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Introduction

Humans incessantly explore, experiment, create, and examine the world. The active process by which physical, biological, and social phenomena are studied is known as science. Individuals involved in science, called scientists, often spend their entire lives in pursuit of answers to probing questions. This ongoing process often leads to new areas of scientific inquiry.

Although many areas of scientific inquiry are interrelated, specific scientific disciplines, or divisions, have been established. The sciences can be broadly divided into two main areas: the natural sciences and the social sciences. The natural sciences comprise the physical sciences, Earth and space sciences, and life sciences; the social sciences encompass disciplines that deal with social and cultural aspects of human behavior, such as economics, sociology, and psychology.

Some scientists are driven by little more than the desire to learn. They may study to gain knowledge for its own sake. These scientists are engaged in basic, or pure, science. Their projects may or may not have any relevance to everyday life. Scientists working in applied science, on the other hand, usually have a specific goal in mind. This goal may involve a product, process, business, or other human need. An applied scientist often uses information recently gathered by other scientists as well as the cumulative knowledge of the pure sciences.

The Significance of Science in Society

Science plays a major role in society, and even nonscientists can appreciate scientific progress. Because of science, human understanding of the past, present, and future is constantly in a state of flux. For instance, decades ago the notion of identifying the entire genetic code of an organism would have seemed an impossible feat. Today it is a mark of scientific progress. Because scientific inquiry never ceases to exist, events once dismissed as material for science fiction , such as medical therapy based on an individual’s genetic makeup, now seem inevitable.

Science technology can be found in nearly all aspects of everyday life. For instance, if electricity had never been discovered, electric appliances, heaters, and lights would not exist. Electronic components found in radios , television sets, laptop computers, and cellular telephones are now smaller and more reliable than before. Advances in electronics are responsible for what is called the digital age. Through computer technology, information can be processed and communicated globally in seconds.

At one time, computers were extremely expensive. They were rarely found outside of laboratories and large businesses. Since their manufacture is now economical, computers and computer-based devices have become very common. Computers are used not only in offices for all kinds of essential business functions and in schools and universities for study and research; they are also used in the home for communication, entertainment, and many other purposes. Many people carry portable computer-based cellular telephones. Computers help operate many processes and systems crucial to modern life, including electric power grids, communication networks, financial markets, and air-traffic control facilities. ( See also microprocessor .)

In physics, the discovery and control of nuclear energy has had a tremendous effect on international relations and on the economies of many countries—in terms of the production of nuclear weapons as well as the use of nuclear energy for generating electricity for homes, businesses, and factories. Physicists once thought of the atom as the elementary building block of matter. Using particle accelerators, they later determined that the nuclei of atoms themselves are composed of many types of elementary particles that are held together by strong, short-range forces. ( See also atomic particles .)

Physicists also have invented sophisticated lasers that produce concentrated beams of light. Lasers are used in medicine, industry, communications, navigation, and in the military. Scientists working in the area of physical chemistry have produced materials called superconductors, which theoretically can carry an electric current forever without electric power input. The first known superconductors operated only at very cold temperatures, but new classes of superconducting materials have been discovered that operate at warmer though still very cold temperatures. Superconductors are used in a variety of applications that require powerful electromagnets, including particle accelerators, imaging devices, and laboratory equipment ( see cryogenics ).

The battle against disease and illness has also gained much from science. Safer surgical procedures are now in use, including those for organ transplantation and coronary bypass surgery. Many procedures have been improved because of the development of specialized medical instruments. Some instruments enable physicians to see inside the body without making a single incision. Others can carry out essential bodily functions, such as pumping blood or breathing. Medical research has led to the development of vaccinations and pharmaceutical drugs to prevent or treat many life-threatening diseases and disorders. A new focus of research is to seek a better understanding of stem cells for potential medical applications.

Some scientific and technological advances have the potential to alter the environment significantly. The release of certain synthetic chemical compounds into the air can cause undesirable atmospheric changes, such as the destruction of the ozone layer . Damage to the ozone layer would allow increased amounts of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun to penetrate the atmosphere and cause a large increase in the rate of skin cancer. The burning of fossil fuels releases into the atmosphere large amounts of carbon dioxide , which has the effect of trapping the Sun’s heat—the greenhouse effect . With an ongoing increase in the global average temperature of the atmosphere, it is feared that climates in many regions of the world will change and that ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic will melt. The melting ice would lead to a higher sea level and cause flooding in coastal areas. In order to gain further information about these potentially dangerous developments, scientists monitor the ozone layer and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and they study the complex interaction of solar radiation, the atmosphere, and Earth’s surface. ( See also global warming .)

Another mark of scientific advancement is the improved understanding of the world’s limited supply of petroleum. Concern about the world’s future energy needs have resulted in the study of alternative energy resources, which include solar energy, nuclear energy, wind energy, wave energy, and energy from Earth’s own internal heat.

The Scientific Method

Scientifically minded people generally believe in cause-and-effect relationships. They feel there is a perfectly natural explanation for most things. For example, there is a reason why milk sours and why some leaves turn red in the fall, while others turn yellow. Changes such as these, which are easily observed, are known as phenomena. Some common phenomena are not completely understood. Still others cannot be explained at all at this time. The belief that effects have causes plays a significant part in scientific inquiry. The cause of AIDS , for example, was once unknown. Nevertheless, scientists firmly believed that a cause existed. Once they discovered that AIDS was caused by a virus , scientists could search for a remedy such as a vaccine . If everyone believed that a disease just happened without a natural cause, no progress would be made in learning to control it.

Scientists spend tremendous amounts of time making observations and gathering information, or data. They may work individually or as part of a team to learn what they can about a specific problem or an unexplained phenomenon. Problems or questions of interest for investigation have a variety of sources. Sometimes they arise from curiosity following a chance observation. Awareness may also result from reading, from earlier laboratory experiments, from discussions with colleagues, from practical problems to be solved, or simply from thinking. Sometimes new information or discoveries require verifying previous investigations.

The formal model for a scientific investigation consists of a series of steps called the scientific method. According to this model, a scientist first identifies a question that can be investigated and then tries to learn as much as possible about it. Frequently this involves studying books and journals that contain information about the question, a procedure known as searching the literature. The scientist thinks of a possible answer or explanation (called a hypothesis) to the question under study and then designs an experiment to test the hypothesis. The results of the experiment are compared to the expected results, which will either suggest that the hypothesis is accurate or that it needs to be revised. Once the hypothesis is revised and retested as necessary, the scientist reports the results, and the hypothesis may gain the acceptance of other scientists.

Although scientific reports are often presented in terms of the scientific method, the way in which scientific inquiries proceed in practice is not fixed, and they may follow a variety of unexpected paths. Science is a process of discovery that involves testing ideas and communicating with others. It may yield knowledge, provide solutions to problems, or inform public policy. Testing ideas involves interpreting gathered data and observations. Sometimes experiments do not produce usable results but lead to new avenues of investigation.

Testing hypotheses is an important way for scientists to gather data to develop, support, or challenge scientific theories. A scientific theory is an explanation of an observation or a natural phenomenon and is based on and supported by a large body of evidence. Most scientific theories have been so well tested that they are generally accepted with confidence and are unlikely to be further tested. For example, the heliocentric theory explains that Earth revolves around the Sun. Although it was greatly challenged when first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus , this theory is well supported by evidence and unlikely to be challenged today. However, some theories, though widely accepted—such as the theory of evolution by natural selection—are occasionally challenged through new hypotheses and subsequent testing.

Philosophy of Science

Humans have always been curious about their surroundings. One of the most fundamental quests is the explanation of human origin and destiny. Perhaps this is where natural philosophy begins—in the search for the relationship between humans and the universe. All societies have tried to explain the origin of humans and their role in nature. These questions have been addressed by philosophers, religious scholars, and scientists alike.

Religion has had a tremendous influence on the discoveries and opinions of the scientific community. The Italian natural philosopher Galileo Galilei , for example, had tremendous difficulty convincing the Roman Catholic Church of the truth of his astronomical findings. His idea of a Sun-centered (heliocentric) solar system contradicted the Earth-centered (geocentric) model accepted by the church. He was put on trial for sharing his observations, and he spent parts of his life under close supervision because of his ideas. Another historic controversy centers on the age of Earth. Many religious traditions set Earth’s age at about 6,000 years. However, scientists believe Earth is much older—about 4.5 billion years old. In both examples science and religion have differed in the way they gather information about the world.

Throughout modern history, science and religion have often been portrayed as irreconcilable opponents, continually locked in a struggle over the meaning of truth. Scientists themselves are often characterized as fundamentally antireligious or atheistic. In 1916, a survey of 1,000 scientists and mathematicians in which they were questioned regarding their religious beliefs, revealed that roughly 40 percent of respondents believed in a God who communicated to humankind and to whom it was possible to pray “in expectation of receiving an answer.” Forty-five percent of the respondents stated that they did not believe in God as defined in the survey, and 15 percent answered that they were either agnostic or did not have a definite opinion on the question. In 1997, the same survey was conducted again, and the results nearly mirrored those of 81 years earlier. The only large variation in the 1997 results came from those who respondents who did not believe in a God as defined by the questionnaire—three percent more scientists felt this way in 1997. In both surveys, approximately 400 of the scientists who received the questionnaires in both studies did not respond. The results of the survey seemed to debunk the general caricatures of scientific intolerance for religion.

Like philosophy , science emphasizes the use of logic . In fact, science can be viewed as a scrutinizing system of logic. It seeks to answer questions by observing phenomena. As scientists try to solve a problem, they may use a model based on a logical, plausible connection of events. Like a hypothesis, the model is then tested by making predictions based on the model. If the predictions are proven wrong, then the model is revised. If the model survives the tests, the model becomes the system of logic that describes the theory. Theoretical models of this nature have been used to study economics, the structure of the atom, the universe, evolution, and even the origin of life.

Unlike philosophy, science emphasizes the repeatability of results. This means that a given set of circumstances should always produce the same result. Scientific theories are not accepted by the scientific community until the theory has been validated. One way to validate a theory is to have scientists in other laboratories duplicate the experiment or the calculations. Using another set of materials and methods, these scientists may repeat the experiment and check the accuracy of the previous report. This long and careful process will confirm that the original result was not merely a fluke occurrence, a misinterpretation of events, or an error in procedure.

