The teacher distributes the syllabus on the first day of class and spends about an hour discussing it in detail. Students are encouraged to arrange their schedules so that they can spend one or two hours a day working on the lecture part of the course outside class. In addition, they should have schedules such that they may attend laboratory at least three or four hours per week when the lab room is open. On the first day of class, students are informed about dates for tests, homework, and laboratory assignments and length of time needed to complete various parts of the course. The teacher encourages students to seek him out at any time during the school term to discuss problems they are having successfully completing any parts of the course.
Students learn strategies for taking geology lecture and lab tests.
Students are encouraged to purchase copies of past lecture test questions available in the bookstore so they can observe how test questions are worded and as practice for the current term's exams. Both of the above also are designed to help reduce test anxiety for students, especially for those for whom science has been daunting in the past. Condensing and summarizing. Students learn how to take notes in a science class. Teacher summarizes each lecture's major topics, then uses a series of overhead transparencies as examples of those topics and their applications in the real world.