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Taking biology in 8th grade–how to include on HS transcript
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Most public & private high school students in our state take Biology and Chemistry in high school, and there is a 3-unit science requirement to receive a high school diploma in our state. Of course, we do not have to follow these requirements to award a homeschool diploma for high school, but generally this is what area colleges expect to see as a minimum. The 3 units are to include a life science (such as biology), a physical science (such as chemistry), and an advanced science that could be advanced biology or chemistry, astronomy, physics, botany, marine biology, or another advanced science. Two courses must include a lab component.
My question concerns the coursework dd13 is taking. She is currently studying Apologia General Science. She enjoys science generally speaking, but she is really just maintaining a C+ average in this course. The work is more challenging for her than previous years of living science books because she is not particularly good at either note-taking or memorizing, so she forgets a lot by the time she gets to the exam for each module. However, she plans to keep going and take Apologia Biology (and the labwork for it through our local co-op) in 8th grade and then continue on with Chemistry in 9th or 10th grade. I’m wondering what to do then for her high school transcript. I’m not sure she is going to want to take 2 more Apologia courses after chemistry.
One thought I had was perhaps noting on her high school transcript that she had successfully completed Biology in 8th grade, then having her take Chemistry and either Physics or Astronomy or Botany (whichever she prefers) in her early high school years. That would leave her one more course to take in high school, and I thought maybe she could do a living science book study of a science of her choosing for the last course.
Have any of you had to create a transcript for a situation like this? How did you handle it? What approach sounds good to any of you?
Thanks.
We are looking at this right now with Makayla (high school transcripts). What I have seen is simply having transcripts reflect the year each course was taken, and that it is not at all uncommon for high school credits to begin with 8th grade.
Related to Apologia however, here are my questions and notes for you (I was just talking with them last week):
– Are you just totally skipping the next book (Physical Science)? I suppose that is doable but if she’s already struggling with General Science maybe it would be good to take longer with it or take time for physical science next to give her time to be ready for biology (which is harder than physical science because it is written for high school instead of middle school)?
– Chemistry has a prerequisite of Algebra 1, which may impact when she can do it.
– What about marine biology for her 3rd course?
– My Makayla is planning to do something non-apologia the last 2 years of high school. Her current preferences for that are doing an animal breeding program (breed rabbits, dogs, cats, or some other small animal), or do an ornithology course (we woudl make up on our own with various components including birdwatching, care, etc). So maybe for that 3rd course let your child step outside the box a bit? I do like the living science book idea too though!
Tristan, dd13 has taken some classes that may interest Makayla via Landry Academy. Last year she took Animal Care Science which was fairly simple, but informative and enjoyable. Next year she is taking Equine Science in addition to Pre-Chemistry and Pre-Physics. In HS, she will take Intro. to Vet. Medicine. We tried it this year, but it was a bit much. It’s geared to high school and she’s in 7th. I buy generic semester credits when they are on the deepest discount and that makes the semesters much more affordable. Still pricey, but it has been so worth it for us.
Sue, if the work is high school caliber you can add it to the transcript. I agree that you may want to think about the math and cheistry connection.
Apologia’s Biology does not include anatmony and physiology until after chemistry. You could use the Apologia’s advanced biology (anatomy) as high school biology. My ds12 and d13 are completing Apologia’s Biology in a month. We added in living books, labs, dissections (9 specimens), and Ellen McHenry’s units on botany, the cell, and the brain. They will continue the Apologia sequence with chemistry (as they do algebra 2) followed by anatomy. We will then adventure into advanced chemistry and physics as they hop into precalculus and calculus. I let the child’s math level determine his/her appropriate science level.
Sorry, Sue. I didn’t read your post very well before I responded. I assumed you would have your dd complete at least two more science courses after chemistry to fulfill your 3 science courses for high school transcripts (and your post was about a younger student working through high school material).
Also have you looked at the biology and chemistry 101 series, . We find them less wordy and more CM than the apologia, a lab you would with biology is go out to dinner and classify food on plate. I believe they are soon releasing physics
Just my .02
I think the poster means a real, high school college prep level science course. These 101 programs are NOT in themselves a complete course. CM taught real upper level science, so saying a simplified course is “more CM” really makes no sense. And classifying food on a plate is NOT a real biology lab, and a child who is under this impression is liable to have a very, very miserable college freshman biology course when everyone else is measuring diffusion rates.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments and suggestions. Bookworm, you are absolutely right–I want to make sure she has fulfilled requirements to enter college.
@Tristan, just yesterday dd mentioned taking marine biology. She would like to either volunteer or apply for some high school internship at our local aquarium. I’ll have to check into that.
We plan to stick with Apologia for now, largely because our local co-op has a woman who teaches biology and chemistry labs each year based on the Apologia courses. It helps me a great deal to have them take the labs there. It’s not as costly as it would be if I had to purchase everything needed for all of the labs. The have good microscopes, all of the the equipment & materials needed for dissection, etc.
My 8th grader is doing Apologia Biology this year as we had a great group of local kids- including her older brother- doing it together and doing the labs together. I am pretty sure that great opportunity will not exist next year or the year after for her so I just bumped her up to do it with them. It was a struggle the first term, but she got the hang of it and rose to the challenge. I plan to include it in her high school transcipts, just not sure how to date it. Does it matter that it will show that she did it in 8th grade? I think not. Some public schoolers skip a grade. Transcipts are still ok. My hubby took all his high school maths in middle school and took only college level maths in high school. It was fine. Of course, that was back when dinosaurs roamed the earth!!!
BTW, she will do Dive Chemistry next year as a ninth grader with that group. She is doing algebra all summer in hopes of being up to par on math by then. We will see. It may be a bit of a stretch, but she can do it. Then for her 10th grade year she will not do physics as I don’t think she will be ready, but maybe human anatomy and physiology. Not sure yet.
Also, we totally skipped Apologia’s Physical Science. I think it is a good program. But, so far, she has not suffered from skipping it.
When I make up my transcripts, I simply sort them by subject, not date. I do in the sides have the dates taken, with no further comment. If it was “obvious” that the class had to be taken (for example, I had a child do both algebra and geometry in junior high. I needed the “space” for his 4 years of math he DID take in high school. It was clear that if he was in algebra ll he’d had algebra, and probably geometry. LOL Likewise if Latin III is on the transcript, I’m assuming the adcom can figure out he’s had Latin l and ll. I needed the space on my transcript form BADLY. However, in the case of a real college-prep biology with a lab, this is golden and needs to be on the transcript! Most homeschoolers don’t get enough real lab courses. (As we go through the college process again, I keep asking people I meet at college visits what they think the pluses and minuses of homeschoolers are. One top complaint is that homeschoolers are tragically weak in real science skills, especially lab skills.)
My dd13 just completed a two-day lab intensive hosted by Landry Academy. They do these all over the cuontry. It was a year of labs in two days. I would still add labs throughout the year, but the experience and quality of the labs was great. Just throwing that out as an option.
We have had a wonderful lab experience this year and have it planned for next year as well. I also have heard that schools say homeschoolers lack this experience. I do think it is important to get them this experience if at all possible. We require several formal lab write ups as well as informal ones. This can only help them in college, I think.
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