High School Science

Could you tell me what high school/college level anatomy coloring books you are using?

I want to encourage anyone who is doing a less-traditional approach to science to take great care to document what you do, perhaps keep a portfolio, and make a REAL effort to include true high school level work, including math and labs, WHETHER YOUR CHILD LIKES IT OR NOT, even if they “think” they want to be something that won’t require it.  SOOO MANY kids change their minds about career/college, and it is hard to suddenly find that you need some background you don’t have.  I know, this has happened to me!  (found myself needing to take graduate calculus as a required subject when I’d never gone past college algebra).  And, after having gone through the college admissions process, my son was asked a LOT about how we managed science.  I wouldn’t have wanted to say “Well, we watched some videos and did a coloring book.”  You know what i mean?  Make it thorough, make it good, make it high-school-level, (find someone to ask if you don’t know) and document it well.  It could make a huge difference to your child down the road.

And I do understand about kids that say “But I don’t like science and I won’t need it because I”m going to be a Lego designer.”  I have kids who said “But I don’t need to be able to write an essay because I want to do science.”  Well, let me tell you–that didn’t work for my kids!  I can actually come up with a lot of reasons for a potential designer to learn real science–just like I came up with lots of reasons for my science-y kids to read novels and write essays. 

Don’t Shortchange Your Kids!  ! ! ! ! ! They are smarter and more adaptable than you think, the future world looks difficult and broad knowledge base is becoming increasingly important, and biology experiments WILL NOT KILL TEENS. 

Just saying. 

I, too am looking for an alternate to Apologial.  I have heard, but have not personally reviewed, that  ACE’s Pace Biology with the DVD’s is a good alternative to Apologia.   It was quoted as being “much more living in its writing style than any other biology text we looked at, and we loved the fact that the study included human anatomy as a part of the Biology coursework.” 

If anyone else has any first-hand comments on ACE’s Pace Biology I would be interested. 

I suppose coloring book isn’t the best way to describe the books to which I’m referring. But, those words are in their titles. So, to clarify, here is a link to these very detailed resources that can enhance any study of biology (and various other sciences.). The vocabulary, color coded details, and explanations of various processes are very accurate. And, they provide another way to tackle the evolution conversation prior to heading to college, or other route in life.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780064603072

Blessings,

Becca<><

Bookworm, Not sure how my post might have conveyed that we don’t do labs or experiments??? Or that I think my son not enjoing something means he gets to opt out. I do appreciate your thoughts though.

Thanks fiveflymom and deltagel for sharing of the ACE’s Pace curriculum. I am going to check that out too.

I think Apologia is great for some students, but my son hates it and gets NOTHING out of it. He is a great student and works very hard. I don’t see any point in him continuing with something that he is not gaining any knowledge from. Thanks to all for sharing of other options.

It is also very possibly we may sign him up for a class at a nearby tutorial for the lab sciences in high school. I can see that in our future as well (definitely a possiblity) as I know being with other students and having a different teacher than me will be very motivating.

How does the ACE biology fit in labs? I would be curious? I did ACE with my younger kids the 1st year of home schooling, but that was before the DVD aspect.

Here is a link to discussion of ACE with samples.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153847

Hth,

Becca<><