Final Project Student Survival Guide free essay sample

This school has made earning my college degree convenient and offers many resources. In all of my classes books, appendices, and learning materials are online and easily downloaded to my computer for quick access. Audio files are a useful tool to help me comprehend my reading material. All Of the downloaded materials are also available to download to portable devices so I can take college with me anywhere I go. Another amazing resource is the University Library, which is easily accessible by clicking on the Library tab at the top of the page once I log into my student portal.In the library are many tools that help me to succeed. Among them is the Center for Writing Excellence, or CHEW which supplies resources to help develop written communication skills (University of Phoenix, Ixia College, 201 1). In the CHEW can submit a paper for grammar review in Writing and submit a paper for plagiarism review in the Plagiarism Checker. We will write a custom essay sample on Final Project: Student Survival Guide or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are also grammar and writing guides to help me submit a top notch paper with little to no grammatical mistakes.A downloaded tool available in the CHEW is called Riverfront Writer, which opens a Word document properly roommate according to the required PAP (American Psychological Association) guidelines. Also in the Library is The Center for Mathematics Excellence, as well as, student labs and useful links to aid me in gaining my education. Under the Library tab I can find a search box to research all of the publications that Library has to offer as well as links to other databases to further my research. The tutorials offered in the library allow me to fully understand how to use the available resources. Next, we will discuss Academic Honesty. Ixia College has implemented academic honesty leslies to encourage the students intellectual growth, to encourage them to remain honest, and to encourage students to always give credit where credit is due. Ixia Colleges Student Code of Academic Integrity states the many different ways to cheat. Among them is Plagiarism which by definition is the intentional or unintentional representation of anothers words or ideas as ones own in an academic exercise (Center for Writing Excellence, 2011 Plagiarism is dishonorable, dishonest and in some cases criminal.It is stealing and using someone elses intellectual property as my own. The consequences if caught can be severe. I can be given a zero or failing grade for the assignment, be dropped from the course or even be expelled from the institution. A tip to avoid plagiarism is to always include my resources and use proper citations. The Reference and Citation Generator that is available in the library can help with this. Another helpful tool to avoid plagiarism is to submit my papers to the Plagiarism Checker available in the CHEW. The next step to cover is setting and achieving goals.My short term goal is to complete each of my classes successfully one week at a time. By focusing on my studies week by week am able to tackle them easily and not be overwhelmed. I intend to keep using this strategy as I have so far been successful. My long term goals are to complete my Associates Degree and to become employed in a hospital or clinical setting. There are always obstacles in any life goal. The trick is to identify them and overcome them. You can identify obstacles by realizing what and who supports your endeavors and what and who dont and rectify the situation.A strong support group will help you overcome anything that gets in your way. My Ixia degree will be pivotal in me accomplishing my goals. This degree will change my life for the better and I cant wait. Now we will talk about managing time wisely, something that I need to get better at doing. The goal is to balance time between my courses and to focus enough time and energy to both Of them. I have learned to set schedules for myself and set aside time that will only be for schoolwork. Throughout the day I have work, school, and family responsibilities.Setting schedules for your day really does help you accomplish everything you need to. When get up immediately head to the computer and log into my classes, there I check in for attendance and see what I need to accomplish for the day. I go to work, and when home tend to my family and then back to the computer to complete assignments or participate in discussions. I found that I wasted time in front of the TV and was able to find more time for studies when I eliminated frivolities. The best thing to do is prioritize my time and activities and I will be successful. Now lets move onto developing reading comprehension and retention.A valuable process I learned was how to use the USSR (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review). When applying this process to my studies I found that retained information better. Surveying is your pre-reading or scanning for the basics of information that you will need. Questioning is compiling questions related to the topics you just surveyed. You are then ready to Read. The Recite step is repeating information written or out loud to let the information sink in. Next is to Review your notes or highlights (Carter, Bishop, Gravitas, 2007). This process can be beneficial to anyone for reading comprehension and I highly recommend it.The final step is applying personality and learning styles to my studies. Through assignments I discovered that my strongest learning style and intelligence is Verbal-Linguistic, which according to the text is the ability to communicate through language (listening, reading, writing, speaking) (Carter, Bishop, Gravitas, 2007). Feel this learning style is perfect for distance learning environments because can process what I read and write easily and successfully. My weakest intelligence was Naturalistic and decided to study he environment and nature more in order to develop this.

