The BxSci Guide:

A How-to for Incoming 9th Graders 

Organization is also a critical component of success in high school. This includes keeping track of due dates and assignments, as well as having a system for storing and accessing your notes and study materials. Staying organized can help you stay on top of your workload, reduce stress, and improve your overall academic performance. Getting and staying organized is key to success in high school and beyond. Here are some tips to help you get and stay organized:

• Use a planner or calendar: Keep track of your assignments, due dates, and appointments in a planner or on a calendar. This will help you stay on top of your work and avoid missing deadlines.
• Prioritize tasks: Make a to-do list and prioritize your tasks based on importance and deadline. Focus on completing the most important tasks first.
• Keep a clean and organized workspace: A cluttered workspace can be a source of stress and distraction. Keep your desk clean, organized, and free of distractions.
• Store materials in a consistent and accessible manner: Keep your books, papers, and materials in a consistent and accessible location. This will make it easier for you to find what you need when you need it.
• Review and update regularly: Regularly review and update your planner, to-do list, and materials to ensure that you are staying on top of your work.

By following these tips, you can get and stay organized, improving your ability to manage your time, complete your work, and achieve your goals. So, be sure to prioritize organization and stay organized!

To succeed in high school, it is crucial to participate actively in class. This means paying attention to the teacher, asking questions, and contributing to discussions. Participating in class helps you understand the material better and shows your teachers that you are invested in your education. It also helps you build important communication and teamwork skills that will be useful in your future academic and professional endeavors.

Make it a practice to raise your hand in each class at least once per day. Remember that there are no silly questions. If you have a question, the chances are very good that someone else, or even several other students, have the same question. You benefit everyone by asking it.

Group work is an essential component of many high school classes, and it's important to develop effective skills for working with others. Here are some tips for successful group work:

• Communication: Good communication is key to a successful group project. Make sure everyone is on the same page, and establish clear roles and responsibilities for each member.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with your group members to share ideas, divide tasks, and provide support and feedback to each other.
• Time management: Set deadlines and prioritize tasks to ensure that the project is completed on time.
• Responsibility: Take responsibility for your part of the project and make sure to follow through on your commitments.
• Flexibility: Be open to different ideas and approaches, and be willing to make compromises for the good of the group.

By following these tips, you can develop valuable skills for working with others and create a successful group project. Additionally, group work can provide an opportunity to learn from others, gain new perspectives, and form lasting friendships. So, be sure to make the most of your group work experiences!

Projects are an important part of many high school classes and provide an opportunity to apply what you have learned to real-world scenarios. Here are some tips for successfully completing projects:

• Plan ahead: Start your project as soon as possible, giving yourself enough time to complete each step and make any necessary revisions.
• Research thoroughly: Gather information from reliable sources and make sure you understand the subject matter before starting the project.
• Stay organized: Keep track of your notes, sources, and progress. Use a notebook or file to keep all your project materials together.
• Work in a team: If you are working in a group, divide tasks and responsibilities, and make sure everyone is aware of the deadline.
• Ask for help: If you're having trouble with a particular aspect of the project, don't hesitate to ask your teacher or classmates for help.
• Pay attention to details: Double-check your work for accuracy and pay close attention to details, such as spelling and grammar.

By following these tips, you can create a successful project that showcases your knowledge and skills. Additionally, projects can help you develop critical thinking, research, and problem-solving skills that will be valuable in your future academic and professional endeavors. So be sure to take advantage of project opportunities and do your best!

Asking for help is a critical part of your educational journey and can greatly enhance your learning experience. Here's why it's important to ask for help and how to do so effectively:

Why it's important:

• Improves understanding: When you ask for help, you have the opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings and gain a deeper understanding of the material.
• Builds relationships: Asking for help demonstrates your interest in the subject and can help you build stronger relationships with your teachers, classmates, and tutors.
• Increases confidence: When you receive help, you can build confidence in your abilities and increase your motivation to learn.

How to ask for help effectively:

• Be specific: Clearly state what you need help with and what you hope to accomplish by asking for help.
• Be proactive: Don't wait until the last minute to ask for help. The earlier you reach out, the more time you'll have to receive guidance and work through any challenges.
• Be polite: Ask for help in a respectful manner, showing appreciation for the time and expertise of the person you're asking.
• Be open-minded: Be open to different perspectives and approaches. The person helping you may have a different approach that can help you understand the material in a new way.
• Follow up: After receiving help, take the time to review the material and practice what you've learned. This will help reinforce your understanding and increase your confidence.

By asking for help when needed, you can improve your understanding, build relationships, and increase your confidence. So, don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help when needed!

Feedback is an important tool for growth and development, both in and outside of the classroom. Here's why using feedback is crucial for your success:

• Improves performance: Feedback can help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your work, allowing you to focus your efforts on areas where you need improvement.
• Facilitates learning: Feedback can provide guidance and direction for your learning, helping you to understand what you need to work on and how to improve.
• Increases motivation: Feedback can be a source of motivation, helping you to set goals and work towards improvement.
• Develops critical thinking: Feedback helps you to evaluate your own work and consider alternative perspectives, developing critical thinking skills that will serve you well in your future academic and professional endeavors.
• Builds relationships: Feedback is a two-way conversation, providing an opportunity to build relationships with your teachers, classmates, and peers.

