the course Bryan, it sounds really interesting.

I'd like to do something similar myself but I'm not very strong on the maths side of things. The OU web site says:

"Many of these topics are at the cutting edge of our understanding but are dealt with in an approachable and (largely) non-mathematical way."

and...

"Mathematically, you need only to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide simple numbers."

What did the course materials reveal, is there a lot more maths in there than the web site suggests?

[SFlowers]

At a guess there will be a fair amount of substituting numbers into formulas so I would imagine a grasp of algebra would be helpful too.

[George Jones]

And the facility to do word problems, i.e., the facility to relate quantitative mathematics to a given science problem.

[SFlowers]

It's the wordy problems that always trip up the students at school. Also - try saying quantitative when you have had a few drinks

[Stargazer33]

Hi Treeden,

Because (starting a sentence with because! Tsk...tsk. Not OU material. ) astronomy deals with very large and very small numbers - interstellar distances and the size of protons, neutrons etc, you get numbers like 3.4 x 1018(superscript), and 2.667 x 10-4(superscript). In other words: 3.4 x 10 to the power of 18, or 3 400 000 000 000 000 000 and 2.667 x 10 to the power of minus 4, or 0.002667.

Then there is all the names for the measurements. Millimetre, metre and kilometre are fine but what about (going up) megametre, gigametre, terametre, petametre, exametre, zettametre, and yottametre! And going down: micrometre, nanaometre, picometre, femtometre, appometre, zaptometre and yoctometre!!

It's a lot 'for a bear of little brain' to take in!

I have to add here that I haven't read all of the course book yet and I am still very much looking forward to this course when it starts on 12 May.

[Marshall1234] We may see you in the course forum.

Bryan

[Treeden]

Thanks very much for the heads-up Bryan. I'm ok with large and small numbers, and can even manage all those strange names... just about It's algebra and complex equations that I struggle with. That side of maths has always been a weakness of mine.

At the moment I'm having a look at the free "Introductory Astronomy" course from Michigan Tech that is available on iTunesU. It's presented by Prof Robert Nemiroff, one of the team behind the amazing Astromony Picture of the Day web site. It's really great that courses like this are made available completely free to anyone with an interest and a desire to learn.

Good luck with the course, and let us know how you get on. I might have a go at the next one myself.

[Astrosurf]

I've managed three short courses with the OU, which had much harder maths than I thought too!

My Dad, Prof Geoffrey Holister, was one of the founders of the OU (the original Faculty of Technology was his idea) and he would turn in his grave at how the 'University of the Air', which was aimed primarily at low-income groups, has now become so inaccessible. I can't afford it now either!

Alexxx

[Stargazer33]

Treeden, there is a link to the OUs 'Maths Ebook' here - a sort of this is how you do various math problems: http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/maths-skills-ebook-for-science.php

You don't have to be an OU student to access it and you can save the PDF to your computer to work on off-line if you wish.

It has already helped me as I have always had a problem with positive and negative numbers. It is really clearly set out - so far! - and I am enjoying going through the problems and even working them out in my head and not bothering to use the calculator.

I agree Alexxx, I think the OU should be more accessible to people. After all a well educated population is a better workforce, a society less inclined to crime due to poverty and a country that doesn't need to pilfer academics from others, especially developing countries that could really do with hanging on to their high achievers.

Oh for the days of those bearded men in paisley shirts with wing collars and stripy knitted tank tops! Oops! Was I giving away my age then!

Bryan

[Treeden]

Treeden, there is a link to the OUs 'Maths Ebook' here - a sort of this is how you do various math problems: http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/maths-skills-ebook-for-science.php

Bryan

Thanks Bryan. I've grabbed a copy and it looks perfect for scraping through that top layer of rust that's built up over the years!

Rob

[Auntystatic]

I have just had confirmation of being on the course, books en-route. I have also signed up for starting with maths which starts in June, all in preparation for exploring science and discovering maths in October.

[Katen]

I do fancy this coarse, I am in full time employment, so did I read the web site right £170 squid for it?

I believe correct IF you take the presentation of the course that starts very soon. If you leave it to the next start date of Sept/Oct it will be a lot more expensive. Well well worth the £170.

[stonemonkeylives]

I'm in the process of doing S282 at the moment, and I'm really enjoying it. I would say if your not hundred percent confident on the maths read up a bit on large numbers and powers of, also read up on re-arranging equations (its been 15 years since I did A-level physics, so this is what have found most difficult). I hope you enjoy the course half as much as I am.

sent from Gherkin Muncher mk .III (commonly known as a Galaxy S2)

[casemonster]

I believe correct IF you take the presentation of the course that starts very soon. If you leave it to the next start date of Sept/Oct it will be a lot more expensive. Well well worth the £170.

So what is the criteria to get the presentation course in terms of income and what does the presentation course provide. Did I miss a link to the site?

ta

Chris

[Auntystatic]

The couse started on Saturday so you are too late for this one, the next starts in October but the price will be much higher, link is here