Can we talk high school Chemistry, please?

Thank you Becca and Bookworm.  I will have to check out the MicroChem kit.

Olivia, I took the Bio 101 and printed out and bound both the guide and the accreditation guide at Staples so I could see the whole picture of where it this program would go.  After looking it over, I added my own items to the guide.  To make this a lab course I used the Apologia Biology as a guide, though I rarely picked it up other than to insert some of the experiments in at the appropriate time. I also tried to make this even more CM than listed, though it’s not really meant as such in it’s original state, it has sparks of CM. 

Where the guide called for books both juvenile and non, I simple had a list of books for my student to choose from, making sure that they were living books in nature.  I had my daughter do narrations from that. We also viewed several of the very well done videos from various sources for the topic at hand as well. 

Then when talking about the various animals, I had my daughter make a notebook with pages for each of the areas studied.  So for Avian, she placed the various kinds of birds and insects one guidebook subheading at a time.  It is kind of like a bug collection only with pictures and of all of the animals.  She also has the scientific name of the animals pictured written below. 

I had her do both virtual dissections and actual dissections. She drew and labeled the interal parts of  the animals that she had chosen.  She also drew and labeled the parts of the plants she studied – generally, and made notebooking pages as mentioned earlier.

Where the guide says to do the quiz, we did that orally as well as the end of chapter discussion questions.  I did do most of the the “experiments” or activities that are included in the guidebook, but sometimes I tweeked them or dropped them altogether depending upon the other activities or experiments that we were able to do for that section. Also, I did sometimes go over the video again, though not always.  We had a couple of chapters that lasted nearly 4 weeks, but there was a lot to cover. 

OH, and one of the most important parts.  I read the study guide aloud – partly because I had a younger child tagging along, and party for the discussion.  I broke up the readings into much smaller pieces, covering only one or two sub headings so that my student could take each bit in greater detail.

Most of the experiments that we did came from Apologia or this was the starting point, and I did some searching on the internet after reading up on the experiment in the book to suit us a bit better.  I used the Bio 101 as my guide rather than Apologia text.

This may sound overwhelming, but with the guidebook, it really was very easy.  Since I already had the Apologia Bio from my older students, it was handy and easy to use.  There are other experiments guides online, though, so do not be daunted if you don’t have this at hand.  Perhaps you could borrow an Apologia text if you really wanted to have something on hand & in your hands.  I think that I have some of the sites pinned to my science/ nature study board. (jacqleene meyers on pinterest)

Did that help at all?  I’m a bit sleep deprived today – last night we had a group of homeschool prom teens who were up all night and left at 8:00 am this morning, so if it’s not clear, please forgive me and do ask for more explanation. 🙂

Pax,

~jacqleene

Some of the ones the girls have enjoyed: (please note that many of these are juvie books as the guide has them read both juvie and non-juvie books)

Tree in the Trail
Sky Tree (visually beautiful)
Jack’s Insects (various chapters)
The Burgess Bird Book (various chapters)
The Story of Science (various chapters)
One Square Inch – Backyard
The Way We Work
Amazing X-rays; The Human Body
Stripe Robert McClung
Audubon Insects and Spiders – great for quick look-ups and scientific names
Handbook of Nature Study
Human Anatomy in full Color – John Green

We also had some favorite videos:

Six Days of Creation – Answers in Genesis
Sharks! Discovery Channel
Blue Planet videos
The Living Sea
Coral Reef Adventure
Lizard Kings
Microcosmos

Be aware that nearly all of the videos we watched were on Netflix and contain evolutionary materials. We simply choose to talk about it and consider it a teachable moment which have brought about interesting discussions. 🙂 If evolution is something you wish to avoid only the Answers in Genesis video I mentioned fits the bill.  Also, some of the books mention evolution in passing.  I don’t remember any overt evolutionary information, but then again, it may have been in a chapter that I didn’t have the girls read, or I may be forgetting references since we just talk about it as it comes up.

Pax,

~jacqleene