Get Into These Top Chemist Jobs by Taking a Summer Or Off-Season Course

Get Into These Top Chemist Jobs by Taking a Summer Or Off-Season CourseIf you are interested in studying the biological sciences then Brooklyn Chemistry Tutors is an ideal option for you. The careers of many graduates are very exciting, but they are not always easy to pursue. One of the best ways to learn about these careers is by finding out about the places where people can get the best education in these areas.Brooklyn Chemistry Tutors is an ideal way for people to start a career in the field of this science. It is a rapidly growing field and there are many companies who need chemists to work for them. Getting into a place where you can work will help you learn a lot about the different aspects of this particular job. There are many different places in Brooklyn that offer careers in the field of this science.The Brooklyn Fabricator Association, a non-profit organization that is based in Brooklyn, offers several opportunities for people to find jobs in the fabricator industry. You can get into a place like this if you are looking for a career in the textile industry.The Brooklyn Aerospace Industry Association also has opportunities available for people to get into this field. Many companies require people who can work with aeronautics to be very educated in the technical side of this area. It is an excellent way to get into a place where you can start your career.Those who have graduated from high school are also in a position to get into such a field. New York City colleges also offer classes that lead to the fields of this science. This is a great way to get into a place where you can start your career.If you are currently studying a science class or reading up on a subject, you can also get into a place that offers this career. The Fauquier County Library system inVirginia offers the classes that people need to get into this field. You should get a hold of the library and see if they can help you with the logistics of it.Brooklyn Chemistry Tutors is one of the best ways to get into a place where you can start your career in the area of this science. You can find out more about all of the places that are available for you to get into if you contact your local library or school. There are many benefits of getting into such a place, including being able to enjoy the benefits of education while working in a particular field.

Give Your Career a Boost With an MBA

Give Your Career a Boost With an MBA pexels.com Flexibility of Application You might be thinking that an MBA could not possibly help you if you are not or were not a business major but that is definitely not true! An MBA can be useful to people in all career fields. We all need to make money and part of getting your MBA is learning the best little tricks of the trade to help you do that. You yourself are a business, from how you present yourself and whatever work you do, and an MBA can help you learn to harness your full potential in a way that can make you much more successful. It teaches you how to sell yourself and even how to create yourself as a brand. Are you a painter? You have got to sell paintings to get by. Are you an actor? You need to be able to land and book jobs. Are you a tutor? You need to find clients and manage them effectively. Everything you do is a business and every meeting a business transaction. An MBA can help you really dig down deep and understand the full implications of your actions and help you figure out the most effective course to make yourself successful no matter what your business is. Higher Salary Another benefit of having an MBA is that it can help you land a higher paying job to begin with. You have gone to school and slaved away for a couple years to learn all this helpful business acumen. So when you go back into the work force you need to make sure that the company who hires you is paying for all that expertise that you worked so hard to get! And a lot of companies will pay you a higher salary, hoping to entice you and all that business savvy to get on board and apply it towards their business. You learned a lot in business school so do not underplay your knowledge or your potential value to a company. You can help to make a business even bigger, better and stronger. The least the company could do is pay you accordingly. pexels.com Better Opportunities Getting an MBA can help you with getting more than just a pay raise it can also help you to get a better position to start with! Now you have professional experience so you do not necessarily have to start with an entry level job. Having that degree can help to make up for some missing experience (though of course not all). It will make it easier so that you do not have to claw your way to the top from the bottom of the heap. You will probably still need to do some climbing if you want to get all the way to the top, but it will make your entry into the business and the industry a lot easier. Speak with Authority An MBA is also very effective, no matter what field you are in, because it helps you to speak with authority on business matters that you might otherwise have been clueless about. And let me tell you, a lot of people with no business background can be pretty clueless about those kinds of things. Lots of people want to open their own businesses but they often do not know where to start, the things they need to do, nor do they understand or recognize the terms being thrown at them or understand why they are being directed to do something. But hey, you went to graduate school. You learned all about all those things. You will know just where to start and how to articulate yourself in these situations whether you are opening up your business, helping someone else start their own, or advising a business that wants to improve. Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

