S151 – Maths for Science
Below is the summary and course content from the OU's web site, the rest can be found here. My experiences about the course can be found here.	Level 1 30 points Length: 8 weeks or 5 months
Summary This course is one of a series of short courses that the Science Faculty has prepared on informative topics in science. These short courses can offer you greater flexibility in your study with the OU. You can: • Try out an area of study before you commit yourself to a longer course, or top up your knowledge and skills between longer courses; • Study at different times of the year – four presentations are usually offered annually for short courses: February, May, September and November; • Choose how long to take over the course: either 8-10 weeks or up to 5 months. For each course presentation there is a choice of two alternative dates by which you have to submit the single piece of assessment: February course start completes end of April or end of July; May start completes end of July or end of October; September start completes end of October or end of January; November start completes end of January or end of April. Course Content Do you want to take a science course with the Open University or elsewhere, but worry that you lack confidence in using mathematics as a tool in science? Then this course could be for you. Mathematical techniques are explained, and worked examples are included throughout the course, but the main emphasis is on providing examples for you to try for yourself. Many of the examples have a scientific flavour and detailed answers are also provided. As you work through the questions you will be able to revise the mathematical skills you already have, as well as learning and practising new ones, and your confidence in handling maths should increase. There are two online interactive assessments which give you instantaneous feedback on your answers; one can be attempted at any point during the course and provides practice for the end of course assessment with the same format. The course assumes some knowledge of arithmetic, but other topics, such as addition and multiplication of fractions, are revised; while algebraic techniques, such as rearranging and combining equations, are taught from first principles. You will also have an introduction to scientific notation, logarithms, radians, trigonometry, differentiation, and some scientific uses of statistics and probability.
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