Dear Readers, you might remember that I’m doing an Open Degree with the Open University, which is mainly focussed on environmental science and biology (though goodness knows there are lots of other exciting courses as well – Death and Dying, anyone? Or Art History? Or Sustainable Development? Anyway, this year I am doing two 30 credit courses – Cell Biology and ‘The Biology of Survival’ which is largely ecology. So, I’ll be looking at the teeny tiny things that make up the bodies of all living things, and the much wider picture of how organisms fit together.
For my cell biology course I actually have course books! I do love a good course book, there’s something about underlining passages and writing notes that helps consolidate things in a way that doing stuff on a screen just doesn’t seem to do.
It’s going to be hard work, as usual, but it does help to keep the brain active, and I love to learn things. I am a thwarted mad scientist, so this course is pretty much idea. And I particularly love the idea of challenging cells in part three of the curriculum. Does this mean that they are belligerent little devils, ready to slap the unexpecting biologist upside the head? Alas, I fear that it just means that they are structurally and operationally difficult to understand. Still, I am up for the challenge! Wish me luck….
Best of luck to my favourite mad scientist.
Happy to wish you luck – and, as another woulda coulda shoulda mad scientist, would love to read the course book afterwards!
I’ve gone the Future Learn , BAFTA and other assorted routes nearly all as freebees and enjoyed them or bowed out when they annoyed me. I do occasionally pay for seminars if they come with unlimited access to the videos afterwards.
There is some excellent material on citizen scientists at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/weobserve-the-earth.
I also thoroughly recommend following http://niche-canada.org/ which I first got to know through https://activehistory.ca/
Thanks Liz! I don’t think I’d have the discipline to do some of this stuff if I didn’t have the structure of assignments etc, but it is very interesting to dip in and out of these things….
Keep us informed! BTW I am taking a course in modular synthesizers, a topic completely out of my depth, although I used one more than forty years ago during my first grad school days. It is building brain cells for sure!
We need all the brain cells we can muster, Michael! Keep up the good work!