To effectively use feedback, it's important to approach it with an open mind, actively seek it out, and act on it. Take the time to reflect on the feedback you receive, identify areas for improvement, and create a plan for how you will apply the feedback to your work. This will help you to get the most out of the feedback you receive and continue to grow and develop as a student. So, be sure to take advantage of feedback and use it to your advantage!

The following guidelines to improving studying may seem counterintuitive - they may not ‘feel’ right - but they are based on hard research. The research indicates that these techniques can lead to substantial improvements in learning. They are based on Make it Stick, by Peter Brown.

How does learning take place?

Learning - Three Steps

1. Encoding information in short term memory
2. Consolidation reorganizes, stabilizes, connects to prior knowledge
3. Retrieval updates learning and enables you to apply it in various circumstances

Learning always connects to prior knowledge.

Start with some common misconceptions about studying/learning:

Misconceptions

• Repetition leads to learning. In fact, all it leads to is short-term remembering.
• Rereading soon after helps you remember. In fact, all rereading does is repeat what you have already done. You will forget just as quickly as you did the first time.
• Massed practice - doing the same thing over and over and feeling like you really have it - leads to long term retention of the knowledge/skill. In fact, the brain can only handle so much information at one time, so while massed practice feels like it is making a difference, it is a short term gain only.
• Cramming is an effective study method. In fact, you will quickly forget what you get through cramming because it is only entering your short-term memory.
• Learning using your preferred learning style makes it easier to learn. In fact, the research does not support this. We can all learn equally well regardless of the style.

Let’s look at some general principles:

General Principles

• Learning is stronger when it matters; when the abstract is made concrete and personal.
• Knowledge is more durable if you have firmly and thoroughly comprehended a concept, it has practical or emotional weight in your life, and it is connected with other knowledge.
• Mastery comes from a gradual accretion of knowledge, conceptual understanding, judgment and skill.
• Performing a task in different ways leads to better mastery.

Let’s look at one specific example:

Example

If you want to practice basketball layups, there are two approaches.

1. Practice 50 layups, 25 on the right and 25 on the left. After that, you will feel like you’ve nailed layups.
2. Practice layups randomly, from different starting positions, 50 times. You will feel like layups are still a challenge.

However, #2 will yield better results. It forces you to apply what you are learning to different circumstances, and when you have to make a layup for real you will be better prepared for whatever circumstance you encounter.

Retrieval

• The act of retrieving knowledge from the memory has the effect of making that knowledge easier to call up again in the future.
• Trying to recall information - self-testing - is more effective than rereading the same information.
• Spaced retrieval practice leads to better retention than massed practice.

Retrieval - the greater the cognitive load, the bigger the impact

• Write down 10 things you now know that you didn’t before
• Short answer
• T/F (not as effective)
• Multiple choice (not as effective)

Periodic retrieval practice with some difficulty strengthens connections. The more effort involved in retrieving some knowledge from memory, the better you learn it. Varying the circumstances of retrieval increases our flexibility in applying the learning. Retrieval practice at different times, in different places and contexts and that interleaves different material and processes creates new associations and builds interconnected networks of knowledge, and increases the cues for retrieving it and the versatility to apply it. How big an interval in spaced practice? Big enough that a bit of forgetting has set in, so that it leads to more effort in practice; not so much that you have to relearn the material. Repeated use of the information keeps it fresh.

• Interleaved practice - switching up what you are practicing - is better than clustered practice (though clustered may produce better short-term results).
• Varied practice - where you practice different related problems - is better than focused. If you perform a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row.

Spaced practice is better than massed practice. The brain needs time to process and move to long-term memory.

Reflection and Visualization

• Reflection, such as writing about a concept and restating it in your own words, leads to better retention and understanding.
• Visualizing and finding metaphors helps consolidate understanding. 

Strategies

• Ask yourself questions while studying;
• Explain a concept in your own words;
• Explain/teach it to someone else;
• Quiz yourself frequently as you are learning;
• Relate what you are learning to what you already know;
• Reflect through writing; ask yourself: What did I just read? What is it about? What does it mean? What is important;
• Do the reading before class (before the teacher talks about it);
• Think about what questions are likely to be asked on the test;
• Make your own study guide;
• Wrestle with a problem before looking at the solution;
• Practice free recall (sit with a blank piece of paper and just write down everything you remember).

Focus

• Close out your email during your sessions. Silence your phone and turn off your notifications. Multitasking slows down your learning and inhibits your brain from performing at its highest function.
• Focus first on the most important 20 percent of what you’re trying to learn, which will actually cover 80 percent of what you need to know.

Time Spent

• Anything less than 30 minutes is not enough, but anything more than 50 is too much information for your brain to take in at one time. To put this into practice, make sure you’re scheduling your learning sessions for short bursts of time, using quick methods like flashcards.
• Schedule at least a 10-minute break between sessions to give your brain some much-needed rest.

Ways to Focus when your Mind Wanders

• Add a deliberate distraction.
• Play music without lyrics.
• Pause occasionally to think about something else.
• Have a cup of coffee or tea, or a piece of dark chocolate. Provides a caffeine boost.
• Take a minute to doodle something simple, such as shapes or patterns.
• Count slowly as you breathe: Take a slow deep inhale; exhale and count slowly to ten.
• Press the space between your second and third knuckle on your index and middle fingers. An acupressure site that creates a sense of calm
• Notice when your mind wanders and lead it back to the task at hand.
• “My mind has wandered off again,” will help you get back on track.
• Pay attention to what triggers the wandering and you will be able to catch it sooner
• Chew gum, especially spearmint.