Bayan Gardens School

Bayan Gardens School Bayan Gardens School Community: Located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Alkhobar is a thriving commercial and industrial center. The main industry is oil. Parents of students are employed in medical, business, banking and engineering fields. 60% of the parents have a college degree. Schools: Bayan Gardens Schools are a college preparatory K-12 private elite schools with two branches, one for girls with a student body of over 600 students and 200 faculty members and the other for boys with a student body of over 100 students and 30 faculty members. The schools opened in fall of 1999 and its first senior class graduated in the spring of 2012. Bayan Gardens Schools is accredited by the Saudi Ministry of Education and AdvancED. Calendar: BGS schools year begins in September and ends in June. Students attend schools 179 days, divided between 4 quarters and 2 semesters. Classes are 40 minutes each and meet 5 times a week, Sunday to Thursday. Curriculum: Bayan Gardens has a unique dual Arabic and English curriculum. In grades 1-3, the day is organized in 10 periods, with five periods taught in Arabic and five periods taught in English. In grades 4-12, BGS follows the American Diploma Program, where 7 periods are offered in English and 3 in Arabic. Elementary core curriculum consists of English Language Arts, Math, Science, Arabic Literature, Islamic Studies and Social Studies. In addition to the core academic subjects, students are required to take Computers, Math lab, Science lab, Art, Guided Reading and P.E that is included in the instructional day. BGS Middle and High schools (MHS) offers 2 programs: The Math and Science Academy and the Regular Program. MHS core curriculum consists of English Language Arts, Math (Pre- Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Pre-calculus, Applied calculus, Geometry, Statistics) Science (Integrated Science, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Biochemistry and Gateway to Engineering), Economics and Personal Finance.

What Kind of Job is Right for You

What Kind of Job is Right for You Image via unsplash.com Take a career test (or multiple) as a starting point Just as there may be multiple guides or career center counselors helping guide you into the decision on which job is right for you, there are also plenty of tests designed to help you narrow down a list of career option. Of course, this is going to be a lot different than setting up an appointment with a counselor from your campus career center and getting personalized advice solely for you, but it may be helpful to take a few career tests to help you narrow down a list of careers that you can use to find the job that is right for you. If you do decide to take multiple career tests, try identifying jobs that reoccur in every test result. Something that comes up more often can be seen as more accurate and can be something worth looking into as a career option. Career tests wont always give you the right answer or the perfect career fit, but it can help you start out by identifying specific career paths that are worth your while in a world where there a seemingly endless amount of options for you to pick from. A typical career test will ask you for your strengths, your weaknesses, your job aspirations, what you value in a career, and more. Career tests are definitely not the end game situation or will offer you up the job that is right for you on a silver platter, but it can definitely serve as an effective starting point when the options seem endless at the beginning of your job search. Identify your strengths and use them to your advantage When it comes to deciding what job is right for you, why not take advantage of the strengths and skill set you already have to help identify a job that is right for you? Something like a career test can help you identify your strengths, but you can also look to your past job experience and education to help you look for strengths that you have put to the test. Think back to a few positions you have filled out, whether it was in an extracurricular activity or a job, and recall the types of work you were expected to complete. Were there specific tasks that you excelled at over others, or skills that have been proven time and time again by different situations? Consider your communication skills. Are you often described as a people person or a team player? Are you often praised for your ability to deliver exceptional customer service skills? If so, look into careers that you can use your strengths to your advantage. Are you great in collaborative settings, or are you better off working alone? Consider your productivity levels when it comes to work environments if you are better off working alone or tend to be more self-driven, use that to your advantage when picking out which job is right for you. Here is a list of strengths that you may have and may want to consider using as the basis for your journey to find out which job is right for you: Communication skills customer service abilities, collaborative efforts. Human Resources may be the area you want to look into. Language skills if you can speak multiple languages, use it to your advantage for jobs that having fluency in multiple languages can help accelerate your career. Writing if you are known to have your way with written words, jobs that require you to write may bring you the successful future you are looking for. If youre lost on identifying your strengths, you may want to consider asking around to people who know you well friends, family, coworkers, supervisors that have gotten to know you and are able to identify your strong points. While you may not be able to recognize certain strengths on your own, those you surround yourself with may be able to do the job for you. Likewise, people that you trust and people that know you well will also be honest with you about something that you may think is your strength, but is actually not your strongest point. Infographic by Kaitlin Hurtado, via canva.com Dont rely solely on   passion, but dont rule it out completely   The phrases follow your heart or follow your dreams can often be thrown around when it comes to discussing your possible career options. It is the ideal option being able to do what you love and get paid for it when it becomes your actual career. However, we cant always realistically pick our career based on whatever you are most passionate about and the job that is right for you is not necessarily going to be based on whatever you are most passionate about. If you are thinking about narrowing down passions to consider when looking for the job that is right for you, here are some methods: Previous experience. Think of any extracurriculars or jobs that you have had over the years. Is there anyone in particular that you would be interested in building off of in order to build a full-time career? Hobbies and leisure activities. What leisure activities or hobbies do you stick to in your daily life? Building a career or finding out if you can turn your hobbies into a career is something worth looking into. What sparks your creativity? This may be the same as your hobby but think about the topics or interests that spark your creativity and productivity. What activities prompt you to be innovative and allow you to constantly challenge yourself and grow. If you can think of one, you may want to consider making a career based on it as it is something that allows you to have some drive. Passion can be a stepping stone in the journey that is singling out which job is right for you. Have a couple of causes or topics that you are really passionate about? Research what careers you can get related to that one passion. For example, if you are passionate about animals, you might not be able to just adopt every animal you can to help them out, but you can go into a career field where you can put energy and work into helping out the animals that you are passionate about. Picture yourself as a marine biologist and dedicating your career by contributing to the life of the animals that you love. Incorporating your passion into your process of picking out a job that is right for you is important, but its also important to consider other factors such as your fit for the job. Just because you are passionate about something, does not mean that you are automatically going to be the perfect fit for a certain job related to it or that the job is going to be a fit for you and your own personal needs. Consider your long term goals   Yes, change is bound to happen as time goes on, but when picking out which job is right for you, its important to consider the long term goals you have in the future. Your initial thoughts of long term goals will probably be your long term career goals, such as what company you want to work for, what position you want to reach, or general achievements you want to accomplish. These long term career goals are important, but it is also equally important to consider long term goals in other areas of your life. Do you plan on settling down into one place to create a stable life for yourself, or to stay grounded with your current support system close to what you call home? Choosing a job that allows you to stay in one place to establish a life for yourself with stability may be the perfect fit for you. Or if you want to spend your life traveling more often and having more freedom to move around as you please; this can be picking a career that allows you to travel and get paid to do so, or pick a career where you can have more control over your schedule and hours in order to travel. If you have a target salary that is high on your priorities list when it comes to the perfect job for you, you should also place importance on the type of career that would realistically give you the target salary that you are aiming for. Dont let any one specific goal be the ultimate deciding factor on choosing what job is good for you try to achieve a level of balance so that even if your goals change over time, it wont completely affect your career as your initial decisions were not relying on a single factor.  Be honest with yourself Picking out a job that is right for you starts with being honest and realistic with yourself. Sugarcoating reality will not do you any good it can actually hinder you from finding that job that is right for you. If youre looking at a certain career option and it sounds nice at the surface level, like it being a job that would make you look successful to your peers or that job just seems like a dream come true, it might not actually be the perfect fit for you when it comes down to you. Think about any one career option and focus on envisioning yourself in that career. The daily tasks, the lifestyle it will force you to take up, where the position will take you in your career and life. Can you imagine it as a possibility you want to actively seek out? Or is it something you would like for a couple of years then abandon when you realize that it doesnt make you happy? Remember that as much as you may want to start a specific career, you might not be able to be successful in it due to not have the right skill set or not being able to mesh with the lifestyle that it demands. A job that is right for you is a job that you can work successfully in and a job that will bring you the level of success you want to reach. Image via unsplash.com While you are trying to figure out which job is right for you, you may turn to different individuals or guides on how to find out which job is right for you, but at the end of the day, the job picked is the job you are going to have to do for yourself. Remember that your opinion, above all, is the most important when it comes to deciding what job is right for you because you know your priorities and needs better than anyone else ever will. The pressure may feel high and overwhelming at first, and you might not get the right choice at first, but just remember that every attempt and try is a learning experience and you will get to where you need to be! A mistake is just another opportunity to learn, and just another stepping stone to get you closer to finding out what job is right for you. Good luck!

