Kinda Like You're Studying

Not good enough handwriting for an aesthetic studyblr // MUN // AP Tests // Book Recs // Helpful Hints

[kinda-like-studying]

Why you should do MUN:

1) You will learn so much, including current events, geography, and how to research and make arguments

2) You will meet ton of people from other schools. You are able to work with and interact with people from all around, and you will continue to see them at other conferences

3) You can do crisis committees, which is basically RPing and you can nuke people or invade their country.

4) You can insult/ argue with formally debate people for hours on end and nobody gets offended. 

[determinationandcaffeine]

😘Hope you're doing well! Any tips on how to wind down from summer? I haven't really done anything most of my summer, and with school around the corner, it's hard to get my mindset off summer.

Hi! Here’s some stuff I would personally do to get ready for the new semester:

Get your sleeping schedule back on track - if you still have some time left until school starts, you can definitely take baby steps. Aim to go to bed 1 hour earlier every day until you hit a bedtime you’re happy with.

Get your school supplies

Go back-to-school shopping or look for inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram for some cute outfits!

If you already know what classes you’re gonna be taking (or, If you’re in college, you probably have an online overview of your classes or something like that), look for resources for those topics. Ask upper-classmen about whether you’ll need the textbook. Write any deadlines and exams you can find on your planner of choice. 

Make a schedule, either digitally or by hand, and write down all your classes and extracurriculars and even reserve some time each day for studying (you may need to tweak this later though).

Once you have those resources/textbooks mentioned above, maybe aim to do a little bit of studying every day so that you’ll be slightly familiar with the material and more used to studying. You can start out with five minutes of studying and increase that by 5 minutes every day.

If you haven’t worked out during the summer, plan out a workout routine that you can fit into your schedule and actually write it down on that super cute schedule you just made. Again, you should start this routine now, so that you won’t be shocked once school starts.

Look for some healthy and fast breakfast recipes and practice making them!

Clean your room and maybe even put up some motivational quotes or write down your goals for the semester (and even think of rewards for reaching those goals).

This may just be a personal thing but I tend to disregard my hair completely in summer so maybe get your roots or your highlights done if you dye your hair because you’ll feel a lot more ready for school.

This is all I can personally think of but here’s another post about back to school to get you pumped for the new semester! Best of luck xx

[succulentsandstudying]

First Day of School Tips

1.Pack your bag the night before and plan your outfit. This will make the morning a lot easier.

2.Check that you have all of the things you need for school at least two days before school so you have some time to buy anything you forgot or still need.

3.Know the layout of your school if you are going to a new one and where each classroom is. When I first entered middle school, I used a school map and wrote where i had each class and period so i could find my way around easier.

4.Sit in the front of the classroom if you have a choice. You’ll be able to see the board and be able to hear the teacher.

5.This one applies more to the first week of school, but be sure to thoroughly read any syllabi you are given and write any important tests or dates in a planner or calendar.

[kinda-like-studying]

6. Take a picture of your schedule when you get it so if you lose it you don’t have to ask for a new one.

7. If you are lost, ask for directions. Many schools have students in the halls the first couple days of school for that exact reason and it better to ask for directions than be late for class. 

8. Go to bed early the couple nights beforehand so you aren’t super tired even if you are nervous and/or don’t sleep much the night before your first day

9. Learn the names of your teachers as soon as you get your schedule so you don’t have to remember more on the first day of school

[kinda-like-studying]

School Shopping: Most Important Materials

Every person has a couple things that are key to how they get through the school year. For things that you use every day INVEST IN NICE MATERIALS.

Notebooks: I take all of my notes in journals to keep all the papers together and in chronological order. My favorite brand is Five Star. They have a big wire circle, and holes that can fit into a binder if you still want to use one. 

Pencils: Spend the extra dollar and buy Ticonderoga

A nice set of pens allows you to take notes in multiple colors and they will last you a couple years. 

A graphing calculator: Most schools require a TI-84 Plus, and it will last you a good time so get it as early as you can

[kinda-like-studying]

MUN Beginner Tip:

 Don’t repeat information

If you have nothing new to say, don’t say anything. It makes the dais annoyed and the committee bored if the same sentence gets repeated over and over without a new argument attached or data provided. If you don’t know what to say, bring up new questions, try to poke holes in the competing blocs ideas, or very quickly restate your opinion then yield your time.

