I’ve been trying out new formats for my excursions since I started posting them and my newest attempt is LabBooks. My intension is to record my studies in a form that can be used by others for peripatetic continuing education. I want to record and share experiences.
So this try is formatted into spreadsheets. I’m using OpenOffice Calc, mainly because OpenOffice is a free download and it doesn’t matter whether you have a spreadsheet or not, you can always download OpenOffice. I also like a lot of OpenOffice’s capabilities, which in many cases exceed Microsoft Office.
The one drawback I’ve found is that OpenOffice is rather unstable. If a page has too many graphics and such – if the layout gets too complicated of if you have too many or the wrong kind of macros, it will crash the whole package. The Observation and Recording page on near and far vision is a little strenuous for OpenOffice, it seems. So, if trying to open the spreadsheet by it’s tab makes it crash, I have a link to it on the Contents page. I can generally get it open on way or the other. Also, if you would like the file in some other format, I would be glad to send you a converted file – it’s over 40 Meg so we’d probably have to use some file sharing service.
Anyway, I’m currently working on 6 LabBooks and (well, I’m 60 years old) they may be all I have the time to get around too, so they are some important subjects that I believe are the basics for any complete education and the subjects that are not generally being covered well in American schools. They are Observing and Recording, Philosophy, Psychology, Logic, Debate and Problem Solving, Mathematics, and Health. I’m posting them as I finish sections, so these are very long term projects but each section has interesting experiences – I’ve enjoyed them. I hope you do also.
As a tutor, I notice that students reach high school with very little skill in simply observing the world around them. I would think that that is an essential skill since pretty much all learning hinges on it. It is the first survival skill. So this is my first tutorial – how to observe the world and how to communicate what it is that you have observed.
Critical thought is a skill that seems to be sorely missing in the general population. This LabBook provides tips on how to “philosophize”, to apply critical thought to ultimate questions, and some opportunities to exercise those skills.
Logic, Debate, and Problem Solving
I’ve always enjoyed taking problems apart and putting them back together again and I’ve done a lot in my work as professional rehabilitation specialist, computer programmer, and research assistant in various fields. Here is some of the information I’ve picked up.
It’s not that I want psychology courses to appear in state educational standards for K to 12 but the emphasis on physical health and physical education is not matched well in most schools by mental and emotional education. This LabBook explores the intricacies of the mind.
Some of this looks pretty Kindergartenish but you might want to check it out anyway. Just about everyone knows how to count, but do they really understand how counting works? Why not crack it open and look under the hood with me?
I will post a short caveat about this file. I’m pretty open about what constitutes health and that requires me to be graphic in some areas. I believe that everyone should know how their body works; but only you can gauge whether you should read materials about disease, sexuality, the physical body, and so forth. I won’t be pulling any punches with this subject. You are forewarned.
The above LabBooks are pretty much a life long project and I want to explore other areas, so I’m adding this last LabBook as a general exploration of pretty much everything. In it, I randomly select topics for study (If you’re interested, the randomizer is built into the LabBook.). My first topic was “Regional Councils”. My next will be “Anglo Saxon”.
Physics is the fundamental science. It’s at the bedrock of all the sciences so I have been working on a Physics LabBook. The first few sheets delve deeper into measurement theory than most physics textbooks but measurement is how physics works, so I’m taking a good bit of time here. The first sheet is about the basics of measurement, how to handle precision, and the simplest measurements – points and location.
The most awesome structures await you in the night sky. The first sheets in this interactive textbook are introductory, but they cover important things like measurement and the use of equipment.
Understanding how matter interacts gives you a deep knowledge of the universe and a practical knowledge about how to manipulate the world around you. From the food that you cook to the natural substances you use to build your world to the basic building blocks of that world, explore the materials the make up the world and those you use.
Earth is the planet you live on. It’s home. Here’s a user manual.
Tools
I will be creating various tools for your entertainment and they will be accessible here. The first is a statistics package I’m working on called DANSYS (Data ANalysis SYStem). It is a LibreOffice document (because LibreOffice is available as a free download to anyone who has a computer). I’m pretty pleased with it. Even in this first version, it is able to do calculus, regression analysis, contingency table analysis, and work with quaternions.
As a caveat, if you are going to use DANSYS for serious work, test the functions you’ll be using first. That’s true of all statistical software. I have tested all of it but I haven’t been able to beta test it (I don’t have the resources). If you find problems, please let me know and I will fix them.
I am currently working on both a decision tree to help the user find the appropriate analytical technique to use for their data. There is also a long glossary. And I am also working on a User Guide for DANSYS. It will be awhile before it sees daylight, but there is a DANSYS functions sheet in DANSYS that lists all the extras and briefly explains how to use them.
To go with DANSYS, I’ve written a statistics decision tree that can help you chose procedures to use to analyze data. The first page is the decision tree, the second is a glossary explaining terms in the decision tree. It also provides an index for Calc and DANSYS.
I haven’t finished this User Guide, yet. It’s large. But I have finished the general sections that tell you how to use DANSYS. The rest will deal with specific kinds of tasks, such as specific kinds of statistical analyses. When I finished the guide for DANSYSX version 1.0, I decided to put up what I had of the general guide, so here it is.
I’ve included this brief guide for those that have no idea how to go from “no DANSYS” on their computer to “I have it!”
DANSYSX is an ongoing extension for DANSYS. Keep an eye on it because I am constantly upgrading it.
Through LibreOffice Basic, the primary LibreOffice macro language, enhanced by a large library of statistical and mathematical functions in DANSYSX, and the on-spreadsheet programming language Code, DANSYSX affords a lot of programming power. This ever growing programming guide tells you how to program in DANSYSX.
DANSYSX Version 1.0 User Guide
The major emphasis for the first expansion of DANSYS is a collection of crosstabulation functions. It also has a suite of combinatorial functions and you can use DANSYSX to generate graphics either from a spreadsheet or programmatically. There are also other random additions.
I’m particularly pleased with Code, a programming language that allows you to program right on a LibreOffice spreadsheet – loops and branches and all!
DANSYSX Version 1.0 User Guide
This new expansion features an extensive suite of correlation procedures, routines for constructing axes for graphs and contour charts, and more programming and mathematics (including phasors.)
ToolBook is a spreadsheet with tools. It will grow as time goes on and I add tools to it. It has a unit converter, a page of counters and timers, a line measuring utility, and a page of randomizers.
I would also recommend the following programs, also free downloads, to augment DANSYS.
For the special keystrokes in ToolBook to work, you must download the following keystroke profile file (remember where you save it) and install it into ToolBook. To do so, with ToolBook open, go to Tools>Customize>Keyboard and click Load. Find the tlbk.cfg file and click Open.
I have begun writing a user manual for students, teachers, and lifelong learners. I will be adding installments along.
The Therian Timeline 