Kumon Staff Pick Fever, 1793

Kumon Staff Pick Fever, 1793 Kumon Staff Pick: Fever, 1793 RRL Title: Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson Grade/Kumon Level of Book: 9-12/H 7 Why do you personally enjoy this book? Fever, 1793 is a moving work of historical fiction that, once begun, is a hard one to put down. While it is a quick read, the character development is such that readers can feel as if they are reading about actual people and events. The narrative makes it easy to imagine what it was like during this devastating time in late 18th c. Philadelphia. This novel was awarded the Scott ODell Award for Historical Fiction in 2009. Why do you think students would enjoy this book? Mattie Cook, the protagonist and narrator, takes us through the horrific effects that yellow fever had on the citizens of our nation’s capital, Philadelphia, in the summer of 1793. Students may enjoy this novel, as it is told through a series of journal-type entries made by fourteen year old Mattie Cook. Her outspoken personality and quirky imagination keep readers engaged and wanting to know what is going to happen next. When one of her friends dies from the fever, it’s only the beginning of a chain of events that tests Mattie’s moral fiber. In order to survive, she must employ the independence and fortitude gained from helping her widowed mother and paternal grandfather run their family-owned coffeehouse. Mattie is forced to grow up quickly and leave her carefree youth behind to come to the aid of her family. This is a great story for students who are interested in American history. What skills and/or values might students gain by reading this book? Reading this book gives students an insight into what it was like to live in the late 1700s. Mattie has to trust her own judgement and, at times, remind herself of the right thing to do. Perseverance, dealing with loss, and hanging on to a dream in the face of adversity are a few of the values that are evident throughout the story. Students will also learn about the invaluable importance of a strong family bond. You might also be interested in: Kumon Staff Pick: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Kumon Staff Pick: Were Going on a Bear Hunt Kumon Staff Pick: My Father’s Dragon Kumon Staff Pick: Clown by Quentin Blake Kumon Staff Pick Fever, 1793 Kumon Staff Pick: Fever, 1793 RRL Title: Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson Grade/Kumon Level of Book: 9-12/H 7 Why do you personally enjoy this book? Fever, 1793 is a moving work of historical fiction that, once begun, is a hard one to put down. While it is a quick read, the character development is such that readers can feel as if they are reading about actual people and events. The narrative makes it easy to imagine what it was like during this devastating time in late 18th c. Philadelphia. This novel was awarded the Scott ODell Award for Historical Fiction in 2009. Why do you think students would enjoy this book? Mattie Cook, the protagonist and narrator, takes us through the horrific effects that yellow fever had on the citizens of our nation’s capital, Philadelphia, in the summer of 1793. Students may enjoy this novel, as it is told through a series of journal-type entries made by fourteen year old Mattie Cook. Her outspoken personality and quirky imagination keep readers engaged and wanting to know what is going to happen next. When one of her friends dies from the fever, it’s only the beginning of a chain of events that tests Mattie’s moral fiber. In order to survive, she must employ the independence and fortitude gained from helping her widowed mother and paternal grandfather run their family-owned coffeehouse. Mattie is forced to grow up quickly and leave her carefree youth behind to come to the aid of her family. This is a great story for students who are interested in American history. What skills and/or values might students gain by reading this book? Reading this book gives students an insight into what it was like to live in the late 1700s. Mattie has to trust her own judgement and, at times, remind herself of the right thing to do. Perseverance, dealing with loss, and hanging on to a dream in the face of adversity are a few of the values that are evident throughout the story. Students will also learn about the invaluable importance of a strong family bond. You might also be interested in: Kumon Staff Pick: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Kumon Staff Pick: Were Going on a Bear Hunt Kumon Staff Pick: My Father’s Dragon Kumon Staff Pick: Clown by Quentin Blake

