Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins You can also check nonfiction winners of the Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle Awards.

I also recommend this. I always take a quick look at the solution even if we get the right answer to make sure we didn't miss any important teaching points. Sometimes multiple approaches or additional teaching is woven into the solution.

For me, AP classes and AoPS math classes are honors. Nothing else they do really exceeds what would happen in a normal school class.

Wonderful news! So, is maritime archaeology like finding shipwrecks?

Success! I filled out the online form to return a product indicating that the binding was torn. They have provided a free shipping label to return this book. Then I ordered another copy of the book for rental. It arrived, and while the cover is a bit scuffed and there are very small tears in the cover, the pages are clean and it's otherwise in good condition. I'm using this box to return my other damaged book. Lesson learned: if your rental does not meet the "acceptable rental condition" standards indicated above, return it and try again.

My information is a few years old, but I also got the subscription from that co-op and it was a waste. The free videos on youtube are light years ahead in terms of creativity and effectiveness in delivering educational information. The stuff available on Discovery seemed stale and boring in comparison.

It looks like I ought to return my textbook and give it another try. From Amazon's Textbook Rental FAQ What does acceptable rental condition mean? Acceptable rental condition means: No water damage (wavy, swollen or discolored, crinkled, stains, rings), No broken spine or binding, Cover is not torn or taped, No missing, torn, or loose pages, No burns, fire, or smoke damage, No odor of any kind (including musty odor, cigar or cigarette odor), No excessive writing or highlighting.

I just received a rental textbook from Amazon: the very large and heavy Campbell's Biology. The pages are totally clean: no highlighting or other marks inside. However, there is a sizable tear at the top of the binding. I imagine someone was careless in carrying the book by the binding and the weight of the book caused it to tear. So I'm not sure if I should report the damage, ignore it since the pages are clean, return it an take a chance that a replacement book will have marks inside. WWYD? Thanks!

4% actually seems to high to me. I can't imagine how a person can afford to live in Los Altos or LAH and not be able to afford to make a sack lunch.

My dd has been doing some chemistry research this summer, and she wants to work with another student on applying to the Siemens competition this fall, and I am a complete newbie to science competitions. Can someone give me some bullet points on how this will play out for her and our family. Is it terribly time consuming? Lots of papers to write and presentations to practice? I had been thinking about having her coach a homeschooled MathCounts team this season, but I'm wondering now if that will be too much.

Do you happen to have a link to this video? I suspected that he was going to for quantity in his videos instead of quality. KA videos are far inferior to AoPS or Crash Course a whole bunch of YouTube educational videos, IMO.

I thought Khan was boring. I didn't like the black background with his squiggly lines; I felt he was not leveraging video to the greatest extent of its power. (Did I mention the black background and squiggly lines?) I had a hard time paying attention, and I prefer AoPS and using textbooks generally. But many people use Khan for homeschooling. I thought I was the odd one who didn't like Khan. I'm not generally opposed to videos, though I use them as a supplement. Crash Course and Bozeman (among many others) make good use of the visual medium to illustrate difficult concepts.

Segueing into semantics... I understood your meaning of the word "hook." I first heard the word in the context of music, as described in this Wikipedia article: A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". I suspect the definition was later extended to include essays: "An essay hook is the first one or two sentences of your essay. It serves as an introduction and works to grab the reader’s attention. The first couple sentences will help your reader decide whether they want to continue reading your essay or not." If the hook for an essay was a brief amusing anecdote about historical reenactments, that would get my attention because I know little about this activity. It isn't enough to get a student admitted to a school. I would expect in a personal statement something deeper, to help me understand the candidate. Later when the admissions committee meets to put the applications into the "accept", "waitlist", and "reject" piles I imagine one person at the table saying, "Okay, what do we think of historical reenactment guy?" Another example of a hook is the use of a trip to Costco to structure an essay. I imagine the adcom was referring to her as "Costco girl" in their committee meeting. (Admittedly, many on these boards did not care for the Costco theme.) I had never heard of the word hook to describes athletes or donors.

Having written the above, I have reconsidered a bit, and I would caution about making light and humor of military service. It's a fine line to take when many Americans are making such sacrifices. I'm not suggesting that humor in the context of military re-enactments is off limits, but you'll want to read the essay carefully to see how it might read.

I think this is a wonderful hook as you call it, and it will make for a great personal statement. It has an element of humor, but could also be a metaphor for some part of his real life. I imagine there are many aspects to historical re-enactments that an outsider to the activity would find amusing. Lead with that. Then draw the reader in to how his work may metaphorically represent a personal quality or struggle he has faced. I bet there are loads of good material here to work from! (I already want to read this unwritten essay, or at least learn more about this part of his life!)

I enjoyed reading the document as a story as well. The varied list of majors reinforced what I tell people about applying to medical school, in that you should study what you love. The name distribution was fairly hilarious.

I agree with the PP's suggestions, but will also add for your consideration Data Science with R. This coursera course looks interesting, though I don't have personal experience with this one. In addition to consulting a college advisor, I would just direct your ds to different textbooks or course descriptions and see what he wants to study. Most students don't get past calculus in high school, so I would advise he should pursue his interest.

Big congratulations from me too. I enjoyed hearing your stories, and I plan to read Countdown soon. Thank you for the recommendation, Kathy!

That is interesting! I suppose that there are just so many competitors that this cursory pass grading speeds things up and is an accurate assessment for most teams. The documentary I referred to earlier, I believe it was Hard Problems, vaguely alluded to this, but it wasn't made clear. (I wonder now if the movie makers even understood what was going on.) Thank you for sharing!

Wait, what? Auckland...New Zealand? More expensive than San Francisco, New York, or London? LOTR really did a number on you, didn't it? Also, these well-endowed name schools attract a lot of applicants from overseas, and I bet a lot of them can afford to have 1 or 2 on their admissions committees who specialize in overseas applicants. Nonetheless, I agree you should call the school, and perhaps even ask to speak with their guy in charge of overseas applicants, if they have one.

We like the Holt text.

Kiwis speak English don't they? (jk, I know they do.) He's an IMO qualifier. He doesn't need a hugely strong English score on his SAT or ACT. Just enough to prove that he can read and write reasonably well in English. Top math students in the world don't need to also have stellar English scores, but they do need to be reasonably good. This shouldn't be a problem for him. It's okay to be pointy.

I saw a documentary about the IMO a few years ago, but your account is way more interesting!

I'm relieved to hear it isn't cancer. I hope you get a diagnosis soon and get started with treatment asap. Your dh sounds like a gem.

Thank you for these inside stories, and keep posting! :001_smile: