Some colleges require students to take remedial classes to catch up to other students, but these courses typically don’t count towards your degree. Save time and money by avoiding the remedial classes and focusing on classes that count towards your degree.

Remedial Classes
Remedial classes are courses that may be required for students to build up their skills in math, reading, or English before they are allowed to take regular college courses. This not only means that you have to delay taking college-level courses until you complete the remedial courses, but it also means that you are paying for a course that won’t count as credit towards your degree.

Will I be Required to Take Remedial Classes?
You may feel totally college ready. Maybe you recently graduated from high school with high marks, or maybe you’ve been picking up on skills by working before returning to college. So remedial courses, they’re not going to apply to you…right?

Remedial Classes
According to Education Reform Now, approximately one-in-four college freshmen had to enroll in remedial courses during their first year in college. Looking at the total cost of these remedial classes, including private, public, and community colleges, the remedial class enrollment adds up to an estimated $1.5 billion annually.

While your courses may be less expensive in a community college than at a private college, the American Association of Community Colleges estimates that more community college students enroll in remedial courses as compared to public, four-year college students: 68% in community college as opposed to 40% in public, four-year colleges. You may be more at risk to enroll in a course that doesn’t help contribute to your degree, which will increase your total length in college. If it takes you five years to complete college instead of the traditional four-year program, that’s an extra years worth of courses you have to pay for.

Why Does it Matter?
Education Reform Now also found that full-time students seeking bachelor’s degrees were 74% more likely to drop out of college if they took remedial courses in their first year, and those who do graduate take an average of 11 months longer than non-remedial students. An extra year in college is not cheap, even at a community college!

Graduation
Some colleges are reforming their policies, thanks to the nonprofit Complete College America who is campaigning for universities to offer remediation alongside college-level courses so students will stay on track to graduate within four years. Some colleges are now embedding remedial education into standard, credit-bearing courses, and others offer math lab courses for high school students struggling with the subject, but reform is not happening quickly enough.

Strategies for Avoiding Remedial Classes
Armed with the knowledge of what remedial classes are, what the impact is on your college costs and success rate, and knowing that education reform is not happening fast enough, you must take it in your own hands to avoid remedial classes. Luckily there are some strategies that can help you cut out the remedial classes and be prepared for college level courses.

It is up to your individual college to determine how students are placed in remedial courses. Some colleges use ACT or SAT scores, but most schools use post-enrollment placement exams to determine knowledge level. This is great news, because it means that you can take charge of your own education and place yourself above remedial-level by preparing for these placement exams.

If you’re still in high school, you can take advanced classes your junior and senior year. Enroll in an AP class if your high school offers it, and study hard for the exam. The grade in the class is great for helping out your overall GPA, and some schools even give an extra .5 GPA bump for taking the advanced class, but the score will determine whether your community college will accept this exam as credit for a remedial course. AP Exam practice questions are even available online.

If your school doesn’t offer AP classes, take math and English seriously your senior year. Most high schools don’t require students to take math their last year, but you may get ahead by taking a math class anyway. Ask lots of questions and try to understand the concepts instead of just memorizing the formulas. Working hard and taking challenging classes your last year will be the difference between remedial classes and for-credit classes.

Exams
During your enrollment process, ask questions and find out whether your community college places students in remedial courses based on SAT or ACT scores, or by placement exam. Be prepared to earn good scores for the determining tests by hiring a tutor, taking a preparation course, or buying a preparation book. Study hard for these exams, your time invested in earning a good grade will be worth it. The cost of a tutor or a prep class may seem high, but it will be much less money and time than the remedial course you will have to take if you don’t place high enough.

Your community college may also be able to tell you which exams will be required and whether they offer practice exams. Study the content of the exam, and hire a tutor if necessary. Enroll in free online resources like MyMathLab or MyMathTest to brush up on forgotten math skills. Placing high enough on these tests is critical to avoiding the remedial classes, which will in turn, help your overall success rate in graduation.