The New Energy Source From Carbon Nanofibers

The New Energy Source From Carbon NanofibersA new and innovative option for students in a Chemical Engineering course is the Carbon Nanofibers, a synthetic molecule that uses nanotechnology to make polymer panels from the inside out. The innovation that they provide is a new method of fabrication and an extension of polymer science, which is able to resolve the main issue facing materials scientists of various industries, namely how to manufacture cost effective but versatile polymers using their existing synthetic materials.Carbon Nanofibers (CNF) offer many advantages over their traditional counterparts. For one, the quality is better and the overall structure is stiffer, while the functional properties are better because of the inability of the CNF molecules to easily break down. In addition, the process of fabrication is more suitable for real industrial applications.The cost of carbon nmr is also lower than traditional manufacturing processes, because the material is more flexib le. The material can be manufactured with greater density, and hence faster production. The material is also more stable in temperature and is produced more efficiently in large volume to increase the output.On the other hand, the main disadvantage of carbon nmr is that they don't have physical structure as rigid as traditional materials. These drawbacks have been overcome by the incorporation of Graphene, which is a novel one-atom thick compound of graphite and carbon. Graphene is a one-way molecular channel of carbon and oxygen that facilitates the electrochemical transfer of electrons between these two layers and thus makes it a perfect conductor of electricity and water.Carbon nmr exhibits a large range of useful properties and gives an important advantage in industrial applications that one must consider while designing structures. Other advantages of these materials include superior quality, stiffer structure, large surface area, electrical conductivity, and potential to prote ct the environment from pollution and greenhouse gases.A team of carbon nmr researchers, led by Chemical Engineering Professor Daniel L. Deolali, has just released a new type of nanocomposite polymer, which offers the best combination of performance and flexibility. However, they are still working on more advanced systems to add extra features to enhance the functionality of the material.At present, carbon nmr is the first and foremost polymer that offers a stronger material with improved quality and functionality in an inexpensive way. So, why wait?

How Does a Soft Tutor Help You Learn How to Read and Write?

How Does a Soft Tutor Help You Learn How to Read and Write?If you are a person that has trouble with learning how to read and write, you may want to consider a soft tutor. A tutor is a person who offers tutoring for kids with the help of soft toys. A lot of people would agree that learning how to read and write can be very difficult. While it is important to use your brain in reading and writing, it is also necessary to develop other skills.To get these skills, you may want to get tutoring from a tutor, whether it is in the form of book reading, watching TV or even playing video games. In fact, you may want to consider getting your tutor to help you get good grades in school. There are several benefits of getting a tutor such as; they will help you in your studies, they will help you learn at your own pace, they will make your classes easier, they will give you time to learn on your own, and they will help you to develop other skills that you may need in life.If you have a hard time learning, there are several reasons why you may want to consider getting tutoring from a tutor. Some of the reasons include; the way the teacher is teaching you, the way the classroom is set up, or the way the teacher keeps things interesting.If you have a hard time figuring out what is going on, you may want to consider a tutor. Teachers usually have a difficult time keeping their students interested in the material. It can be frustrating to sit in class and not understand what is going on. If you are having trouble understanding the material, then you will want to get a tutor to help you learn how to read and write.Learning how to read and write is a skill that is used by all professions. Not only will you need to learn this skill, but you will need to learn how to use it so that you can succeed in the future.Getting a tutor can help you learn faster. Since they have more experience with teaching, they will be able to teach you new techniques and methods that will help you improve your grades and also to make your learning fun.You can get a tutor in your local area and get tutoring at no cost. A lot of times you can find them on the internet, which is a great place to start your search for a tutor.

Reading Help Kindergarten Reading Kids Reading Tutorpace

Reading Help Kindergarten Reading Kids Reading Tutorpace Get Reading Tutoring Today that Really Helps Becoming a more proficient reader can help you succeed in every school subject and is an essential life skill. If your child needs help improving their reading skills, our tutors can bring them up to appropriate reading levels and help them get ahead. For most students, getting better with reading just takes extra work and practice. Tutor Pace has unlimited tutoring plans that will give your student the assistance they need to become a better reader. Safe, Certified Reading Tutors All of our tutors have been tested to make sure they have the skills necessary to help students succeed at reading. Each online tutor has passed a rigorous background check and personal information is never exchanged, so your child will remain safe. Comprehensive Reading Help Our tutors cover all of the important aspects of reading to give students a complete assistance program. Our online Reading tutors cover: Phonics High-frequency words Reading comprehension Improving reading fluency Improvements are tracked and you receive a report each month showing your childs progress. Tutor Paces Reading tutors can give your child an edge in school or help them catch up if they have fallen behind. In either situation, no other tutoring service provides the value of Tutor Pace.

How Tutors Can Encourage Higher-Order Thinking Skills

How Tutors Can Encourage Higher-Order Thinking Skills Higher-Order Thinking: How Tutors Encourage Students to Think ChaptersMarking the Path Toward Higher-Order ThinkingActivities That Promote Critical Thinking SkillsCultivating Problem Solving SkillsYour assignment: homework help.This particular student has trouble grasping aspects of an academic subject. S/he is not motivated to do any independent study and any prescribed assignment garners poor marks, either for its incomplete answers or for not being done at all.Desperate for academic success, this pupil’s caregivers envisage your supervising his/her work, both the accuracy and completeness thereof.Is there any room for you to do more?Might you perhaps find time and opportunity, in your weekly sessions with that student, to foster thinking skills? To plumb his/her depth of thought and bring to light previously untapped cognitive skills â€" skills s/he might not even know s/he possesses?Should you go beyond what you have been contracted to do â€" ensuring that homework gets done and is correct?Whether you are a classroom teacher who moonlight s as a tutor or someone who earns a living strictly by providing academic support outside of school, surely you know that encouraging students to think through their assignments rather than just doing them is an essential part of your function as an educator.Doing so might already be an integral part of your pedagogy.On the other hand, if you are new to tutoring or are undecided over whether to follow your clients’ wishes to the letter, working in the best interests of your students’ college and career prospects, you might revise your lesson planning and teaching strategies  to also impart thinking skills.Your Superprof now lays out tips, strategies and learning activities that will help you guide your charges to becoming higher-order thinkers.From whomever the saying originated, there is substantial truth in the idea that, if you handicap someone by limiting their access â€" to food, to work or to knowledge, that person will soon hunger again.However, arming people to provide f or themselves, be it in physical sustenance or intellectual curiosity permits them to be self-reliant in achieving their goals.This ethical reflection makes the case for educators’ efforts at instilling higher order thinking skills in their students.According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, three interrelated learning domains underpin a learner’s academic career. They are:the cognitive domain, which encapsulates knowledge â€" analysis, synthesis and comprehension of study materialthe affective domain is emotion-based, which triggers the responding to and valuing of information, as well as the characterisation and organisation of suchthe psychomotor domain includes guided response â€" maybe executing a math function through step by step prompts and complex overt response, such as those needed for 21st century skills.General education has traditionally only addressed the cognitive domain.Pretty much since the inception of compulsory education, it has been the foundation upon which learning objectives are set, the curriculum is structured and assessments are conducted.That means that fully 2/3 of Blooms Taxonomy is not even addressed which, in turn, means that a substantial portion of the student population’s learning needs is not being met.That leaves ample room for tutors to help their students develop higher level thinking... with a caveat!As we pointed out in a companion article, it is entirely possible to push students too hard in fostering higher-order thinking abilities.The net result of doing so could have disastrous consequences for both your mentoring relationship and on your pupil’s academic success.That is why it is best to start slowly...Teaching your students to think critically will make them star pupils! Source: Pixabay Credit: GeraltActivities That Promote Critical Thinking SkillsWho, what, when, where, why and how.These types of questions are a great way to start your students on the path to thinking critically - bearing in mind that doing so doe s not imply that criticism and finding fault  are the order of the day.Of the six questions featured in the 5W+H above, the last W, ‘why’, is perhaps the most critical.“Why do you think that?” “Why did that happen?” “Why is that answer the right one?” â€" should you be going over a just-completed multiple choice answer sheet, for instance.Simply asking ‘why?’ is an easy way to prime your pupils for thinking and it only takes a few times of your doing so for him/her to anticipate your question and have the answer ready.It is also an excellent way to assure student engagement â€" both with you and with the subject material.Once s/he becomes adept at answering those questions, you can take that game to the next level by having them write down all of the steps they took in arriving at their conclusion to a question you pose.Not only does that address the psychomotor domain outlined by Benjamin Bloom but it also calls for the student to outline any prior knowledge of the topic in question and fosters metacognition â€" the understanding of one’s own thought processes.If you are a school teacher, surely you know how limited opportunities such as these are in class!Once you are assured of your student’s ability to render reasoned conclusions to questions you pose, you might move on to debating: offering up a topic for discussion and allowing time to prepare arguments.You may perhaps task him/her to compare and contrast aspects of the topic and explain how s/he arrived at the conclusion s/he reached.Naturally, debating works better with study groups, where there would inevitably be several opinions offered up.Once assured that your charges are capable of thinking critically, it is time to tackle the second major branch of higher order thinking.Use sticky notes to organise facets of a problem Source: Pixabay Credit: BluebudgieCultivating Problem Solving SkillsCritical thinking skills are only half of the equation representing higher order thinkin g. The other half is problem-solving skills, and fostering those requires finesse as well as a bit of educational psychology.Educational psychology concerns itself with cognitive development, learning methods and student assessment.Specifically applied to problem solving, cognitive development addresses how your students process information and how creatively they approach ‘problems’.The problem may be an open-ended question you pose, a word problem in their math homework or a social problem with other students at school.Yes, even those can impact student learning!Let’s assume, for the sake of this discussion that you have posed a challenging question that requires some thought. You get to see their critical thinking skills at work!1. You might suggest s/he  â€˜play’ with the problem. This encourages him/her to look at the issue from many different perspectives; you could even suggest a few.2. Break the problem down into component parts. What is involved? Who is involved? Wh ere did it happen? Why? How? You could then guide him/her to determining the biggest aspect of the problem or the aspect easiest to solve.5W+H is an excellent tool to use in problem solving activities!3. Get verbal! Reasoning through a problem out loud helps to slow down thought processes so that students don’t feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the issue.Perhaps, if your student is a kinesthetic learner (or particularly agitated), you might suggest s/he write down the main components of the problem on sticky-notes as s/he talks. One sticky for each aspect, and then organise them in order of importance.4. Focus on the process, not the answer: believe it or not, there is more satisfaction to be had by discussion of all that a problem entails than by arriving at a conclusion.5. If your student is a bit older (or more cognitively developed), you might try giving only pointed suggestions rather than guiding them to the desired response. Guiding is an effective technique if your stude nt is younger or less intellectually mature.No matter what the outcome of the problem-solving exercise is â€" whether or not s/he has arrived at a satisfactory conclusion, positive reinforcement is vital to student success.After all, the point of such exercises is to think more so than to solve, at least at the outset of this phase of intellectual development, right?Naturally, once s/he has mastered these skills, s/he would actually have to solve problems and come up with workable solutions.The good news is that, once you’ve helped your students train their minds to think effectively, coming up with answers to higher order thinking questions will be child’s play rather than a stress inducer.Does cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills take a lot of time and effort?Surprisingly not!As a part of your initial interview with students and their caregivers, you would naturally form an idea of that pupil’s cognitive abilities (and preferred learning style!) so that y ou can determine exactly what is needed from you.Armed with that background knowledge, as you work together you would continuously gauge his/her progress as a thinker through formative assessment.The insights you glean through these processes will give you an idea of how you should proceed with fostering higher-order thinking skills.Will that take you beyond the homework help you were hired to give?That depends on whether your pupil’s caregivers advocate for giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish...We intuit that you stand firm on the side of teaching.Join the discussion: is it more vital to be a problem solver or a critical thinker?