Which science course(s) should I take?
As part of my degree plan, I am required to take at least two natural science courses. I have a long list of courses to choose from, and I've already narrowed it down to several courses.
Since math tends to be the one subject that I struggle the most in, I've already written out physics and chemistry. I took a biology class in high school and it wasn't really difficult. Is College Biology any harder than high school biology? Some other courses that I'm considering are earth science, geology, or environmental science. By the way, what's the difference between an earth science course and a geology course?
Which of the science courses that I'm considering do you think would be easiest for me?
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ZeroGravitas
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College Biology will deal with population dynamics, which will require some math. An introductory course will not require differential equations, I think. Much more time is spent on genetics and microbiology in an introductory college biology course.
An Earth Science course will deal with stuff such as the Oxygen and Water cycles, meteorology, and geology. It's usually a catch-all introduction for more specialized topics, and like most other survey classes will touch very briefly on the actual mathematics of each subtopic.
That said, I think you should try to take a physics or chemistry course at some point. There are non-calculus physics and chemistry courses available, which are mostly amplifications of and corrections to the stuff you learned in high school. They may be harder, but it's worth it, in my opinion, to have experience in such a class. More than the science itself, you will learn the fine art of what rigor and intellectual honesty actually means.
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My Into Biology was completely lacking in maths. We had one module in Biochem (again, no math), Botany (not as dull as it sounded), Zoology (pretty much Anatomy and Physiology), and Microbio. It's more difficult than secondary school, but I found it very manageable.
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I took Environmental Science (full year so two credits). Loved that class!
Also took Bio (two credits). It did NOT consist of math, btw, but that is not to say that your's won't. I also simutaneously took second year Ecology and that was FULL of math (stats)!
Took one Chem credit too--did not like it.
Also took one Stats credit--liked it more than I thought I would; most of it was fairly easy for me too.
If you hate science, I would suggest Environmental Science. In my school, I found it had a very different feel from the other hardcore sciences that I took. It dealt with a lot of modern issues, and we had a couple fun labs to do in conjunction with our regular tutorials. Very little chemistry and very little math (if any). It did encompass Biology and Geology and Oceanography of course, but from an environmental perspective.
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I'm slightly above average at best in math, but I love chemistry. You don't need to write it off unless your university uses that as a "weed-out" class for pre-med students. A ways back I took an engineering-level chem class for fun at a community college and got an A+, s**t's very interesting but not very hard.
Geology is awesome too, I took an intro class in that my last year of college, it was an elective and I didn't give a s**t about it but it was a lot of fun.
Biology is major memorization but no math, bio was closely related to my field (I have a bioanthropology degree) and I took plenty, it was pretty gnarly but I loved it.
I guess the point is that the sciences are awesome, they will probably not be a cake walk no matter what you take, but you'll probably be happy with what you'll learn no matter what direction you take.
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If you're looking for a cakewalk science class to fulfill requirements, look at the courses offered for non-majors. Something called "Earth Science" is usually one of those. Same with Environmental Science- you can pass a class like that just by regurgitating the answers to a few trivia questions. My university has something called "Descriptive Astronomy" which is similarly easy. A lot of places have a geology class that is colloquially called "Rocks for Jocks," try to find that class to get easy credits.
Real biology requires a ton of advanced math. You can't even make a serious attempt at understanding ecology without first learning differential equations. But the biology community is still in denial about this fact, so most undergraduate biology courses are just stamp collecting.
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I'm a little biased (I'm a Bio major) so I would go with Biology. The difficulty is very dependent on the teacher. They can make or break a class. Bio I I had a a little bit of a harder time with because the professor was impossible. He got a lot of satisfaction out of making the tests extremely hard. He was taking questions from the mcat...for an ENTRY level course! Bio II I took with another professor and loved it.
Biology I at my school delt with chemistry, cells, cell respiration, mitosis/meisosis, and genetics, etc. Biology II was all about biodiversity of plants and animals. If those topics interest you then go for it.
I would also recommend Biology (I majored in Bio in college ).
I took introductory Biology when I was a freshman in college and found it to be very manageable. And the only previous Bio experience I had at that point was my 9th grade Biology class. There wasn't much math involved, as I recall, except when it came to creating graphs for lab reports.
The math used in general chemistry typically isn't too complex, especially if you only take the first semester. Did you take a chemistry class in high school? If so, college Gen Chem would probably be similar.
You might find it interesting to take a semester of Biology and a semester of Chemistry.
As someone has already mentioned, Environmental Science/Ecology can actually involve quite a bit of math, so you should double check whether it is a general introductory course geared towards non-science majors (less math) or a more advanced course.
Real biology requires a ton of advanced math. You can't even make a serious attempt at understanding ecology without first learning differential equations. But the biology community is still in denial about this fact, so most undergraduate biology courses are just stamp collecting.
I haven't even seen the Malthusian growth function, yet alone the Logistic function or the Lotka–Volterra equations. Our lack of education in statistics will probably come back to bite me in the ass when I start my genetics module. Looks like it will be another thing Salman Khan will be teaching me ...
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Real biology requires a ton of advanced math. You can't even make a serious attempt at understanding ecology without first learning differential equations. But the biology community is still in denial about this fact, so most undergraduate biology courses are just stamp collecting.
I haven't even seen the Malthusian growth function, yet alone the Logistic function or the Lotka–Volterra equations. Our lack of education in statistics will probably come back to bite me in the ass when I start my genetics module. Looks like it will be another thing Salman Khan will be teaching me ...
You're 18, so a college freshman, right? There's still plenty of time... just take courses in the math department if you want to be able to do real science. Genetics won't actually have any stats aside from basic chi-squared tests, and they'll give you a formula for that. The Lotka-Volterra equations are actually very interesting to play around with; with a decent CAS program and some fiddling about you can find the conditions for stability in the system and observe the long-term behavior.
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I have always despised Biology. I think its because it seems too much like memorization. IT is interesting though. I enjoyed finally understanding evolution. Still, I would choose chem over bio any day. Of course, I wouldn't take it if I wasn't heading down a science Field. Chem can be such a *****.
I think that the Environment course would be the most beneficial to you in the long run.
Computer science would seem to me as a "just to get by course"
I have computing for engineers in the fall, and im taking it cause its required. I didnt think one course can really help that much.
In my opinion, id rather have a better understanding of Environ. Change.
Of course, if I wanted "Easier" id go with Computer science. But I dont see how difficult environ. can really be.
I really would rather not take chemistry in college. I took chemistry in high school, and it was awful. I had a hard time wrapping my head around many concepts (to this day, I still cannot balance chemical equations). I still managed to pass that class, somehow.
Anyway, I went ahead and signed up for General College Biology for the upcoming fall semester. Since I'll have to take one more science course afterward, I'll consider how I was able to handle biology and go from there.
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Some universities offer those as science credits for majors as well. Both of those subjects, with those exact names, are degrees right up to the PhD level at my university.
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