Hope
If you are placed in a remedial level course, don’t lose hope. Ask if you can see the results of the exam so you know where your weaknesses are, and ask to re-take the test after you have had some time to strengthen those areas. Some community colleges may offer self-paced math labs as an alternative to remedial classes, or they may consider allowing you to enroll in a college-level class with extra tutoring. Some colleges are allowing students to take a remedial class as a co-requisite program, meaning it would be taken at the same time as the for-credit class, which will save you time and won’t delay your graduation. Advocate for yourself and your chance to bypass the remedial level.

Economist Walt Whitman Rostow developed a theory of stages of economic growth. In this lesson, you’ll learn about each of the stages under Rostow’s theory. We’ll also take a look at some of the criticism of the theory.
Walt Whitman Rostow’s Work
How does a country’s economy develop and grow? Are there patterns that apply to all countries, or is the path to growth and development unique to each? Walt Whitman Rostow was an economist who developed a theory of how a country’s economy develops and grows, and in 1960 he took a crack at addressing these issues in his book, The Stages of Economic Growth.

Rostow argued that the economies of all countries could be placed within one of five different stages of economic growth. The stages include traditional society, preconditions to takeoff, takeoff, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Rostow’s Stages
According to Rostow, the first stage of economic development consists of traditional society. Traditional societies focus on the most basic of economic activities, such as farming and extraction industries like mining and harvesting of timber. The labor force is pretty much completely unskilled, and scientific and technological development is primitive. Rostow believes that traditional economies are generally unproductive.

The second stage of economic development is a transitional stage that establish the conditions necessary for further growth and development. This stage is referred to as preconditions to takeoff. At this stage, science and technology start to progress, which aids in economic productivity. The savings caused by increased productivity are saved and invested in other areas, including technology and infrastructure like roads, bridges, and harbors.

Rostow’s third stage is known as takeoff. In this stage, a handful of key new industries start to emerge in the national economy that help drive further economic growth. For example, the development of a steel industry may drive growth in an economy with ready access to iron ore. At this stage, Rostow claims that economic growth becomes the normal state of the economy. He also believed that this economic growth becomes self-sustaining at this point in development.

The fourth stage is known as the drive to maturity. This stage is about diversification and expansion. The economy in this stage of growth will be developing new and more sophisticated industries. For example, an economy going from producing steel and timber products to producing consumer electronics and computer chips is in the drive to maturity stage. In other words, the economy moves beyond the key bread and butter industries that fueled its takeoff into a more diverse and dynamic economic system. The workforce becomes more skilled due to the technological demands of the emerging industries. Moreover, economies at this stage become less dependent upon imports as their emerging industries can compete with them.

Rostow’s final stage is known as the age of high mass consumption. A high standard of living marks this stage. Services and consumer goods replace heavy industry as the engine or economic growth. The current state of the economies of the United States and Western Europe fall within this stage of development.

Macronutrients are energy-providing chemical substances consumed by organisms in large quantities. The three macronutrients in nutrition are carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.
What are Macronutrients?
Nutrients are environmental substances used for energy, growth, and bodily functions by organisms. Depending on the nutrient, these substances are needed in small amounts or larger amounts. Those that are needed in large amounts are called macronutrients.

There are three macronutrients required by humans: carbohydrates (sugar), lipids (fats), and proteins. Each of these macronutrients provides energy in the form of calories. For example:

In carbohydrates, there are 4 calories per gram.
In proteins, there are 4 calories per gram.
And in lipids, there are 9 calories per gram.
This means that if you look at a food label and it lists 10 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of protein, and 0 grams of fat, that food would contain 40 calories.

Carbohydrates
Humans need carbohydrates in the largest amounts. Currently, the USDA recommends that adults get 45-65% of their daily caloric intake from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are incredibly important to the diet for many reasons.

For starters, carbohydrates are easily metabolized, which just means chemically broken down, and used as the body’s main fuel source. All of our bodily tissues have the ability to use the simple carbohydrate, glucose, as energy. When the body uses carbohydrates for energy, it can use other macronutrients for other jobs, like tissue growth and repair.

The brain, kidneys, muscles and heart all need carbohydrates to function properly, and carbohydrates aid in the synthesis of certain amino acids. Furthermore, fats can only be properly metabolized when carbohydrates are present and indigestible carbohydrates, in the form of fiber, are necessary for intestinal health.