[kinda-like-studying]

MUN Beginner Tip:

 Speak as much as possible

Speak early and often. You will then have considerably more people talking with you, coming to you with ideas, and looking to you to be a leader. It also serves to validate and promote your country’s stance

[kinda-like-studying]

MUN Beginner Tip:

In your first committee, know that everyone else is a beginner too

 If you are in a large committee (like the GA) or one that was specifically marketed as a beginner committee, then almost everyone around you is confused as you are. No matter how prepared, most people learn most of the procedure details and strategies during their first conference.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Watching: Environmental Science/ Current Events Related

Paris Agreement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Last Week Tonight is an in depth comedy show that tackles current events and how they affect people. This episode talks about the Paris Climate Accords, a UN agreement to limit the affects of climate change. Funny and hard hitting.

You can also watch other Last Week Tonight segments here. 

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Watching: Engineering/Space related

Apollo 13 (1995) starring Tom Hanks

This is a great movie showing the events that went down aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft after being damaged.

This Hollywood drama is based on the events of the Apollo 13 lunar mission, astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) find everything going according to plan after leaving Earth's orbit. However, when an oxygen tank explodes, and changes the plans. Subsequent tensions within the crew and numerous technical problems threaten both the astronauts' survival and their safe return to Earth.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Reading: Engineering/Science Related

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of those around him. His neighbors may have mocked him and called him misala—crazy—but William was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do. With nothing more than a fistful of cornmeal in his stomach, a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries that only two percent of Malawians could afford and what the West considers a necessity—electricity and running water. Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves, William forged a crude yet operable windmill, an unlikely contraption and small miracle that eventually powered four lights, complete with homemade switches and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. A second machine turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine that loomed with every season.

Also watch William Kamkwamba’s TedTalk

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Watching: Rocketry/Engineering Related

October Sky (1999) starring Jake Gyllenhaal

This is a fun movie about boys trying to create a rocket after they see Sputnik in the night sky.

John Hickam (Chris Cooper) is a West Virginia coal miner who loves his job and expects his sons, Jim (Scott Miles) and Homer (Jake Gyllenhaal), to follow in his footsteps. But Jim gets a football scholarship, and Homer becomes interested in rocket science after seeing Sputnik 1 crossing the sky. John disapproves of his son's new mania, but Homer begins building rockets with the help of friends and a sympathetic teacher (Laura Dern). Rocketry, he hopes, will prove his ticket to a better life.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Watching: Biology Related

Gattaca (1997) starring Ethan Hawke

             This sci-fi movie confronts and imagines the very real possibility that we could soon have designer babies, whose DNA is hand picked to be the best. It is interesting and aggressively ‘90s.

Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has always fantasized about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior "in-valid." He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a laboratory-engineered "valid." He assumes Jerome's DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman). An investigation into the death of a Gattaca officer (Gore Vidal) complicates Vincent's plans.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer books: European History and Science Related

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

For a non-fiction book, this story is well written and enticing. It is a niche story that you can always pull out to impress people later on, and it touches on big issues of the time, like exploration, scientific discovery, and astronomy.

Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. 

Dava’s other books are also very well written and interesting.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Books: US History Related

The Fifth of March by Ann Rinaldi

This is an interesting historical fiction book that lets you get a feel of the tensions during the time of the Revolutionary War and the Boston Massacre.          

Fourteen-year-old Rachel Marsh, an indentured servant in the Boston household of John and Abigail Adams, is caught up in the colonists' unrest that eventually escalates into the massacre of March 5, 1770.    

If you liked this book, check out Ann Rinaldi’s other books.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Reading: Biology Related

The Immortal Life on Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

             This book is a good read, with the story of the author’s journey to find the truth, mixed with the science behind immortal cells and cell lines, and with the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman whose cancer cells were taken for experimentation without her consent. The HeLa cells are the most widely used cell line in the world. It’s an interesting book, and knowing about it changes how you see the cells, early research techniques, and current opinions on the use of body tissues.

You can also watch the movie.

[kinda-like-studying]

Summer Reading: Science/Engineering Related

The Martian by Andy Weir

If you haven’t read the Martian yet, you definitely should. It is hilarious and creative, and more importantly, almost all of the science is possible.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark Watney finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.  But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

You can also watch the movie (though I think the book is better).