The school year is only about a month old, and some of us in the MHS student population may already feel overwhelmed by school. Perhaps the concepts being taught in math, chemistry, or history are not quite sinking in. Whether it’s history, science, or math giving a student trouble, khanacademy.org has his or her back.

Khanacademy.org is the site for the Khan Academy, a non-profit organization started by Sal Khan that is dedicating itself to teaching others. The site contains informational, fact-checked videos explaining almost any school subject and topic imaginable. The lessons provided by the videos on khanacademy.org that may be the most helpful to students are the math, science and economic lessons. The history section of the Khan Academy is less developed than the math, science and economic sections, but the history section still can be helpful.

Mr. Khan narrates each video without showing his face. While narrating, he writes on his computer similar to how a teacher would do with a Mobi. After a student watches a video, the video will have the symbol of a half or fully colored-in camera (depending on how much of the video is watched) so the student can keep track of what he or she has been watching.

If a student needs to ask an question about the topic a video discusses, he or she can create an account, ask the question and receive answers from fellow Khan Academy users. The answer that receives the most votes is typically the correct and  most thoroughly explained answer. If an answer is inappropriate, there is an option to “vote down” the comment or to “flag” the comment to have it deleted. If a viewer does not feel that the video or any videos cover the topic they are searching for, there is an option on the site to suggest a topic or feature.

There are also online exercises on khanacademy.org where viewers can practice what they are learning. A student’s progress in the exercises is tracked. However, the provided online exercises only pertain to math.

If students are ever in need of having a school topic better explained to them, khanacademy.org may be the site to help them.