Carbohydrates are primarily found in starchy foods, like grain and potatoes, as well as fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts. Carbohydrates can be simple or complex, which refers to their chemical structure. Simple carbohydrates taste very sweet (like fruit sugar), while complex carbohydrates taste savory (like starch in potatoes).

Fiber is an indigestible form of carbohydrate. Since humans cannot break down fiber carbohydrates, they pass through the digestive system whole and take other waste products with them. Diets low in fiber have problems with waste elimination, constipation, and hemorrhoids. Diets high in fiber have shown decreased risk for obesity, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grain products all contain high amounts of fiber.

Proteins
Currently the USDA recommends 10%-35% of calories in the human diet come from protein. The typical American diet contains more protein than is strictly necessary. Proteins are also important in the diet for many reasons.

For example, protein is the major constituent of most cells, making up more than 50% of the dry weight. Also, protein defines what an organism is, what it looks like, and how it behaves, because the body is made of thousands of proteins. Proteins are used to produce new tissues for growth and tissue repair and regulate and maintain body functions. Enzymes used for digestion, protection, and immunity are made of protein, and essential hormones used for body regulation require protein. Finally, proteins may be used as a source of energy when carbohydrates are not available.

Protein is found in meats, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, nuts, legumes, and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables. People who consume a vegetarian diet can get plenty of protein if they keep a balanced diet.

The body breaks down protein into its building blocks – amino acids. There are 500 known amino acids, 21 of which are needed by humans. Of the 21 necessary for life, nine are considered essential since they cannot be produced by the body and must be eaten. Proteins that contain all nine essential amino acids are considered ‘high quality’ proteins. These high quality proteins tend to come from animal sources. Proteins that do not contain all nine essential amino acids are considered ‘low quality’ proteins, and tend to come from plant sources.

Scientific investigation is the way in which scientists and researchers use a systematic approach to answer questions about the world around us. Read on to find out more. A quiz is provided to test your understanding.
Scientific Investigation
Some time ago, I was asked to be a judge at a local school science fair. I went to the school to do my judging duty and there were the usual projects: Alaina had a volcano that erupted a vinegar and baking soda mixture; Phillip displayed a three-dimensional mobile of the solar system; and Mariah discussed a potato in a jar of water with a plant growing out of it.

But I was looking for something more. Was there a kid there that really wanted to conduct a scientific investigation? Then I found it. Back in the corner of the gym was a small table and an even smaller boy with a rather crudely made poster. It read, ‘How does the angle of a ramp affect how fast a toy car will roll down?’ I quickly made my way over to the boy’s station and saw that he had an experimental setup with a long wooden ramp and a way to measure the angle of the ramp. He also had a toy car and a stopwatch. Perfect!

Intrigued, I asked him a number of questions. What is your hypothesis? How would you describe your experimental setup? What were your results? Did they support your hypothesis? What about errors in your measurements? Calmly, the boy answered each question and then showed me this table with results scrawled in:

Experimental data from the car and ramp
Car and ramp experiment data
After a long discussion with the lad, I came to the conclusion that he had conducted a thorough scientific investigation and had learned much from this experience. I voted for an ‘A’ grade! Let’s find out more about what constitutes good scientific investigation.

Scientific investigation is a quest to find the answer to a question using the scientific method. In turn, the scientific method is a systematic process that involves using measurable observations to formulate, test or modify a hypothesis. Finally, a hypothesis is a proposed explanation for some observed phenomenon, based on experience or research. Scientific investigation is what people like you and me use to develop better models and explanations for the world around them.

Steps for Scientific Investigation
As you can imagine, there are several phases to a good scientific investigation. These may vary a bit in the literature, but they generally include five steps.

Step one – Observe something of interest

The young man at the science fair obviously enjoyed playing with toy cars and had noticed that when he increased the pitch of the ramp, the cars went faster. He wondered what the relationship was between the steepness of the ramp and the speed of the car, beyond just the obvious fact that it went faster as the slope increased. People who engage in a scientific investigation usually do so because they don’t know or are unsure of some aspects of the observation or because they want to confirm a hunch about the observation.