By having several scientists investigate a situation, the most accurate description of cause and effect can be determined. Many of the most basic questions in science can be phrased in the form: “How does. . . ?”, “Why does. . . ?”, and “What determines. . . ?”. These are all attempts to establish cause and effect. A difficulty arises when many factors, or variables, affect the system at one time. A variable is something that has different values under different conditions. In one type of laboratory test all the variables but one are controlled. The uncontrolled variable is known as the experimental variable, and the others are the control variables. This method of testing is called controlled experimentation.

Fire—One of the Earliest Discoveries

Science was unknown for thousands of years before the dawn of recorded history. Nevertheless many significant discoveries and inventions were made during this prescience time. One of these discoveries was that fire could be harnessed and put to work.

While some animals have an instinctive fear of fire, humans somehow discovered that fire could be controlled and kept in one place. No one knows exactly when this discovery was first made. However, archaeologists have found that during the Ice Age humans used fire for cooking and to keep warm. Today this very same source of heat is used to produce steam for turbines.

Early Hunting Methods and Agriculture

Early humans also used fire to help hunt and kill animals for food. One method used, called the fire drive, enabled a few people to kill several animals without a great deal of work. First, animals had to be found grazing near a cliff during the summer when grass was dry. Then, when the wind was blowing in the right direction, a few hunters set fire to the dry grass with torches. The flames drove the animals over the cliff. By using fire in this way, early hunters had more to eat after a small amount of work than they would have had after a full week of hunting with a spear or club.

For a long time humans roamed across the land hunting wild animals for food. Eventually, doglike creatures were noticed to have an instinctive ability to detect game even when the hunters could not see it. These creatures often followed the hunters, and they were gradually trained to find game for the hunters to kill. Then dog and hunter would share the spoils of the hunt. In time humans realized that other wild animals could also be domesticated and kept for human use. They also found that they did not have to travel great distances to gather edible plants. Plants could be grown where they were needed. Soon humans began to raise crops.

Other Early Discoveries

Primitive methods of tanning leather and weaving were discovered by about 5000 bc . Humans also learned how to make clay pots in which to store things. Perhaps the accidental exposure of such a pot to a fire resulted in the first pottery . These clay pots could not be used for cooking, however, because clay, whether burned or not, is a poor conductor of heat. Instead, round stones were put in an open fire. When they were red hot, they were scooped up with a wooden or clay ladle and dumped into a pot of water. The stones would then heat the water and cook the food. This ancient method of cooking was still used in some areas until the beginning of the 20th century.

Another early invention was the wheel . The inspiration for the wheel may have come from using logs as rollers to move heavy objects. Whatever the origin, the wheel was readily adapted to a variety of uses. Placed horizontally, a wheel was an aid in making pottery, though its greatest value was its use on primitive carts for carrying heavy loads. Waterwheels were devised as tools for lifting water, and windmills became power sources.

One of the first metals put to use by early humans was copper . Like gold and silver , this metal is sometimes found in nature in pure form. Since it is so malleable, it can also be hammered into various shapes without first being heated. The discovery of how to heat ore and smelt metals was probably made by accident. A mixture of tin and copper yields bronze , which came to be widely used. ( See also metallurgy .)

Having learned that ores could be smelted, humans probably tried the process on many different substances. Often the work was wasted, but occasionally the result was useful. Glass was possibly discovered in this way.

Soon after the smelting of metals became common, metal money was probably invented. Pieces of money with a fixed value made trade and commerce possible. Copper was used for the least valuable pieces, silver for the more valuable coins, and gold for the most valuable.

The Beginning of Writing

Writing began in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt several thousand years before the start of the Common Era. Picture writing was probably the first method of setting down what people saw, heard, or felt. This was called pictographic writing. It was many centuries before any kind of alphabet was developed.

By the time writing began, all the above-mentioned discoveries and many more had been made. Their use, however, was not scientific. The tanner, for example, did not really know what happened chemically to a piece of animal skin that he converted into useful leather. His knowledge of the tanner’s art had simply been learned from his elders. He knew what to do but not why he did it. Glassmakers and those who smelted metals had no knowledge of the chemistry involved in the processes they used. This was true of artisans of all kinds. They were highly skilled at their crafts, but they had no idea of the scientific principles involved.

Writing made possible the beginning of science. It enabled humans to record what one generation of people had learned and to pass it on to the people of the next generation. There were no formalized sciences such as geography, zoology, or botany then. The ancients, however, did describe and list the names of places, animals, and plants.

The Beginnings of Science in Greece

The first sciences in the modern sense were those connected with mathematics . They were begun in Mesopotamia and in ancient Egypt and were passed on to ancient Greece .

The Greek philosopher Archimedes was a great mathematician and an important early writer on the science of mechanics. Mathematics and mechanics were put to practical use during the Golden Age of Greece, beginning about 600 bc . The knowledge of geometry was applied widely in Greek architecture. The knowledge of physics was used in building as well as in war. The lever made it possible to move huge stones for building. With the catapult soldiers were able to hurl heavy spears or large rocks at enemy fortifications.

Another science that the ancient Greeks developed was astronomy . They could foretell to the day when a given planet would be visible and even where it would appear in the heavens. This kind of science was what would be known today as the “astronomy of position.”

Theoretical science began when the Greeks started to ask serious questions about the world around them. They wanted to know what things were made of and where they came from. They wished not only to make and build things but to know how and why things were as they were. Asking these questions and getting the first answers—many of which were later proved wrong—laid the foundations of Western science. The Greeks passed their theories on to the Romans and the other people of Western Europe. For many centuries European science was based for the most part on the early theories of the Greeks.

The Roman Empire

The ancient Romans widened the range of practical science. Their road -building feats were not equaled until modern times. They made the first road maps, with distances between stations along their roads carefully measured in paces. They built great aqueducts to carry water over long distances.

The Dark Ages and the Middle Ages

The period from the end of the Roman Empire to about ad 800 is often called the Dark Ages. There was not much progress made in Europe during this period. The foundations were laid, however, for important advances that were to follow in the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance .

The stirrup was probably invented during the Dark Ages. Water wheels also made their first appearance then. They were used as sources of power in small rivers and in sea inlets, where they were run by tidal currents. The water wheel led to the windmill, which was introduced about 1100. The magnetic compass was also invented about this time.

Papermaking and Firearms

By the 13th century papermaking spread throughout Europe. Paper was a Chinese invention. It had been adopted by the Persians and then by the Arabs, who brought the art to Europe.

Powder (not gunpowder, because guns were not yet known) and fireworks rockets were introduced into Europe in the 1200s. They had been invented in China some years earlier.

The earliest mention of firearms is in a Dutch chronicle dated 1313. It states that firearms were invented in Germany. The first picture of a primitive cannon can be found in an English manuscript dated 1326. ( See also explosive .)

Gutenberg’s Contribution

In the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg developed a practical method of printing . The Chinese had invented movable type in the 11th century but made little use of it. Gutenberg’s printing method started a new era in the growth of science.

Before Gutenberg, a student might spend a whole year copying a book by hand. After Gutenberg, books were printed much more quickly. They were also available in large enough quantities for universities to expand their libraries for the increased use of both faculty and students.

It was due mainly to the existence of the printed book that the great scientists of the 16th century could work systematically. Books made both old and new knowledge readily available. Anybody who truly wanted to learn could now do so because books could be easily circulated from person to person.

In spite of the rather large number of books that were written and printed in the 16th century, most of the sciences remained in their earliest stage. This earliest stage is the collection of everything that is known in a certain field, then reviewing that material or commenting on it. It does not include an explanation of why things are the way they are.

Andreas Vesalius , for example, did pioneer work in anatomy . He named every bone, muscle, and most of the blood vessels in the body. He did not know, however, how the human body functioned. Zoologist Conrad Gesner listed all known animals, but he had no idea of the relationships of the various animals to one another. Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer) wrote about the mining of metals and the processing of ores, but he knew nothing about chemistry. Gunnery master Leonhart Fronsperger wrote a book on guns and shooting, but he knew nothing of ballistics.

The Breakthrough in Astronomy

In 1543 a historic book on astronomy was published. It was Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres , by Nicolaus Copernicus . For centuries the science of astronomy had been based on the Ptolemaic theory that Earth was the center of the universe and motionless. The problem was to explain how the other planets and heavenly bodies moved.

At first it was thought that they simply moved in circular orbits around Earth. Calculations based on this view, however, did not agree with actual observations. Then it was thought that the other planets traveled in small circular orbits. These in turn were believed to move along larger orbits around Earth. With this theory, however, it could not be proved that Earth was the center of the universe.

In his historic book Copernicus said that Earth should be regarded as one of the planets which revolved around the Sun. He also stated that Earth rotated on an axis. Copernicus, however, still clung to the ideas of planets traveling in small circular orbits which moved along larger orbits. Although it was revolutionary, Copernicus’ theory did not offer an adequate explanation of the movement of the planets. This explanation came more than a half century later.

Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler spent years trying to work out the orbit of the planet Mars by means of a small circle (epicycle) moving along a larger one around the Sun. No matter how he tried, it did not work. After six years of study he came to realize that the movement of Mars could be understood. To do this one had to assume that the planet moved along an elliptical (oval) orbit at a speed which varied according to the planet’s distance from the Sun.

With this new hypothesis, all of Kepler’s observations made sense. He then wrote down the following first two laws of planetary motion: (1) The path of every planet in motion around the Sun forms an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus. (2) The speed of a planet in its orbit varies so that a line joining it with the Sun sweeps over equal areas in equal times. The second law means that a planet moves faster when close to the Sun and more slowly when it is farther away. Later Kepler also set down a third law of planetary motion. It deals with the relationship between the distance of a planet from the Sun and the time a planet takes to complete one orbit.

Galileo’s Work with the Telescope

While Kepler was working out his laws of planetary motion, Galileo Galilei proved that Copernicus was right in stating that Earth moved on its axis. He did this using a telescope .

Galileo had heard that Hans Lippershey, a Dutch maker of eyeglasses, had invented a tube which made distant things look near. Although Galileo knew very little about this primitive telescope, he made one himself. Using it, he discovered that the planet Jupiter had moons (satellites). He also saw that the planet Venus passed through phases as does Earth’s Moon. This indicated that Venus moved around the Sun inside Earth’s orbit. He saw too that the Milky Way was made up of countless distant stars. Galileo’s observations led him to conclude that Copernicus had been right in at least part of his theories regarding astronomy .

