High School Science

Queen Homeschool has some science curriculums that are CM. I have not used them, but they look good.

Pink

That is exactly the plan we have for our daughter who is going to be 8th grade next year. For high school, we will be doing the 101 series. Until then and beyond if we don’t finish them, we are going through the rest of the God’s Design series from AiG and then the Explore Series….World of….etc.

That’s our plan as we’re not big fans of Apologia for high school. Our oldest used Apologia and it is thorough but a little drier for our taste. We like the learning style of the l01 series because it seems a little more fun and more likely to “stick”, if that makes sense.

Anyway, just had to chime in to let you know our plan was for the same! 🙂

Tammy

I recently watched the Biology 101 videos and took the time to read through the study guide and accreditation booklet to see how they compared to a typical high school biology course.

A typical high school biology course will cover such topics as cell biology, cell division, very basic genetics, single-celled organisms, invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants. Lessons on invertebrates and vertebrates will include information on the different systems of the body and the general habits of organisms in each group. Usually a few specific organisms will be used to represent the group. For instance, earthworms are usually used to relate information about one type of invertebrate. Lessons on plants will include photosynthesis, absorption and transportation of water, growth, and reproduction.

Biology 101 touched on many of the same topics but did not go into any detail. For instance, a typical biology course will cover fungi by relating information on how they reproduce, how they grow, and what they do. Biology 101 mentions fungi by naming some different types of fungi. There is no information on how they grow or reproduce. Though other topics contain a bit more detail than fungi in Biology 101, most information given is only surface information and is not in-depth enough to be considered high school level.

When compared to the scope of topics covered in a couple other popular homeschool biology courses, Biology 101 covered only a fraction of the contents.

Biology 101 comes with a study guide and an accreditation booklet. The study guide does provide some additional information that is not given on the videos, but still doesn’t give the in-depth information that is needed to make this a high school level course. The accreditation booklet gives ideas for activities to do and tells you how much time to count towards a high school credit. It does not tell you which other books to read or what other videos to watch.

A few of the activities were good, but many were quite a stretch for the number of hours you would record for credit. Some examples:

• Go fishing, catch a fish, and identify its external parts. The whole three hours for fishing is counted for credit.
• Go out to lunch or dinner and classify the items on the restaurant table. The whole two hours for the meal is counted for credit.
• Identify 10 plants in your yard. This is considered two hours of lab work.

There was also some unintentional misinformation given in the videos. Some people might consider these minor, but details like these are important because they could be misunderstood. A few examples:

• Skunks, raccoons, and bears are labeled as carnivores, but they are omnivores.
• When covering metamorphosis, a picture of a monarch caterpillar is shown, then a picture of a monarch chrysalis, but the butterfly shown is not a monarch. They are never labeled as monarch, but the sequence somewhat implies it.
• When covering birds, the host mentions American goldfinches but shows a picture of a bird that is not an American goldfinch.

In summary, I found the videos suitable for the whole family to watch, or as supplements to other material, but they were a bit lacking in detail to be considered high school material.

I hope this is helpful as you decide what to use for science.

By the way, I have not yet examined the Chemistry 101 materials but hope to soon.

Ok so the topic was high school science and I am hearing a lot of Jr High ideas – 7th-general and 8th-physical.

Then I am hearing you need two labs for science and correct me if I am wrong 2 credits for most high schools.

That said what are you doing then in the 9-12th grade for your 2 labbed sciences? I am guessing biology is one, what is the others?

Thanks.. I am also wondering about other thoughts on science than Aplogia.. that’s what we are using and we are doing fine with it. My kids don’t complain and seem ok with it. I really should just not ask because then I will start to question my long term thoughts but what else are you suggesting other than 101bio?

Thanks

I am sorry, It is Noeo science that includes the living books in their curriculum, not Real Science-4-kids. And, Noeo does not offer high school level courses. I have looked at a lot of science programs for my kids over the years and they are all beginning to run together.

We have just finished our year with Bio 101.  I did make it into a lab science by including experiments, in-depth study of various plants & animals.  I have Apologia Bio here from the other 3 who used it, but referred to it for the experiments or as a guide to finding experiments for our specific needs as I searched the internet for what I was after, if that makes sense.  I had my child do diagramming and labeling of various systems, make a collection with scientific labels of the various life forms covered in the program, and dissection of various things including a cows heart – I included virtual dissection for some things as well. 

One of L’s favorite activities was when I had her and her sister do a soap carving to show the various layers and parts of the skin.  They turned out awesome, and L then narrated using the soap, explaining what each part was and what it’s function was as she pointed them out on her soap carving.  Even younger sister did well with that. 🙂

In regard to Karen’s review – the places where they made a mistake on the video, they did correct it in the accompanying Study Guide – though I think there may have been one thing that the girls discovered for themselves in the work we did… but I can’t remember what it was.  I know the omnivores was corrected in the guide… it may have been that one of the girls pointed out the issue with the Monarch part, but I honestly don’t remember.

At any rate, my dd who is a “show me” kind of girl really like the Bio 101 approach.  As long as you are willing to add what you need to make this a lab-type course, you can use it to fulfill a high school credit – or you can use it to supplement what you are already using.  Either way, I highly recommend it.

~jacqleene