Step two – Formulate a question that can be answered in a measurable way

It’s important to ask the question so that it can be answered in a measurable way. Beginning the question with ‘what,’ ‘how’ or ‘why’ is a good start. The question should also be focused. Many researchers make the mistake of trying to ‘boil the ocean’ with a question that is too general. For example, ‘Why do people get sick?’ would not lend itself to a good scientific investigation in anyone’s lifetime, even though it’s a pertinent question. Remember, boiling the ocean is quite a bit more difficult than boiling a pot of water.

Step three – Formulate a hypothesis that answers the question based on experience or research

You may be wondering, ‘Why come up with a hypothesis about something we’re trying to discover?’ It’s much easier to analyze data and compare it to an existing theory than to try to develop a theory from scratch. There are already good models for much of what we observe, so we can usually find the seeds of an answer to our question through research. Many times, scientific investigation is used just to make incremental improvements to a theory, process or product. In short, the hypothesis brings to bear all that is already known about the question; it gives us context for what we’re studying.

When I asked the young boy about his hypothesis, he said, ‘When I play with my cars, I notice that when I start increasing the slope of the ramp, the speed of the car seems to change a lot. Later on, at the higher slopes, the car goes fast but each change seems to have less effect. My dad’s a teacher and when I talked to him about this, he said that the force of gravity goes straight down. So the part of gravity that is affecting my car changes with the angle, but it changes less at the higher angles. He said it has something to do with trigonometry. I don’t know what that is. Anyway, that’s what I am expecting to happen.’

A hydroxyl group is a pair of atoms that is commonly found in organic compounds, such as sugars and alcohols. Learn more about the importance of this group and quiz yourself at the end.
What Is a Hydroxyl Group?
Many people enjoy a glass of wine on any given day, or use rubbing alcohol to clean a wound. And there probably isn’t a person on Earth who doesn’t consume some form of sugar every day. But it’s highly unlikely that these same people are wondering about the chemical makeup of alcohol and sugar. In this lesson, we will learn about a key component in the chemical makeup of sugars and alcohols. While these substances have many different chemical compositions, sugars and alcohols all have two things in common: they are all carbon-based, and they all contain a pair of atoms called the hydroxyl group.

Before we get into the specifics of hydroxyl groups, it is important to get a better understanding of carbon-based molecules. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-based molecules. These molecules, otherwise known as organic molecules, are so important that life could not exist without them. DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates are examples of organic molecules that are necessary for every living being. And the hydroxyl group is one of their essential building blocks.

Chemical Formula and Structure of the Hydroxyl Group
A hydroxyl group is composed of one hydrogen atom bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is written as either -OH or HO-. The ‘-‘ represents the carbon to which the hydroxyl group is bonded.

The R in the structural formula stands for the carbon backbone of the organic molecule to which the hydroxyl attaches.

Functional Groups in Organic Molecules
To further explore the specifics of a hydroxyl group, let’s go back to our basic understanding of an organic molecule. Organic molecules are carbon-based and also may contain oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and/or phosphorus. Structurally, these molecules are composed of two main parts.

The first part is the carbon backbone, in which the carbon atoms are bonded together forming a carbon backbone.

The second are the functional groups, which are small groups of atoms, such as hydrogen and oxygen, that are bonded to the carbon backbone. Functional groups are so named because they function as the chemically reactive area of the molecule.

The hydroxyl group (-OH) is one example of a functional group. When hydroxyl groups are the primary functional group bonded to carbon backbones, the resulting molecules are alcohols. Here we see the structural formula for the organic molecule ethanol (a type of alcohol) with the hydroxyl group on the far right.

Methanol, isopropyl alcohol, and propanol are additional examples of alcohols containing the hydroxyl group.

Carbohydrate molecules, or sugars, have hydroxyl groups, too. However, sugars also contain another important functional group, called the carbonyl group (-CO), that alcohols don’t have. This is what distinguishes sugars from alcohols. Looking at the structure of a sugar called glucose, you can see that there are hydroxyl groups on each side of both examples.