Newton’s Discoveries

Kepler had been able to show how a planet moves. Later in the 17th century Sir Isaac Newton showed why it travels the way it does. Kepler wondered where the force to move a planet came from. Having found that the motion of the planet was faster near the Sun, he had speculated that the driving force might come from the Sun. Newton showed that there was such a force and that its strength was inversely proportional to the square of a planet’s distance from the Sun. In his book Principia , which appeared in 1687, Newton set forth three basic laws of motion and described the gravitational attraction between bodies. The laws of motion and gravitational attraction apply not only to the Sun and the planets but also to the motion of satellites in orbit and the flight of a rocket in the vacuum of space.

Electricity

While Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton were establishing astronomy as a science, material for other sciences was still just being accumulated. For example, Otto von Guericke of Magdeburg, Germany, invented a primitive way of making electricity . He took an ordinary grindstone and substituted a ball of sulfur for the stone. With one hand he cranked the ball. With the other he rubbed it. The friction created static electricity. Wax and amber balls were also used. Newton improved upon this method by substituting a glass ball for one of sulfur.

In 1729 Stephen Gray in England discovered that electricity could be conducted through metal rods. At this point the knowledge of electricity stopped growing because of some mistaken ideas about it.

The substances which could be used to produce electricity—sulfur, glass, wax, and amber—were called “electrics.” They could be used to produce electricity, but they would not conduct it. The metal conductors which Gray had discovered would conduct electricity, but they could not produce it.

It was now reasoned that a substance had to be an “electric” or a “conductor.” The proper distinction, of course, would have been “insulators” and “conductors,” and a conductor could be used to produce electricity if it was insulated.

Mathematics

Two very important mathematical developments took place during the 17th century. In 1614 John Napier invented logarithms. It had been possible to do long multiplication and division problems before the invention of logarithms. With logarithms, up to 90 percent of the time required for a given calculation could be saved.

Near the end of the 17th century, Newton in England and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in Germany were key figures in the development of calculus . Logarithms were mostly timesavers. Calculus is an important tool in solving a variety of complex problems commonly encountered in scientific fields.

The Steam Engine

The 18th century saw the development of a practical device as important and far-reaching in its results as had been the invention of movable type. This was the steam engine , a device as interesting for physics as it was useful for industry.

In order to understand the importance of the steam engine, it is necessary to understand an engineering term. The term is “firm power,” which means simply power when and where it is wanted. A large windmill can be quite powerful, but it provides force only if a wind happens to be blowing. A water wheel comes closer to supplying firm power, but there is little choice in its location.

The steam engine provided firm power. It could be built anywhere. The only problem might be the transportation of fuel to make it run.

Early Steam Engines

The earliest known form of steam engine was the machine built by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century ad . This device was called an aeolipile, and it worked on the same principle as a lawn sprinkler, using steam rather than water ( see jet propulsion ). In 1629 Giovanni Branca invented the steam turbine. It worked by blowing a jet of steam against a kind of modified water wheel. Neither of these machines was powerful enough to do any useful work.

The first useful steam engine was invented by Thomas Savery in 1698. It was known as a pumping engine because it had been invented for the specific purpose of pumping water from mine shafts. In this engine the hose, which was to suck up the water, led into a large container that had just been filled with steam. Then the steam valve was closed and a stream of cold water was run onto the metal container. The steam inside condensed. This produced a partial vacuum, and water was sucked into the container. The water was then drained from it.

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen produced an “atmospheric engine,” which had a piston connected to a large crossbeam. Steam was put into the cylinder to raise the piston. Next cold water was sprayed into the cylinder, condensing the steam. The pressure of the atmosphere then forced the piston down. The piston, in turn, pulled down one end of the beam. The other end of the beam moved up at the same time. The crossbeam was used to drive a pump.

About 1760 James Watt of Scotland was asked to repair one of these atmospheric engines. He decided that cooling the cylinder after each stroke of the piston resulted in a waste of fuel. He tried to make the steam do the work directly without any cooling of the cylinder. His efforts resulted in the creation of an improved version of the engine in 1765.

The Biological Sciences

Much of the progress in the biological sciences during the 18th century was due to the work of the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus . Linnaeus had observed that some plants were quite similar while others were not. He established ways and means of fixing and describing plant similarities. Gradually he constructed a botanical system of classification in which he grouped like species into a genus, genera into orders, and orders into classes.

Linnaeus constructed a similar system for animals. After Linnaeus a zoological catalogue was no longer merely a drawer of index cards with animals’ names on them. There was now a zoological system. Students could see which animals were grouped together and how closely they were related. ( See also animal ; botany ; living things ; plant ; zoology .)

Important advances in the study of chemistry were made in the late 18th century. It is often said that chemistry grew out of alchemy . The alchemists had very special goals. They wanted to find something called the philosophers’ stone or the elixir of life. With the help of these substances they hoped to make gold from base metals and to cure all human ills. While the alchemists worked hard, it is unlikely that their efforts led to even a single great discovery.

Chemistry primarily grew out of the needs of smelters, metalworkers, tanners, dyers, and glassmakers. In the course of their work, new elements such as cobalt and nickel were discovered. Then, in the late 1700s, another element, oxygen, was discovered by Joseph Priestley and by Carl Wilhelm Scheele .

The Phlogiston Theory

For many years before the discovery of oxygen the growth of chemistry had been held back by a false theory regarding burning (combustion). Johann Becher and Georg Ernst Stahl tried to explain combustion by the phlogiston theory. According to this theory anything that could be burned contained an “essence” called phlogiston. When the substance burned, the phlogiston escaped into the air.

It had been observed that a substance would not burn long in a closed container. Becher and Stahl thought that combustion stopped because the air in the closed container had become so saturated with phlogiston that it could not absorb any more of it. Today, of course, it is known that a substance burning in a closed container will stop burning when it uses up all the oxygen.

When oxygen was discovered, it was found that combustible substances burned much better in it than they did in air. It was then mistakenly assumed that oxygen had to be a gas completely devoid of phlogiston so that it could absorb whatever was released from the burning substance. The newly discovered oxygen was thus called “dephlogisticated air.”

Lavoisier’s Contribution

When a metal is heated in air, an oxide is normally produced. The chemists of the 18th century called the oxide of a metal its calx. They reasoned that calx and the phlogiston together equaled the metal. The problem, however, was that the metal weighed less than its calx. The scientists of that period then further reasoned that since a substance became lighter by the addition of phlogiston, the phlogiston must therefore have a negative weight.

Thinking along this line became more and more confused. Finally the great French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier proved, in 1783, that the metals were elements. He also showed that their so-called calxes (oxides) were the result of a combination of the metal and oxygen. At last freed from its self-made errors, chemistry progressed at a surprising rate.

Electric Current

Just before the end of the 18th century electric current was discovered. In 1780 an Italian named Luigi Galvani noticed that the legs of freshly killed frogs sometimes jerked when they touched metal. He thought this was caused by a kind of “animal electricity.” Another Italian, Count Alessandro Volta , believed chemistry was involved. In 1800 Volta proved his theory when he built a primitive electric battery . This was called a voltaic cell. ( See also electricity ; physics .)

By the end of the 18th century the foundations for most of today’s sciences had thus been laid. In chemistry it was known what substances were the elements and what other substances were the compounds. In physics the distinction between static electricity and electric (galvanic) current had been established. Astronomy had a firm foundation of theory.

19th-Century Growth of Science

Great scientific progress was made in the 19th century. This progress resulted from the application of what was already known plus new discoveries of a basic nature. The steam engine in time became powerful enough to be used in ships and locomotives. The voltaic cell and the long-known fact that thin metal rods would conduct electricity were developed into the electric telegraph . ( See also railroad ; ship and shipping .)

In 1817 Swedish chemist Baron Jöns Jakob Berzelius realized that a substance he had thought to be tellurium was something else. He named his new substance selenium . Later it was discovered that when selenium was in the light it would conduct an electric current. It would not, however, conduct a current in the dark.

One form of the early telephone developed from this property of selenium. It also resulted in experiments which finally led to “talking pictures,” the transmission of pictures by wire, television , and the photoelectric cell, or electric eye. ( See also motion pictures ; photoelectric device .)

In the mid-1800s Gregor Mendel , an Austrian monk, made a significant discovery in biology . He found patterns of inheritance between parent plants and their offspring, and he proposed that certain plant characteristics could be inherited. This was the beginning of the study of genetics .

In the 16th century Conrad Gesner collected all the information about animals available at that time. Later, Carolus Linnaeus compiled this information into a system that showed relationships among living things. Based on observations and descriptions of plants and animals, many of which were sent to him from the Americas, he categorized life into groups. The most closely related group, known as species, consisted of organisms that are capable of reproducing to form viable, healthy offspring in nature. Based on structure and appearance, living things are now classified according to their kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.

Scientists then began wondering why species, though similar, still had slight variations. Naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck sought to explain the seemingly perfect relationship between animals’ habitat and their biological adaptations. Darwin developed his theory of organic evolution to explain these relationships. He published several books describing his travels and observations. One of the most famous was the On the Origin of Species .

In 1868 the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published The Principles of Chemistry . It contained what is now known as the periodic table , a chart in which the chemical elements are arranged in order of increasing weight. Mendeleev’s table was so accurate that he was able to point out gaps where undiscovered elements would belong on the table. ( See also chemistry .)

In the 1870s the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell developed a theory about electromagnetic radiation . Electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, microwaves, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays. Maxwell suggested that these forms of radiation all travel through space in wavelike patterns at the speed of light. In 1887 Heinrich Hertz developed a way of producing and receiving radio waves.

Perhaps one of the most significant scientific discoveries, in terms of its social influences, occurred in 1896. The French scientist Henri Becquerel left a uranium compound in a desk drawer. The drawer happened to contain a package of unused photographic plates. Later, when these plates were removed from their lightproof wrappers, Becquerel found them to be fogged. The only unusual thing near them had been the uranium compound. It was evident that the presence of the uranium had “exposed” the plates. This simple observation brought about another revolution in science. The fogging of the plates showed that they had been subjected to radiation.

