Looking at Biology 101: Biology according to the Days of Creation and looking for some feedback from those who have used it. It says it can be a full highschool credit if using the labs, etc, and the reviews look good. DVDs tend to be a better fit for my son, but I am curious if they are more or less just videos of the instructor talking. What are some of the labs? Are they easy to do/find the supplies? What are the weaknesses and what have you used to supplement?
Also curious about the Chemistry and Physics series.
We used the Physics DVD as a supplement. My kids all loved these! Even my youngest, who was 3 or 4 at the time would join in. The videos are mostly of the guy talking, but graphics and short clips are added in to show the concepts he is taking about, so we all found it interesting. He is also a very good speaker. I think the Biology was the first video, and it is a bit shorter. We own it, but haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.
My son has used Chemistry (as a supplement) and is now using Physics. He really likes them, and he isn’t really a science guy, so that is saying something. He is using the physics as written this year (Grade 12) and I’m going to call it Conceptual Physics on his transcript.
That said, I would only use these courses as a high school science class with kids who do not need science for college. They are very light and biology is the lightest one. I previewed it for my son when he was in Grade 9 and I felt there was more information in our elementary-level God’s Design for science books. The labs are also not really labs, and kind of juvenile, like keeping a goldfish as a pet. Even the chemistry one we used last year only had 5 or 6 labs that were actually usable and not so lame that my son didn’t want to do them.
That said, they do make great supplements and they are very well done. Everyone seems to enjoy them. I think they would make really good middle school science courses as written. I’m letting my son do the physics one this year as written because he doesn’t need physics for anything after high school and I figured I’d let him have fun with it instead of doing a serious class.
It’s disappointing that the labs are so juvenile. Biology is the science he is least interested in, but I think it is still important. Perhaps I should look again at the Apologia – but the costs really add up, and I would prefer something video-based. Any other suggestions?
Thanks, @retrofam. Have you actually used GuestHollow? Did you find it easy to use? It looks promising. It’s great that the text is available free online and that there are so many additional resources to help the planning.
The biggest drawback I see so far is the challenge of collecting all the lab supplies in advance. I’m not sure the “optional” labs make it easier or harder.