How to Do a Sedimentation Test on Soil

How to Do a Sedimentation Test on Soil For studying sediments, or the sedimentary rocks made of them, geologists are very serious about their lab methods. But with a little care, you can get consistent, fairly accurate results at home for certain purposes. One very basic test is determining the mix of particle sizes in a sediment, whether thats soil, the sediment in a streambed, the grains of sandstone or a batch of material from a landscape supplier. Equipment All you really need is a quart-sized jar and a ruler with millimeters. First, make sure you can measure the height of the jars contents accurately. That might take a little ingenuity, like putting a piece of cardboard underneath the ruler so that the zero mark lines up with the floor inside the jar. (A pad of small sticky notes makes a perfect shim because you can peel off exactly enough sheets to make it precise.) Fill the jar mostly full of water and mix in a pinch of dishwasher detergent (not ordinary soap). Then youre ready to test sediment. Use no more than a half-cup of sediment for your test. Avoid sampling plant matter on the ground surface. Pull out any large pieces of plants, insects, and so on. Break up any clods with your fingers. Use a mortar and pestle, gently, if you have to. If there are only a few grains of gravel, dont worry about it. If theres a lot of gravel, remove it by straining the sediment through a coarse kitchen sieve. Ideally, you want a sieve that will pass anything smaller than 2 millimeters. Particle Sizes Sediment particles are classified as gravel if theyre larger than 2 millimeters, and if theyre between 1/16th and 2 mm, silt if theyre between 1/16th and 1/256th mm, and clay if theyre even smaller. (Heres the official grain size scale used by geologists.) This home test doesnt measure the sediment grains directly. Instead, it relies on Stokes Law, which accurately describes the speed at which particles of different sizes fall in the water. Big grains sink faster than small ones, and clay-size grains sink very slowly indeed. Testing Clean Sediments Clean sediment, like beach sand or desert soil or ballfield dirt, contains little or no organic matter. If you have this kind of material, testing is straightforward. Dump the sediment into the jar of water. The detergent in the water keeps the clay particles separate, in effect washing the dirt off the larger grains and making your measurements more accurate. Sand settles in less than a minute, silt in less than an hour and clay in a day. At that point, ​you can measure the thickness of each layer to estimate the proportions of the three fractions. Heres the most efficient way to do it. Shake the jar of water and sediment thoroughly- a full minute is plenty- set it down and leave it for 24 hours. Then measure the height of the sediment, which includes everything: sand, silt, and clay.Shake the jar again and set it down. After 40 seconds, measure the height of the sediment. This is the sand fraction.Leave the jar alone. After 30 minutes, measure the height of the sediment again. This is the sand-plus-silt fraction.With these three measurements, you have all the information needed to calculate the three fractions of your sediment. Testing Soils Soils differ from clean sediments in that they have organic matter (humus). Add a tablespoon or so of baking soda to the water. That helps this organic matter rise to the top, where you can scoop it out and measure it separately. (It usually amounts to a few percent of the total volume of the sample.) Whats left is clean sediment, which you can measure as described above. At the end, your measurements will let you calculate four fractions- organic matter, sand, silt, and clay. The three sediment size fractions will tell you what to call your soil, and the organic fraction is a sign of the soils fertility. Interpreting the Results There are several ways to interpret the percentages of sand, silt, and clay in a sediment sample. Probably the most useful for everyday life is characterizing a soil. Loam is generally the best kind of soil, consisting of an equal amount of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller amount of clay. The variations from that ideal loam are classified as sandy, silty or clayey loam. The numerical boundaries between those soil classes  and more  are shown on the USDA soil classification diagram. Geologists use other systems for their purposes, whether its surveying the mud on the seafloor or testing the ground of a construction site. Other professionals, like farm agents and groundskeepers, also use these systems. The two most commonly used in the literature are the Shepard classification and the Folk classification. Professionals use strict procedures and a range of equipment to measure sediment. Get a taste of the complexities in the U.S. Geological Survey:  Open-File Report 00-358.

The evolution and behavior of a primate species Essay

The evolution and behavior of a primate species - Essay Example A key factor to this argument is that primates relied on sight over smell. They were able to develop a keen sense of depth perception, perhaps because of the constant leaping that was necessary to move about the trees. Their initial adaptation to life in trees set the stage for the subsequent appearance of other primate models ("Paleoanthropology/Primates/Humans"). By "arboreal", we refer to the arboreal theory proposed by Le Gros Clark, claiming that primates evolved from their ancestors by adapting to arboreal life. Primates are thought to have developed several of their traits and habits initially while residing in trees. A key factor to this argument is that primates relied on sight over smell. They were able to develop a keen sense of depth perception, perhaps because of the constant leaping that was necessary to move about the trees. The development of the hands and feet in Primates, which made them capable of grasping, was also believed to be a result of arboreal life, which r equired a great deal of crawling along branches, and reaching out for food, usually fruits ("Arboreal theory").Considered as generalist mammals (species that are able to adapt well in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make the most of a variety of different resources), primates show a wide range of characteristics. Some primates, including humans and baboons, do not live primarily in trees, but all species possess adaptations for climbing trees and the like. The evolution of primates started with the Plesiadapis going back to at least 65 mya. From that time until today, there is a vast difference in the species. In all aspects - behavioral, physical, and cognitive - the primate species have definitely transformed to adapt to its environment. Just as the gist of Charles Darwin's theory on evolution states, it is the survival of the fittest (Darwin). The species, then, transformed because of its need to survive. In the cognitive aspect, the primate's intelligence developed due to reasons that would ensure its survival. Just as apes realized the importance of arboreal locomotion, soon after, some of them have developed the skill in tool-making, and would use them to acquire food and for social displays, especially observed with chimpanzees (Byrne 559). Chimpanzees are also observed to use objects as tools to solve new and novel problems ("Paleoanthropology/Primates/Humans"). By the development of their cognitive element, the physical aspect is too, affected. Primates are particularly large-brained compared to other species, and with the growing cognition, the brain too grows in size. The physical evolution of the primate species, wherein evidences are most apparent in skulls unearthed from the different periods, is very much connected to their behavioral evolution. Also, the bones in the primate's body changed through the different eras. With the increasing intelligence of the primate species , it is then the behavior that changes and transforms. This is then the evolvement of the primates' social behavior. Behavior of primates, in relation to social systems, Richard Wrangham stated that non-human primates' social systems are best classified by the amount of movement by females occurring between groups. He proposed four categories: (1) Female transfer system. It is in this category that the females move away from a group in which they were born. The females in a group are not closely related, whereas the males usually remain with their natal