The discovery of this type of radiation, which is produced by radioactivity , was followed by the discovery of the radioactive elements polonium and radium by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie ( see Curie family ). Two units of radioactivity measurement were named the Becquerel and the Curie. Radioactivity is now known to involve forces within the nuclei of atoms.

20th-Century Advances in Physics

Physicists originally thought that the amount of energy in the universe was constant. Energy was neither created nor destroyed; it was merely transformed. Similarly, the amount of matter was thought to be constant. A piece of iron could be ground into fine dust. The dust could be combined with oxygen to form iron oxides, but this was thought to be a change in form and shape, not a change in quantity.

It was Albert Einstein who proposed that perhaps it was not the amount of energy that was constant, nor the amount of matter, but the amount of the two combined that remained constant. In other words, if one really succeeded in the difficult process of destroying matter, then energy would be the result. If one succeeded in condensing energy, then matter would be the result. These concepts are fundamental to the study of nuclear energy , called nuclear physics . ( See also atomic particles ; relativity .)

In 1934 the physicist Enrico Fermi accidentally split the nucleus of an atom when he bombarded uranium with neutrons. In 1939 the German scientists Otto Hahn , Lise Meitner , and Fritz Strassmann repeated some of Fermi’s work and reported that nuclear fission had taken place. Three years later Fermi and his associates discovered that a nuclear chain reaction could be self-sustained. These discoveries led to the first nuclear weapons and reactors. In the decades following World War II many uses were found for nuclear reactors, from nuclear-powered ships and submarines to nuclear power plants for generating electricity for public use. As powerful as the fission bomb (the atomic bomb) was, some scientists began to develop an even more deadly weapon—a nuclear fusion bomb (the hydrogen bomb), first tested in 1952.

In 1900 German physicist Max Planck proposed that electromagnetic energy was emitted in small units, called quanta. This became known as the quantum theory. Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 established the quantum theory of light. Many other scientists studied the structure of matter. It was through his study of the deflection of nuclear particles as they passed through gold foil that Ernest Rutherford came to postulate a theory that the greatest mass of the atom was concentrated in a positively charged nucleus, around which the electrons revolved. Niels Bohr later developed a more complete theory of the structure of the atom and verified the quantum theory. The German Werner Heisenberg contributed to the understanding of subatomic particles. In 1927 he stated that it was impossible to measure simultaneously both the position and the momentum (mass times velocity) of a subatomic body. This became known as the uncertainty principle . ( See also physics ; quantum mechanics .)

Discoveries in Genetics

Biologists continued to advance the genetics principles proposed by Mendel as they explored cell metabolism and reproduction. In 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick discovered that the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule is in the shape of a double helix. DNA contains the master code of instructions for protein synthesis in the cell. Later research revealed the complex process by which the DNA code is read and used by the cell to assemble amino acids into proteins by means of RNA (ribonucleic acid).

Scientists learned how to move a gene from one species and insert it into the DNA of another species, where it is replicated with the host DNA. This technique, a form of genetic engineering , made it possible to use bacteria to produce some types of human hormones , such as insulin and growth hormone. Genetic engineering has been applied in agriculture, medicine, and other fields. Genetically modified crops are widely grown in the United States and in other countries. One example is a type of genetically modified corn (maize) that contains a gene that produce a natural insecticide. DNA research has allowed scientists to map chromosomes and isolate the causes of some genetic anomalies. The first human trials of gene therapy began in 1990. In 2003 researchers completed the Human Genome Project , an international effort that determined the sequences of almost all the genetic content of the human body, which is known as the human genome.

The Turn Toward Outer Space

Many other scientific developments occurred in astronomy, the Earth sciences, and medicine. In the 1920s some scientists began to propose that the universe was formed as a result of a violent explosion from a state of extremely high temperature and density. As evidence was discovered to support this so-called big bang theory , it eventually came to be accepted by the scientific community. The exploration of outer space began in 1957, first with unmanned space vehicles. Several countries subsequently launched unmanned satellites and probes that were sent through the solar system. Using space-based telescopes , free of atmospheric disturbances, scientists were able to see fainter and more-distant astronomical objects than before. Probes sent to the Moon and the planets have given scientists a better understanding of the nature and origins of those bodies.

Manned flights began in 1961. On July 20, 1969, astronauts from the United States were the first to set foot on the Moon. In the 1970s the United States developed the first reusable manned space vehicle, the space shuttle . At the end of the 20th century the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency cooperated to build the International Space Station in orbit around Earth. The first resident crew arrived at the station in 2000.

Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory

In 1912 the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once all one land mass, which he called Pangaea. For many years his continental drift theory was dismissed as highly speculative. Eventually evidence was accumulated in support of the theory, partly through the study of the phenomenon known as magnetic reversal. (Studies in the 1960s indicated that Earth’s magnetic field repeatedly changes polarity at intervals of 100 thousand to 50 million years.) The continental drift theory led to the concept of plate tectonics , which holds that Earth’s outer layers are divided into moving plates and explains the existence of volcanoes and earthquakes . In 1935 the American seismologist Charles Richter devised the Richter scale for measuring the intensity of earthquakes. ( See also Earth ; geology .)

Modern Medicine

Many 20th-century medical developments were attributed to the invention of specialized devices. Shortly after the discovery of X-rays , physicians began to examine bone fractures with X-ray machines. In 1912 U.S. chemist John Jacob Abel produced the first useful artificial kidney for use in the laboratory. It was to be followed by many other devices used to assist or replace bodily functions, including the ear drum, hip, heart valve, and artificial heart. The first dependable heart-lung machine was built in 1955. In 1967 Christiaan Barnard , a South African physician, performed the first successful heart transplant on a human. The heart recipient survived for 18 days. Important advances in the early 21st century included the development of prosthetic-limb technology, such as nerve biosensors to control movement.

Artificial-insemination experiments were performed as early as 1780. In 1901 the Russian biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov began artificial insemination of horses. The techniques were eventually used on humans, usually with couples having difficulty in conceiving children. In 1978 the first “test tube” baby was born in England as a result of in vitro fertilization of an egg cell and the implantation of the embryo in the mother’s uterus. ( See also medicine ; pregnancy and birth ; surgery .)

Medical researchers had some success in the production of artificial blood, which may eventually eliminate the threat of contracting diseases transmitted during blood transfusions. In the early 2000s a high-tech bandage was introduced that promoted blood clotting and quickly stopped uncontrolled bleeding from a wound.

Information Technology

Many scientific advances would never have been made without the use of computers . Thus, the invention of electronic computers was among the most-significant achievements of the 20th century. The first electronic digital computers were built in the 1940s. The reduction in size and increase in speed of computers were spurred by the invention of the transistor in the late 1940s and the integrated circuit in the late 1950s. The first personal computers became widely available after the introduction of random-access memory chips and microprocessor s in the early 1970s. Soon a larger variety of computer programs were developed as commercial products. The Internet , whose origins date to the 1960s, had very limited use by the general public until the development of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. In the early 21st century handheld computer devices with access to the World Wide Web were developed and were soon incorporated with cellular telephones.

One advanced area of computer research is the field of artificial intelligence . Artificial intelligence has many potential applications in robotics , communications, and other fields.

Scientific Communication

Scientists frequently cooperate with other scientists in their research. Cooperative efforts may involve scientists from many different countries. Another way in which scientists share their research is by attending local, national, or international conferences. Conferences are periodic meetings in which scientists formally or informally present their research and opinions. Conferences provide scientists with immediate feedback on their work. Many historic scientific breakthroughs have been presented to the scientific community at such conferences. Consequently, many scientists attend conferences to follow scientific developments and share methods, results, and ideas with other researchers. In addition to attending conferences, many scientists regularly correspond with one another. Some of these letters have become historic documents.

Researchers may also write formal papers describing their experimental procedures, hypotheses, results, and conclusions. These papers may be submitted to a science academy or association for publication. Such organizations help to foster support and communication among scientists. Even if the paper is not selected for publication, it serves as a written documentation of the work and enables other scientists to replicate or evaluate the experiment.

Nearly every scientific advancement made today is published in some form of scientific literature. Some journals are devoted to an entire field, such as biology, while others focus on research in a highly specialized area, such as cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). A journal may be interdisciplinary, or it may concentrate on a specific theme such as environmental conservation.

Funding and Awards

Scientific research can be extremely expensive, especially when it involves the use of costly equipment. Scientific research may be funded by governments, industries, foundations, or universities. In the United States, the federal government sponsors many projects in the area of national defense and space exploration. In 1950 Congress passed an act that established the National Science Foundation. The purpose of this independent federal agency is to develop a national science policy and to support basic scientific research and education. Other foundations, such as the National Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, are devoted to research concerning human health.

Scientific research also is supported by the private sector. Industries frequently employ scientists, especially those who work in the applied sciences. These scientists are involved in the development of industrial or commercial processes and products. Colleges and universities support scientific research by offering professorships. As professors, scientists usually divide their time between their individual research and teaching. In this way, their students have the opportunity to observe the scientific process firsthand. Universities may specialize in various fields, and they are frequently judged on the basis of the accomplishments of their professors and scientists. Scientists who publish, therefore, bring prestige to their college or university.

Scientists are often awarded for their contribution to science. Perhaps the most well-known award is the Nobel Prize , a yearly recognition of the leaders within the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology (or medicine), literature, and peace. The award was established by Alfred Nobel , a Swedish chemist and the inventor of dynamite. In 1968 an economics prize was added. The winners of the Nobel Prize receive money, a gold medal, and a diploma. The award honors the most significant and outstanding achievements in each field. In keeping with Nobel’s will, the Royal Swedish Academy considers persons of any nationality as eligible for the award.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 5 best homework help websites (free and paid).

Other High School , General Education

Listen: we know homework isn’t fun, but it is a good way to reinforce the ideas and concepts you’ve learned in class. But what if you’re really struggling with your homework assignments?

If you’ve looked online for a little extra help with your take-home assignments, you’ve probably stumbled across websites claiming to provide the homework help and answers students need to succeed . But can homework help sites really make a difference? And if so, which are the best homework help websites you can use?

Below, we answer these questions and more about homework help websites–free and paid. We’ll go over:

The basics of homework help websites
The cost of homework help websites
The five best homework websites out there
The pros and cons of using these websites for homework help
The line between “learning” and “cheating” when using online homework help
Tips for getting the most out of a homework help website

So let’s get started!

