Thought I’d share my experience with Straighterline Chemistry I w/ Lab. I took it during the trial offer. For those of you who have taken SL courses before, this will be very familiar to you.
The graded portion of the course is made up of 16 exams, 6 lab exams, and a comprehensive midterm and final. Course materials are the textbook and lab kit.
You can work at your own pace through the topics (units) and within each there is a reading assignment from the text (usually 1-2 chapters), a tutorial, some quizzes & games, and an exam. The tutorials don’t cover everything in the exams, so be sure to study the text before testing. For each section, SL suggests working through some practice questions from the text, and they are more on par with what’s in the exams. All the exams are all timed, multiple-choice format. There is less time per question for the midterm and final, so preparation for those is particularly important. I also sought additional resources for a good chunk of the course, mostly from websites like CHEMTUTOR.com. The textbook covers everything, but I found it to be kind of dry at times. You can connect with SMARTHINKING tutors through SL, but I didn’t use that service.
There is no math prerequisite, but you will need to make sure your college math skills are up to par since equations are a necessary for nearly every topic. My math is rusty, but I managed to get by with a quick review. I’d say about 1/2 - 2/3 of the work is learning the concepts, and the rest is doing the corresponding calculations, and exam questions will require you to know how to do them.
I ordered the lab kit from eScience Labs. SL provided a checklist as part of the first lab exercise (you’ll also get an invoice from eScience). My kit was slightly different than what SL’s checklist called for, but the discrepancies didn’t matter for the labs that were assigned. Everything needed was included, like solutions, the test tubes, flasks, safety goggles, gloves, etc.
Each lab unit has a tutorial, instructions for the experiment, a PDF worksheet, and an exam. In addition, I was required to upload pictures of the experiments in progress. I read through the tutorial, performed the experiments, then completed the worksheet using the data I gathered. The lab exams were timed, and covered the concept the lab was based on, but very rarely asked experiment-specific questions.
I was a little disappointed with the experiments. The materials in the kits are largely comprised of items you can buy at the grocery store, and the experiments were akin to the kind I did in middle school. I realize these are designed to minimize potential hazards, but I think they could have created some more interesting experiments (even with household items). If the lab component is something you really want to explore, I would recommend taking a b&m class, or finding a more in-depth home lab option. The only other issues I noticed were technical (some wrong links), but I think they corrected them.
Overall, I thought the course was a success. I probably would have spent more time with it, but the trial offer stipulated that I complete the course within 45 days. I would feel confident taking general chemistry II now, which was the goal. Hope this is helpful. ☺
The graded portion of the course is made up of 16 exams, 6 lab exams, and a comprehensive midterm and final. Course materials are the textbook and lab kit.
You can work at your own pace through the topics (units) and within each there is a reading assignment from the text (usually 1-2 chapters), a tutorial, some quizzes & games, and an exam. The tutorials don’t cover everything in the exams, so be sure to study the text before testing. For each section, SL suggests working through some practice questions from the text, and they are more on par with what’s in the exams. All the exams are all timed, multiple-choice format. There is less time per question for the midterm and final, so preparation for those is particularly important. I also sought additional resources for a good chunk of the course, mostly from websites like CHEMTUTOR.com. The textbook covers everything, but I found it to be kind of dry at times. You can connect with SMARTHINKING tutors through SL, but I didn’t use that service.
There is no math prerequisite, but you will need to make sure your college math skills are up to par since equations are a necessary for nearly every topic. My math is rusty, but I managed to get by with a quick review. I’d say about 1/2 - 2/3 of the work is learning the concepts, and the rest is doing the corresponding calculations, and exam questions will require you to know how to do them.
I ordered the lab kit from eScience Labs. SL provided a checklist as part of the first lab exercise (you’ll also get an invoice from eScience). My kit was slightly different than what SL’s checklist called for, but the discrepancies didn’t matter for the labs that were assigned. Everything needed was included, like solutions, the test tubes, flasks, safety goggles, gloves, etc.
Each lab unit has a tutorial, instructions for the experiment, a PDF worksheet, and an exam. In addition, I was required to upload pictures of the experiments in progress. I read through the tutorial, performed the experiments, then completed the worksheet using the data I gathered. The lab exams were timed, and covered the concept the lab was based on, but very rarely asked experiment-specific questions.
I was a little disappointed with the experiments. The materials in the kits are largely comprised of items you can buy at the grocery store, and the experiments were akin to the kind I did in middle school. I realize these are designed to minimize potential hazards, but I think they could have created some more interesting experiments (even with household items). If the lab component is something you really want to explore, I would recommend taking a b&m class, or finding a more in-depth home lab option. The only other issues I noticed were technical (some wrong links), but I think they corrected them.
Overall, I thought the course was a success. I probably would have spent more time with it, but the trial offer stipulated that I complete the course within 45 days. I would feel confident taking general chemistry II now, which was the goal. Hope this is helpful. ☺
[SIZE="2"][COLOR="DarkBlue"]B.S., Biology, Excelsior College
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