? about Physical Science

OK.  First of all, notice the vagueness here.  “Colleges” (which ones???) and “they”.  Hmm.  Also, note that he is trying to sell you something.  This should raise an eyebrow.

Now.  There are in fact integrated courses like this.  There are even reasons why one would use them.  But “colleges” have not suddenly tossed regular classes, renamed them, and made you need this one guy’s product.

All my sons have so far gotten into college with the standard biology-chemistry-physics standard that I took in high school all those years ago.  I never did “physical science” in junior high–we just had “seventh-grade science” and “eighth-grade science”  What you do in middle school really doesn’t matter a lot, as long as it prepares you for your high school courses.  None of my sons needed an integrated class, and none of their colleges required such a class in college.  What is important is at least 2-3 college prep lab science courses.  

Now.  Why might one take a class like this?  Well, chemistry and physics are very related.  (“Biology is really just chemistry, chemistry is really just physics, physics is really just math.” LOL)  HOWEVER I have an issue with a class like this.  You might lead a college to think you had had REAL chemistry plus real physics, when in fact this course needs as a math pre-req only pre-algebra.   What kind of high school physics can you do with just pre-algebra?  Not a lot.  The first quarter of most college prep physics books requires trigonometry.  This is a “dumbing down” of science content.  Which is the last thing we need.  

The only catch with doing this, is the student will have a LOT more to relearn if they end up taking a physics that only uses pre-algebra.  The switch to calc-based is pretty hard anyway; if you take physics EARLY in high school, most students will be forced to forego a real physics class using trig, because their skills won’t be up to it yet.  And then the jump to college physics is going to be strenuous, to say the least.  My student had taken TWO years of math-based physics in high school, PLUS Calc 1 and 2, in high school, and he is very, very smart, and he still really had to work at real calc-based physics in college.  A secret the science prep industry doesn’t really want you to know is that physics without calculus is actually kind of a fraud, and verging on a waste of time.  I couldn’t have kept mine from doing it anyway, they would have rebelled 🙂 plus we needed a third lab course, so we did it, and we had fun, but it wasn’t the most efficient use of time, since they will have to totally relearn it in college.  

My comment about taking physics earlier in high school prior to biology or chemistry was just referring to my dd specifically. It would have been perfectly fine for her to take a conceptual physics course first if she so desired. She really, really wanted to learn about physics. I don’t think she would have minded taking conceptual physics first and another course later on OR conceptual physics might have satisfied her desire to learn about physics and she could have passed on the physics course this year. I didn’t require it of her, it’s a difficult course, and I’m not sure she will finish it. She is an artist and would prefer to spend her time drawing. She’ll be going to art school.

I only wanted to suggest in my post above that DIVE ICP can be a good foundation for the rest of DIVE Science courses. The recommened text for ICP is the BJU Physical Science book so it’s meant to replace a physical science course.