The Basics About Homework Help Websites–Free and Paid

Homework help websites are designed to help you complete your homework assignments, plain and simple.

What Makes a Homework Help Site Worth Using

Most of the best sites allow users to ask questions and then provide an answer (or multiple possible answers) and explanation in seconds. In some instances, you can even send a photo of a particular assignment or problem instead of typing the whole thing out!

Homework help sites also offer more than just help answering homework questions. Common services provided are Q&A with experts, educational videos, lectures, practice tests and quizzes, learning modules, math solving tools, and proofreading help. Homework help sites can also provide textbook solutions (i.e. answers to problems in tons of different textbooks your school might be using), one-on-one tutoring, and peer-to-peer platforms that allow you to discuss subjects you’re learning about with your fellow students.

And best of all, nearly all of them offer their services 24/7, including tutoring!

What You Should Should Look Out For

When it comes to homework help, there are lots–and we mean lots –of scam sites out there willing to prey on desperate students. Before you sign up for any service, make sure you read reviews to ensure you’re working with a legitimate company.

A word to the wise: the more a company advertises help that veers into the territory of cheating, the more likely it is to be a scam. The best homework help websites are going to help you learn the concepts you’ll need to successfully complete your homework on your own. (We’ll go over the difference between “homework help” and “cheating” a little later!)

You don't need a golden piggy bank to use homework help websites. Some provide low or no cost help for students like you!

How Expensive Are the Best Homework Help Websites?

First of all, just because a homework help site costs money doesn’t mean it’s a good service. Likewise, just because a homework help website is free doesn’t mean the help isn’t high quality. To find the best websites, you have to take a close look at the quality and types of information they provide!

When it comes to paid homework help services, the prices vary pretty widely depending on the amount of services you want to subscribe to. Subscriptions can cost anywhere from $2 to $150 dollars per month, with the most expensive services offering several hours of one-on-one tutoring with a subject expert per month.

The 5 Best Homework Help Websites

So, what is the best homework help website you can use? The answer is that it depends on what you need help with.

The best homework help websites are the ones that are reliable and help you learn the material. They don’t just provide answers to homework questions–they actually help you learn the material.

That’s why we’ve broken down our favorite websites into categories based on who they’re best for . For instance, the best website for people struggling with math might not work for someone who needs a little extra help with science, and vice versa.

Keep reading to find the best homework help website for you!

Best Free Homework Help Site: Khan Academy

Price: Free!
Best for: Practicing tough material

Not only is Khan Academy free, but it’s full of information and can be personalized to suit your needs. When you set up your account , you choose which courses you need to study, and Khan Academy sets up a personal dashboard of instructional videos, practice exercises, and quizzes –with both correct and incorrect answer explanations–so you can learn at your own pace.

As an added bonus, it covers more course topics than many other homework help sites, including several AP classes.

Runner Up: Brainly.com offers a free service that allows you to type in questions and get answers and explanations from experts. The downside is that you’re limited to two answers per question and have to watch ads.

Best Paid Homework Help Site: Chegg

Price: $14.95 to $19.95 per month
Best for: 24/7 homework assistance

This service has three main parts . The first is Chegg Study, which includes textbook solutions, Q&A with subject experts, flashcards, video explanations, a math solver, and writing help. The resources are thorough, and reviewers state that Chegg answers homework questions quickly and accurately no matter when you submit them.

Chegg also offers textbook rentals for students who need access to textbooks outside of their classroom. Finally, Chegg offers Internship and Career Advice for students who are preparing to graduate and may need a little extra help with the transition out of high school.

Another great feature Chegg provides is a selection of free articles geared towards helping with general life skills, like coping with stress and saving money. Chegg’s learning modules are comprehensive, and they feature solutions to the problems in tons of different textbooks in a wide variety of subjects.

Runner Up: Bartleby offers basically the same services as Chegg for $14.99 per month. The reason it didn’t rank as the best is based on customer reviews that say user questions aren’t answered quite as quickly on this site as on Chegg. Otherwise, this is also a solid choice!

Best Site for Math Homework Help: Photomath

Price: Free (or $59.99 per year for premium services)
Best for: Explaining solutions to math problems

This site allows you to t ake a picture of a math problem, and instantly pulls up a step-by-step solution, as well as a detailed explanation of the concept. Photomath also includes animated videos that break down mathematical concepts to help you better understand and remember them.

The basic service is free, but for an additional fee you can get extra study tools and learn additional strategies for solving common math problems.

Runner Up: KhanAcademy offers in-depth tutorials that cover complex math topics for free, but you won’t get the same tailored help (and answers!) that Photomath offers.

Best Site for English Homework Help: Princeton Review Academic Tutoring

Price: $40 to $153 per month, depending on how many hours of tutoring you want
Best for: Comprehensive and personalized reading and writing help

While sites like Grammarly and Sparknotes help you by either proofreading what you write via an algorithm or providing book summaries, Princeton Review’s tutors provide in-depth help with vocabulary, literature, essay writing and development, proofreading, and reading comprehension. And unlike other services, you’ll have the chance to work with a real person to get help.

The best part is that you can get on-demand English (and ESL) tutoring from experts 24/7. That means you can get help whenever you need it, even if you’re pulling an all-nighter!

This is by far the most expensive homework site on this list, so you’ll need to really think about what you need out of a homework help website before you commit. One added benefit is that the subscription covers over 80 other subjects, including AP classes, which can make it a good value if you need lots of help!

Best Site for STEM Homework Help: Studypool

Best for: Science homework help
Price: Varies; you’ll pay for each question you submit

When it comes to science homework help, there aren’t a ton of great resources out there. The best of the bunch is Studypool, and while it has great reviews, there are some downsides as well.

Let’s start with the good stuff. Studypool offers an interesting twist on the homework help formula. After you create a free account, you can submit your homework help questions, and tutors will submit bids to answer your questions. You’ll be able to select the tutor–and price point–that works for you, then you’ll pay to have your homework question answered. You can also pay a small fee to access notes, lectures, and other documents that top tutors have uploaded.

The downside to Studypool is that the pricing is not transparent . There’s no way to plan for how much your homework help will cost, especially if you have lots of questions! Additionally, it’s not clear how tutors are selected, so you’ll need to be cautious when you choose who you’d like to answer your homework questions.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Homework Help Sites?

Homework help websites can be a great resource if you’re struggling in a subject, or even if you just want to make sure that you’re really learning and understanding topics and ideas that you’re interested in. But, there are some possible drawbacks if you don’t use these sites responsibly.

We’ll go over the good–and the not-so-good–aspects of getting online homework help below.

3 Pros of Using Homework Help Websites

First, let’s take a look at the benefits.

#1: Better Grades Beyond Homework

This is a big one! Getting outside help with your studies can improve your understanding of concepts that you’re learning, which translates into better grades when you take tests or write essays.

Remember: homework is designed to help reinforce the concepts you learned in class. If you just get easy answers without learning the material behind the problems, you may not have the tools you need to be successful on your class exams…or even standardized tests you’ll need to take for college.

#2: Convenience

One of the main reasons that online homework help is appealing is because it’s flexible and convenient. You don’t have to go to a specific tutoring center while they’re open or stay after school to speak with your teacher. Instead, you can access helpful resources wherever you can access the internet, whenever you need them.

This is especially true if you tend to study at off hours because of your extracurriculars, work schedule, or family obligations. Sites that offer 24/7 tutoring can give you the extra help you need if you can’t access the free resources that are available at your school.

#3: Variety

Not everyone learns the same way. Maybe you’re more of a visual learner, but your teacher mostly does lectures. Or maybe you learn best by listening and taking notes, but you’re expected to learn something just from reading the textbook .

One of the best things about online homework help is that it comes in a variety of forms. The best homework help sites offer resources for all types of learners, including videos, practice activities, and even one-on-one discussions with real-life experts.

This variety can also be a good thing if you just don’t really resonate with the way a concept is being explained (looking at you, math textbooks!).

Not so fast. There are cons to homework help websites, too. Get to know them below!

3 Cons of Using Homework Help Websites

Now, let’s take a look at the drawbacks of online homework help.

#1: Unreliable Info

This can be a real problem. In addition to all the really good homework help sites, there are a whole lot of disreputable or unreliable sites out there. The fact of the matter is that some homework help sites don’t necessarily hire people who are experts in the subjects they’re talking about. In those cases, you may not be getting the accurate, up-to-date, and thorough information you need.

Additionally, even the great sites may not be able to answer all of your homework questions. This is especially true if the site uses an algorithm or chatbot to help students…or if you’re enrolled in an advanced or college-level course. In these cases, working with your teacher or school-provided tutors are probably your best option.

#2: No Clarification

This depends on the service you use, of course. But the majority of them provide free or low-cost help through pre-recorded videos. Watching videos or reading info online can definitely help you with your homework… but you can’t ask questions or get immediate feedback if you need it .

#3: Potential For Scamming

Like we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of homework help websites out there, and lots of them are scams. The review comments we read covered everything from outdated or wrong information, to misleading claims about the help provided, to not allowing people to cancel their service after signing up.

No matter which site you choose to use, make sure you research and read reviews before you sign up–especially if it’s a paid service!

When Does “Help” Become “Cheating”?

Admittedly, whether using homework help websites constitutes cheating is a bit of a grey area. For instance, is it “help” when a friend reads your essay for history class and corrects your grammar, or is it “cheating”? The truth is, not everyone agrees on when “help” crosses the line into “cheating .” When in doubt, it can be a good idea to check with your teacher to see what they think about a particular type of help you want to get.

That said, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is to make sure that the assignment you turn in for credit is authentically yours . It needs to demonstrate your own thoughts and your own current abilities. Remember: the point of every homework assignment is to 1) help you learn something, and 2) show what you’ve learned.

So if a service answers questions or writes essays for you, there’s a good chance using it constitutes cheating.

Here’s an example that might help clarify the difference for you. Brainstorming essay ideas with others or looking online for inspiration is “help” as long as you write the essay yourself. Having someone read it and give you feedback about what you need to change is also help, provided you’re the one that makes the changes later.

But copying all or part of an essay you find online or having someone write (or rewrite) the whole thing for you would be “cheating.” The same is true for other subjects. Ultimately, if you’re not generating your own work or your own answers, it’s probably cheating.

5 Tips for Finding the Best Homework Help Websites for You

Now that you know some of our favorite homework help websites, free and paid, you can start doing some additional research on your own to decide which services might work best for you! Here are some top tips for choosing a homework help website.

Tip 1: Decide How You Learn Best

Before you decide which site or sites you’re going to use for homework help, y ou should figure out what kind of learning style works for you the most. Are you a visual learner? Then choose a site that uses lots of videos to help explain concepts. If you know you learn best by actually doing tasks, choose a site that provides lots of practice exercises.

Tip 2: Determine Which Subjects You Need Help With

Just because a homework help site is good overall doesn’t mean that it’s equally good for every subject. If you only need help in math, choose a site that specializes in that area. But if history is where you’re struggling, a site that specializes in math won’t be much help. So make sure to choose a site that you know provides high-quality help in the areas you need it most.

Tip 3: Decide How Much One-On-One Help You Need

This is really about cost-effectiveness. If you learn well on your own by reading and watching videos, a free site like Khan Academy is a good choice. But if you need actual tutoring, or to be able to ask questions and get personalized answers from experts, a paid site that provides that kind of service may be a better option.

Tip 4: Set a Budget

If you decide you want to go with a paid homework help website, set a budget first . The prices for sites vary wildly, and the cost to use them can add up quick.

Tip 5: Read the Reviews

Finally, it’s always a good idea to read actual reviews written by the people using these homework sites. You’ll learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of what the users’ experiences have been. This is especially true if you intend to subscribe to a paid service. You’ll want to make sure that users think it’s worth the price overall!

What’s Next?

If you want to get good grades on your homework, it’s a good idea to learn how to tackle it strategically. Our expert tips will help you get the most out of each assignment…and boost your grades in the process.

Doing well on homework assignments is just one part of getting good grades. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about getting great grades in high school in this article.

Of course, test grades can make or break your GPA, too. Here are 17 expert tips that’ll help you get the most out of your study prep before you take an exam.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Should homework be banned?

Social media has sparked into life about whether children should be given homework - should students be freed from this daily chore? Dr Gerald Letendre, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, investigates.

We’ve all done it: pretended to leave an essay at home, or stayed up until 2am to finish a piece of coursework we’ve been ignoring for weeks. Homework, for some people, is seen as a chore that’s ‘wrecking kids’ or ‘killing parents’, while others think it is an essential part of a well-rounded education. The problem is far from new: public debates about homework have been raging since at least the early-1900s, and recently spilled over into a Twitter feud between Gary Lineker and Piers Morgan.

Ironically, the conversation surrounding homework often ignores the scientific ‘homework’ that researchers have carried out. Many detailed studies have been conducted, and can guide parents, teachers and administrators to make sensible decisions about how much work should be completed by students outside of the classroom.

So why does homework stir up such strong emotions? One reason is that, by its very nature, it is an intrusion of schoolwork into family life. I carried out a study in 2005, and found that the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school, from nursery right up to the end of compulsory education, has greatly increased over the last century . This means that more of a child’s time is taken up with education, so family time is reduced. This increases pressure on the boundary between the family and the school.

Plus, the amount of homework that students receive appears to be increasing, especially in the early years when parents are keen for their children to play with friends and spend time with the family.

Finally, success in school has become increasingly important to success in life. Parents can use homework to promote, or exercise control over, their child’s academic trajectory, and hopefully ensure their future educational success. But this often leaves parents conflicted – they want their children to be successful in school, but they don’t want them to be stressed or upset because of an unmanageable workload.

François Hollande says homework is unfair, as it penalises children who have a difficult home environment © Getty Images

However, the issue isn’t simply down to the opinions of parents, children and their teachers – governments also like to get involved. In the autumn of 2012, French president François Hollande hit world headlines after making a comment about banning homework, ostensibly because it promoted inequality. The Chinese government has also toyed with a ban, because of concerns about excessive academic pressure being put on children.

The problem is, some politicians and national administrators regard regulatory policy in education as a solution for a wide array of social, economic and political issues, perhaps without considering the consequences for students and parents.

Does homework work?

Homework seems to generally have a positive effect for high school students, according to an extensive range of empirical literature. For example, Duke University’s Prof Harris Cooper carried out a meta-analysis using data from US schools, covering a period from 1987 to 2003. He found that homework offered a general beneficial impact on test scores and improvements in attitude, with a greater effect seen in older students. But dig deeper into the issue and a complex set of factors quickly emerges, related to how much homework students do, and exactly how they feel about it.

In 2009, Prof Ulrich Trautwein and his team at the University of Tübingen found that in order to establish whether homework is having any effect, researchers must take into account the differences both between and within classes . For example, a teacher may assign a good deal of homework to a lower-level class, producing an association between more homework and lower levels of achievement. Yet, within the same class, individual students may vary significantly in how much homework improves their baseline performance. Plus, there is the fact that some students are simply more efficient at completing their homework than others, and it becomes quite difficult to pinpoint just what type of homework, and how much of it, will affect overall academic performance.

Over the last century, the amount of time that children and adolescents spend in school has greatly increased

Gender is also a major factor. For example, a study of US high school students carried out by Prof Gary Natriello in the 1980s revealed that girls devote more time to homework than boys, while a follow-up study found that US girls tend to spend more time on mathematics homework than boys. Another study, this time of African-American students in the US, found that eighth grade (ages 13-14) girls were more likely to successfully manage both their tasks and emotions around schoolwork, and were more likely to finish homework.

So why do girls seem to respond more positively to homework? One possible answer proposed by Eunsook Hong of the University of Nevada in 2011 is that teachers tend to rate girls’ habits and attitudes towards work more favourably than boys’. This perception could potentially set up a positive feedback loop between teacher expectations and the children’s capacity for academic work based on gender, resulting in girls outperforming boys. All of this makes it particularly difficult to determine the extent to which homework is helping, though it is clear that simply increasing the time spent on assignments does not directly correspond to a universal increase in learning.

Can homework cause damage?

The lack of empirical data supporting homework in the early years of education, along with an emerging trend to assign more work to this age range, appears to be fuelling parental concerns about potential negative effects. But, aside from anecdotes of increased tension in the household, is there any evidence of this? Can doing too much homework actually damage children?

Evidence suggests extreme amounts of homework can indeed have serious effects on students’ health and well-being. A Chinese study carried out in 2010 found a link between excessive homework and sleep disruption: children who had less homework had better routines and more stable sleep schedules. A Canadian study carried out in 2015 by Isabelle Michaud found that high levels of homework were associated with a greater risk of obesity among boys, if they were already feeling stressed about school in general.

For useful revision guides and video clips to assist with learning, visit BBC Bitesize . This is a free online study resource for UK students from early years up to GCSEs and Scottish Highers.

It is also worth noting that too much homework can create negative effects that may undermine any positives. These negative consequences may not only affect the child, but also could also pile on the stress for the whole family, according to a recent study by Robert Pressman of the New England Centre for Pediatric Psychology. Parents were particularly affected when their perception of their own capacity to assist their children decreased.

What then, is the tipping point, and when does homework simply become too much for parents and children? Guidelines typically suggest that children in the first grade (six years old) should have no more that 10 minutes per night, and that this amount should increase by 10 minutes per school year. However, cultural norms may greatly affect what constitutes too much.

A study of children aged between 8 and 10 in Quebec defined high levels of homework as more than 30 minutes a night, but a study in China of children aged 5 to 11 deemed that two or more hours per night was excessive. It is therefore difficult to create a clear standard for what constitutes as too much homework, because cultural differences, school-related stress, and negative emotions within the family all appear to interact with how homework affects children.

Should we stop setting homework?

In my opinion, even though there are potential risks of negative effects, homework should not be banned. Small amounts, assigned with specific learning goals in mind and with proper parental support, can help to improve students’ performance. While some studies have generally found little evidence that homework has a positive effect on young children overall, a 2008 study by Norwegian researcher Marte Rønning found that even some very young children do receive some benefit. So simply banning homework would mean that any particularly gifted or motivated pupils would not be able to benefit from increased study. However, at the earliest ages, very little homework should be assigned. The decisions about how much and what type are best left to teachers and parents.

As a parent, it is important to clarify what goals your child’s teacher has for homework assignments. Teachers can assign work for different reasons – as an academic drill to foster better study habits, and unfortunately, as a punishment. The goals for each assignment should be made clear, and should encourage positive engagement with academic routines.

Parents who play an active role in homework routines can help give their kids a more positive experience of learning © Getty Images

Parents should inform the teachers of how long the homework is taking, as teachers often incorrectly estimate the amount of time needed to complete an assignment, and how it is affecting household routines. For young children, positive teacher support and feedback is critical in establishing a student’s positive perception of homework and other academic routines. Teachers and parents need to be vigilant and ensure that homework routines do not start to generate patterns of negative interaction that erode students’ motivation.

Likewise, any positive effects of homework are dependent on several complex interactive factors, including the child’s personal motivation, the type of assignment, parental support and teacher goals. Creating an overarching policy to address every single situation is not realistic, and so homework policies tend to be fixated on the time the homework takes to complete. But rather than focusing on this, everyone would be better off if schools worked on fostering stronger communication between parents, teachers and students, allowing them to respond more sensitively to the child’s emotional and academic needs.

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Reading Intervention Programs’ Effectiveness: Everything You Need to Know

What’s the difference between gtk+ and qt, exclusive air purifier for cat households: wisesky unboxing review, is buying a kindle worth it 4 reasons to buy one, formative assessment: everything you need to know, how to replace a macbook pro battery, writing and differentiated instruction: everything you need to know, improving language proficiency and scientific literacy in learners, how to teach spelling: everything you need to know, product review of ticktalk 5, 10 apps to help students with their science homework.

Science can be hard. Science homework can be harder, especially when the teacher isn’t there to help. Many parents now are struggling to help students with their STEM and Common Core aligned science homework, no matter what specific scientific branch it is.

Rather than spend money on a tutor, surf the Internet for hours, or try to squeeze a few minutes out of a teacher’s free time, students can, instead, use these ten apps to help themselves with their homework. This way, students can take charge of their own learning and homework skills.

#1 The Chemical Touch

This amazing resource will help students ace Chemistry. A full periodic table is given on the app. Once a student touches a specific element, they can study it more in depth such as its atomic mass and properties. It also has an amino acid chart with in-depth information. Each element and amino acid also have a link to a Wikipedia article for more information.

#2 Frog Dissection

One of the most stereotypical science experiments, frog dissecting, can now be done virtually. For students who get queasy or who would prefer to avoid this experiment due to religious reasons, this app is a perfect alternative for them. Featuring step-by-step instructions, there is plenty of in-depth information on each of the frog’s organs including anatomical comparisons to human organs.

#3 Kahn Academy

With over 40,000 interactive Common Core aligned practice questions and over 10,000 videos and explanations in math, science, economics, history, and more, Kahn Academy is the perfect app for students of all ages to study. Kahn Academy is free of charge and is the perfect study resource and tutoring app for students who are struggling in science (as well as other subjects).

#4 Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe

Based on the writings and work of Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most renowned scientists, this app is a wonderful interactive source of information for space science. This app includes 10 interactive experiments and video segments to help students study our universe.

#5 NASA Visualization Explorer

Perfect for expanding upon concepts learned in class or research for projects, this NASA app helps students explore our universe even more. With articles and visuals, students can discover more about the earth, the solar system, and beyond in depth. NASA adds new stories every week to keep the app and its information up to date.

#6 Project Noah

Project Noah “is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.” This app is a great way to get students involved in biology and ecology at home with interactive homework assignments. Rather than studying animals and plants from a textbook, students can go out in nature and take pictures of their assigned plant or animal. They can even earn “badges” which also makes this a great app for the Boy Scouts.

Students studying for the SAT, chemistry, or physics can get extra help and explanations with this app. Employing experts in the STEM standards, students can upload a snapshot of their homework question and get one-on-one help to understand the problem. Students get a free 10-minute session for each problem. It even includes SAT prep questions and practice tests.

#8 Anatomy 4D

For high school and college students, Anatomy 4D is a great resource for studying anatomy. Students can study specific parts of the body or the entire body. Views can be switched from male body to female body. Views are in 3D to give a more life-like experience to students using the app. Information is also available for students to read as they study specific organs or systems.

#9 Physics Calculator

High schoolers who need extra help with their physics homework can benefit from this app. With fill-in-the-blank equations for kinematics, motion, energy, power, gravity, temperature, thermodynamics, and many more physic properties, this app is a quick solving tool for those hard to answer physics problems.

#10 iCell App

Studying the cell became easier with this 3-D cell app. Students can view the cell structures and dynamics for plants, animals, and bacteria. There are even different levels of information for students varying in age and grade level. Students can zoom in on different parts of the cell and compare cells with each other. It even includes color-coded DNA and more in-depth information about cell size and scale, skin, and much more.

This list is not all-inclusive—there are many more apps in all the branches of science available as resources and interactive games to help students study and learn more about science. By relying on these apps, students can learn more about science while doing their homework and develop a love of learning on their own time.

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Nix Homework to Help Students? What the Science Says

A Texas teacher's note to parents about her newly implemented "no formal homework policy" in her second-grade class went viral last week, opening up the floodgates for parents, teachers and school administrators to weigh in on this controversial topic.

In the note, teacher Brandy Young told parents that her students' only homework would be work that they did not finish during the school day.

Instead of having kids spend time on homework , parents should "spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success," Young said. She recommended that parents " eat dinner as a family , read together, play outside and get your child to bed early," strategies that she suggests are more closely tied to a child's success in the classroom than doing homework.

Young's rationale for her new policy, as she explained in her note, was that "research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance." [ 10 Scientific Tips for Raising Happy Kids ]

Live Science spoke with three educators who have conducted research on homework and student performance to fact-check this statement, and to find out what studies have shown about homework's positive and negative effects.

Keys to student success

It's accurate to suggest that studies have found no correlation between homework in elementary school and a student's academic performance , but there is one important exception worth mentioning, said Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

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Research has shown that free reading , or allowing students to read whatever books they want, does improve their academic performance, Pope said. Some elementary school teachers assign free reading as homework, but kids and parents do not always perceive these assignments as true homework that must be completed, she explained. [ Best Science-y Books for Kids ]

In middle school, the evidence shows a slight correlation between doing homework and academic achievement , but further improvement fades after a middle-school student has spent 60 to 90 minutes a night doing homework, said Pope, who is also the co-founder of Challenge Success, an organization that works with schools and families to develop research-based strategies that engage kids and keep them healthy.

But it's tricky to draw conclusions from homework studies, because these studies use such varied ways of measuring a student's academic performance, Pope said. Some researchers use standardized test scores to measure achievement, while others use students' grade-point averages, she said.

Another variable that can complicate the results of homework studies is that it's hard to know who is actually doing the assignment when it's taken home, Pope said. For example, a student could get help from a parent , tutor, sibling or classmate to complete the work.

In high school, there is a strong correlation between students who do 2 hours of homework a night and higher levels of academic achievement, but again, this improvement fades when students exceed the 2-hour threshold, Pope told Live Science. [ Top 5 Benefits of Play ]

Pope said she considers the advice that the viral note offered to parents —to eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside and get a child to bed early — to be "spot on." She added that there is "really good research" to correlate these four variables with student success.

Studies suggest that to perform at their best in school, kids in second grade need sufficient sleep , playtime with their siblings and friends, and downtime, meaning time to transition from school to home. Kids also benefit from regular family time, which ideally takes place five times a week for at least 25 minutes and could take the form of a family meal, Pope said. Making time for reading is also important for a child's success in the classroom, she said.

Learning through practice

But not all educators share Pope's opinions of a no-homework policy for second graders.

The contention that "research is unable to prove that homework improves student performance" is an overstatement, said Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who has been researching homework and student performance for 30 years.

"Even in kids as young as age 7, research shows that homework in particular areas can help students learn, especially things children need to learn through practice," said Cooper, the author of "The Battle Over Homework" (Corwin, 2006).

Even when looking at levels as early as second grade, studies have found that kids who study a little bit at home may do better on spelling, vocabulary and math tests given in the classroom, Cooper told Live Science. However, he noted that the correlation between doing homework and higher academic achievement is not as strong in elementary students, who generally don't get much homework, as it is in middle-school and high-school students.

Rather than a no-homework policy for second graders, Cooper said he would recommend that homework for kids at this age be kept short and simple. It should take no more than about 20 minutes a night for second graders to complete their homework, he said.

To estimate an appropriate amount of time for students to spend doing homework, educators may use "the 10-minute rule" which means multiplying a child's grade level by 10 minutes of homework a night, Cooper explained. That means first graders get 10 minutes of homework, second graders get 20 and so on.

Besides just the skills in math, reading or other subjects themselves, homework can have positive effects on children's time-management and study skills, Cooper said. It can also help keep parents informed of what children are learning at school, and help make Mom and Dad aware of their child's strengths and weaknesses, he said.

But too much homework in second grade or assignments that are too hard can have a negative impact on young learners, Cooper said. "The last thing you want is for a 7-year-old to be bored [or] frustrated, or think that he or she is not good in school," he added.

Some parents who are extremely concerned about ensuring that their children achieve to their maximal ability may put pressure on educators, and this has led some teachers to assign students too much homework, especially at the high-school level, Cooper said.

But the key is for students to get the right amount of homework — not too much of it and not too little — so that it can have positive effects on learning and school performance, Cooper said.

Homework and family life

But other educators are steadfast that the right amount of homework in elementary school may be little to none.

Research suggests that homework in elementary school does not have a positive effect on student achievement, and could even have a negative impact, said Etta Kralovec, an associate professor of teacher education at the University of Arizona South, and the author of "The End of Homework" (Beacon Press, 2001).

The findings are more complex in middle- and high-school students, with many studies finding a correlation between classroom grades and homework, Kralovec said. But these results could also raise additional questions, because tracking students — separating them into lower-level and advanced-level classes, for example — also begins at these grades, and kids in the higher-track classes are often assigned more homework.

It may not be that homework actually causes students to get better grades in high school or middle school, it could be that students who do more homework were better students to begin with, Kralovec said.

It's also hard to know how much actual time students truly spend on homework, because most research relies on self-reported data from students, parents or teachers, Kralovec said. The amount of time a student reports spending on homework can differ from a parent's report of it, and it can also differ from the amount of time a teacher estimates students will need in order to complete the assignment, Kralovec explained.

Despite the research, the amount of time students spend doing homework remains a highly contentious topic in education, Kralovec told Live Science. And when a teacher's short note to parents about a no-homework policy goes viral, it shows that this topic has hit a very important nerve in the American family experience, she said.

Family life today is really challenging compared with decades past — with more working mothers and some parents working two or three jobs to make ends meet — and homework can add yet another stressor to the mix, Kralovec said.

If parents feel that the amount of homework students receive is too much and may be encroaching on family time, one strategy they may try is to get organized with other parents, Kralovec suggested.

Each school district may set its own policies about the amount of homework given to students. When parents have banded together in their communities, they have often been successful at having public discussions with administrators and teachers, and even moving assignment levels back to healthier levels, she said.

Originally published on Live Science .

Cari Nierenberg has been writing about health and wellness topics for online news outlets and print publications for more than two decades. Her work has been published by Live Science, The Washington Post, WebMD, Scientific American, among others. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition from Cornell University and a Master of Science degree in Nutrition and Communication from Boston University.

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September 1, 2021

What's the point of homework?

by Katina Zammit, Western Sydney University

Homework hasn't changed much in the past few decades. Most children are still sent home with about an hour's worth of homework each day, mostly practicing what they were taught in class.

If we look internationally, homework is assigned in every country that participated in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012.

Across the participating countries, 15-year-old students reported spending almost five hours per week doing homework in 2012. Australian students spent six hours per week on average on homework. Students in Singapore spent seven hours on homework, and in Shanghai, China they did homework for about 14 hours per week on average.

Shanghai and Singapore routinely score higher than Australia in the PISA maths, science and reading tests. But homework could just be one of the factors leading to higher results. In Finland, which also scores higher than Australia, students spent less than three hours on homework per week.

So, what's the purpose of homework and what does the evidence say about whether it fulfills its purpose?

Why do teachers set homework?

Each school in Australia has its own homework policy developed in consultation with teachers and parents or caregivers, under the guiding principles of state or regional education departments.

For instance, according to the New South Wales homework policy "… tasks should be assigned by teachers with a specific, explicit learning purpose."

Homework in NSW should also be "purposeful and designed to meet specific learning goals," and "built on knowledge, skills and understanding developed in class." But there is limited, if any, guidance on how often homework should be set.

Research based on teacher interviews shows they set homework for a range of reasons. These include to:

establish and improve communication between parents and children about learning
help children be more responsible, confident and disciplined
practice or review material from class
determine children's understanding of the lesson and/or skills
introduce new material to be presented in class
provide students with opportunities to apply and integrate skills to new situations or interest areas
get students to use their own skills to create work.

So, does homework achieve what teachers intend it to?

Do we know if it 'works'?

Studies on homework are frequently quite general, and don't consider specific types of homework tasks. So it isn't easy to measure how effective homework could be, or to compare studies.

But there are several things we can say.

First, it's better if every student gets the kind of homework task that benefits them personally, such as one that helps them answer questions they had, or understand a problem they couldn't quite grasp in class. This promotes students' confidence and control of their own learning.

Giving students repetitive tasks may not have much value . For instance, calculating the answer to 120 similar algorithms, such as adding two different numbers 120 times may make the student think maths is irrelevant and boring. In this case, children are not being encouraged to find solutions but simply applying a formula they learnt in school.

In primary schools , homework that aims to improve children's confidence and learning discipline can be beneficial. For example, children can be asked to practice giving a presentation on a topic of their interest. This could help build their competence in speaking in front of a class.

Homework can also highlight equity issues. It can be particularly burdensome for socioeconomically disadvantaged students who may not have a space, the resources or as much time due to family and work commitments. Their parents may also not feel capable of supporting them or have their own work commitments.

According to the PISA studies mentioned earlier, socioeconomically disadvantaged 15 year olds spend nearly three hours less on homework each week than their advantaged peers.

What kind of homework is best?

Homework can be engaging and contribute to learning if it is more than just a sheet of maths or list of spelling words not linked to class learning. From summarizing various studies' findings, "good" homework should be:

personalized to each child rather than the same for all students in the class. This is more likely to make a difference to a child's learning and performance
achievable, so the child can complete it independently, building skills in managing their time and behavior
aligned to the learning in the classroom.

If you aren't happy with the homework your child is given then approach the school. If your child is having difficulty with doing the homework, the teacher needs to know. It shouldn't be burdensome for you or your children .

Provided by Western Sydney University

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Ted-ED "What the World Could Look Like in 2050" Video Questions

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Questions to accompany the Ted-ED animated video "What the World Could Look Like in 2050." The video speculates about the future effects of emissions and global warming and is very thought-provoking. This is a great resource for an Earth Sciences, Geography, or other science classes. The questions are also helpful for easy sub planning. As always, the questions are in Word format and editable. An answer key is provided.

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Our app offers innovative AI-based solutions tailored to support students from primary school through to university, available 24/7. This means no more late nights trying to tackle tough problems! Features: • Tackles a Range of Math Problems The app simplifies complex math tasks, from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus, including linear and differential equations. It also supports other mathematical operations like graphing functions and calculating integrals. • Masters Various Question Types The app efficiently manages different types of questions commonly encountered in tests and quizzes, such as True/False, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions. So, why delay? Step into the future of education now. Maximize your classroom potential with our Premium subscription! Subscribing grants you access to all benefits. Should you opt for the premium membership, charges will be made to your iTunes account, and your account will be billed for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Auto-renewal can be disabled at any time by adjusting your settings in the iTunes Store post-purchase. No cancellation of the current subscription is permitted during an active subscription period. Our privacy policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12A2M9449nXcp6BDZJ-kXqN0jZ6KbdYyipbGUu08slBU/edit?usp=sharing Our terms of use: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QmIhCmlFDusxt-Q6gN3NLnMnLs1oMolKZ1xomNvLXMI/edit?usp=sharing

Version 1.4.2

- minor bugfixes

App Privacy

The developer, Bethany T Cassidy , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

Full access $6.99
Full Access $39.99
Full Access $14.99
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Privacy Policy

IMAGES

Science Homework Help: Working Scientifically
Chemistry Homework Bundle
PPT
Science Homework Help: Making Science Easier and Fun
Science Homework Help
What is a Scientist? Activities and Lesson Plans

VIDEO

Win Science Project (P3 Term 3: Science Portfolio Task 1)
Science Homework by Ken Nesbitt
🙂 My science Homework points and exercises 🙂
Summer Holiday science homework # worksheet #questions # sciencenews magazine # MDP class 7 by Manvi
I Need A Piece Of Paper!
Science Homework

COMMENTS

Science Help
Get Science Help from Chegg. Chegg is one of the leading providers of science help for college and high school students. Get help and expert answers to your toughest science questions. Master your science assignments with our step-by-step science textbook solutions. Ask any science question and get an answer from our experts in as little as two ...
Science
Learn Earth and space science using videos, articles, and NGSS-aligned practice. Review the fundamentals of space systems, weather and climate, Earth's history and systems, and human impacts. Earth in space: Middle school Earth and space science.
Science Questions and Answers
a. There are more bees on flowers in untended fields than on flowers in gardens. b. Bright pink flowers will attract more bees than bright orange flowers.... Einstein's theory of relativity and Newton's theory of gravity are good examples of scientific theories because they are _____ in nature. Select all that apply.
What is science?
Chapter 4 / Lesson 5. 202. The sciences, such as biology and chemistry, are the basis for a variety of careers, including jobs in healthcare, environmentalism, and agriculture. Learn about the different types of science, and explore careers in the sciences. Review the typical courses and the major coursework required to earn a science degree ...
Khan Academy
Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Brainly
Get personalized homework help for free — for real. Join for free. Brainly is the knowledge-sharing community where hundreds of millions of students and experts put their heads together to crack their toughest homework questions.
Science Worksheets & Printables
Science Worksheets and Printables. Long before they learn what the word "science" means, most kids develop a fascination with their scientific surroundings—above them, below them, and around them. Our science worksheets tap into that fascination with grade-specific lessons and activities about astronomy, geology, chemistry, and more.
science
Science is a huge field of study. It deals with the search for knowledge about the universe and all that is in it. People who work in science are called scientists.
science
Science plays a major role in society, and even nonscientists can appreciate scientific progress. Because of science, human understanding of the past, present, and future is constantly in a state of flux. ... Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards. A new, third level of content, designed ...
What is science? Explain.
Explain what you believe is the real difference between science and pseudoscience. Examine the key reasons why so many people might seem to be attracted to more pseudoscience-type claims. Describe at least two (2) such claims that usually people make, and; Choose one of the assumptions and attitudes of science and explain it in detail.
The Science Page
You will enjoy these science and science education sites. Thanks for visiting this site, and drop around again when you want more neat science information! Resources in: biology, chemistry, physics, environment, weather, earth science, space, paleontology, science fairs, analogies, constants, history, magazines, newsgroups, teacher resources ...
High school physics
New high school physics course coming soon! In July 2024, we're replacing this course with a brand new high school physics course aligned to NGSS! Get ready to explore physics, from the grand scale of stars and planets down to the subatomic world of charged particles, through all new videos and exercises. Get more info here.
The 5 Best Homework Help Websites (Free and Paid!)
Best Paid Homework Help Site: Chegg. Price: $14.95 to $19.95 per month. Best for: 24/7 homework assistance. This service has three main parts. The first is Chegg Study, which includes textbook solutions, Q&A with subject experts, flashcards, video explanations, a math solver, and writing help.
Printable Science Worksheets for Teachers
Help your students improve their scientific knowledge and skills with our printable science worksheets. With these interactive worksheets, your students can master any scientific concept.
How science works
Understanding Science 101. The Scientific Method, as presented in many textbooks, is oversimplified. Misconception: There is a single Scientific Method that all scientists follow. Correction: The Scientific Method is an oversimplified representation of what is really a rich, complex, and unpredictable process. Read more about it.
Get unstuck. Learn better.
This app is amazing". - High School Student. [The app provides] "great exposure to different types of learning materials for students to learn from, as well as teaches students to use multiple sources to draw conclusions for questions or scenarios." - High School Science Teacher. Take a photo of your homework question and get answers, math ...
Should homework be banned?
Homework is a controversial topic in education, but what does the science say? Explore the pros and cons of homework and its impact on students' well-being in this article from BBC Science Focus Magazine.
Online Science Tutoring
An online science tutor can help students in these specific areas while students learn from virtually anywhere in the world. Online science tutoring options offer flexible scheduling for students ...
10 Apps to Help Students With Their Science Homework
This way, students can take charge of their own learning and homework skills. #1 The Chemical Touch. This amazing resource will help students ace Chemistry. A full periodic table is given on the app. Once a student touches a specific element, they can study it more in depth such as its atomic mass and properties.
What is the purpose of science?
Answer and Explanation: 1. Become a Study.com member to unlock this answer! Create your account. View this answer. Science is a community that works together to provide accurate explanations of how the natural world works. Many scientists agree on three central...
Holiday Homework Class 12 Science 2024-25
HOLIDAY_HOMEWORK_CLASS_12_SCIENCE_2024-25_(1) - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.
Nix Homework to Help Students? What the Science Says
To estimate an appropriate amount of time for students to spend doing homework, educators may use "the 10-minute rule" which means multiplying a child's grade level by 10 minutes of homework a ...
Biology archive
The biology archive contains legacy biology content, and is not being updated with new content. Exercises and mastery mechanics will soon be removed from the biology archive. For our most up-to-date, mastery-enabled courses, check out High School Biology and AP Biology! Welcome to biology! The science of biology Water and life.
What's the point of homework?
Research based on teacher interviews shows they set homework for a range of reasons. These include to: establish and improve communication between parents and children about learning. help ...
Ted-ED "What the World Could Look Like in 2050" Video Questions
Questions to accompany the Ted-ED animated video "What the World Could Look Like in 2050." The video speculates about the future effects of emissions and global warming and is very thought-provoking. This is a great resource for an Earth Sciences, Geography, or other science classes. The questions are also helpful for easy sub planning.
Homework Help AI: Study Helper 4+
‎Our app offers innovative AI-based solutions tailored to support students from primary school through to university, available 24/7. This means no more late nights trying to tackle tough problems! Features: • Tackles a Range of Math Problems The app simplifies complex math tasks, from basic arithme…